Help me replace my 2022 Raptor

In reply to rustomatic :

New half tons are so capable now the standard 'merican answer doesn't really apply unless towing 10,000 lbs daily ;)

The late 2nd gen Tundra is a great option for people who want an 'old' truck but need a new truck.

Driven5 said:

The late 2nd gen Tundra is a great option for people who want an 'old' truck but need a new truck.

Yea the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards that. 

An SUV just crosses off so many things that I want in a family vehicle and the new Sequoia has what? Almost a 9800lbs towing capacity. Granted, I hate the styling of it and the fact it's lost some key features that make the Sequoias great (roll down rear window and ugh storage space). Can't have everything. 

It sucks, I've wanted a Raptor since they debuted back in 2011-12. I was finally in a place financially where I could afford to buy one new, even in the crazy market we are in, and I'm dealt this piece of sheet. I owned two mod motor Fords before this and the only issues I had were interior bits doing their Ford thing of falling apart. 

I feel like I would have the same issues with any of the American companies regarding quality control. 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

You mention Pilot?  My wife has one and I call it a minivan.  A Raptor and a Pilot seem to be really far apart on what they can do.  

I rented a Honda Ridgeline and was impressed - Blackline version?  Really nice but I'd rather get a Silverado 2500 for the $48,000 Honda starting price.

You're thinking; what the hell kind of Chevrolet Silverado 2500 are you getting for $48,000? (Well, $49,000)

I'm getting twelve miles per gallon and I'm calling it a 400cid rather than a 6.6l.  

 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

3rd gen Tundra has big pano roof and full roll down rear window ;)

 For me I couldn't justify toyota tax pricing(even pre covid)on the used trucks and couldn't justify buying a new tundra that also lagged behind by a decade + so I waited for the new one.

 After experiencing the ride,interior,tech etc of the Raptor not so sure the old tundra will hit any sweet spots for you.

The new tundra will almost certainly not stack up either,but it is many many thousands less dollars.

I'm not an offroad truck guy at all but the new tundra looks amazing with a level/lift and bigger tire pkg.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I really like that, the black trim sort of mutes all the ugly that is the 2500 grille, and i'm a Chevy fanboi..

That really sucks, I'd be pi$$Ed if I bought that expensive of a truck and had problems like that.  Wonder if it's a COVID thing?

For towing an open trailer or a light-ish enclosed trailer shorter distances or infrequently: any half-ton should get it done these days, pick your flavor.

For towing an enclosed trailer longer distances or more often: you'll regret not getting a 3/4 ton.   People always focus on power or trailer weight, I found that the inherently poor aerodynamics of an enclosed trailer combined with a lighter chassis and shorter wheelbase were the biggest compromise.  I got one of the last pre-COVID F-250's 6.2L's and it has been absolutely perfect except for when I visit the gas pump.

My son has a 2013 v8 Raptor with over a 115k on it. trouble free. Are the older v8 trucks more reliable?

In reply to sevenracer :

Long wheelbase GM SUV's seem to do just fine up to their tow rating IMO. Have towed across the country and down to both Atlanta and Gainesville with our loaded right up to our 6.2L GMT900's rating in comfort and confidence, with a weight distro hitch of course. 22' v nose enclosed with my 3500lb SVX in it was smooth sailing, fuel mileage just sucked. 

Fuel mileage isn't a huge concern. I know it'll suck. My Sequoia had towed some sort of Honda coast to coast twice now on a uhaul trailer, stopping every two hours for gas.

if I'm towing the enclosed trailer it's not going more than two hours from its home. 
 

i do like the 2500 ram 6.4 idea or GM 2500 gas power. I do get Ford X-plan, GM ED, and the Chrysler equivalent for pricing.

 And yea a pilot is in the mix as is an odyssey. Kids come first. However I would convince my girlfriend to eventually take that and then trade her Subaru Xtrek in on a new truck

Fox shocks sending the truck into limp mode?! Wtf. This is why newer, high tech vehicles scare me. 
 

what about getting a Dodge TRX? Ha!

CyberEric said:

Fox shocks sending the truck into limp mode?! Wtf. This is why newer, high tech vehicles scare me. 
 

what about getting a Dodge TRX? Ha!

There's a sensor in there that can change how the damper rides for sport mode, regular driving, towing, or Baja. The first issue was the plastic clip for it broke, the wire sagged, chaffed the wire sheathing off and shorted out causing the truck to ride like a 3/4 ton with stiff leaf springs and very slow acceleration.

Second time it was fluid leaking from the dampers.

All highway driving too in this thing. It's never seen a dirt road 

With a slight bit of work, you can greatly improve the ride of a 2500 without much money (comparatively speaking in relation to what OEMs charge for Raptor/TRX shocks).  I put Thuren springs and pretty basic (Thuren-tuned) Fox 2.0 shocks on my 2021 Ram 2500, and the difference was quite good (along with air pressure changes on the stock Firestones).  There is further to go with shocks (like Kings, if you can stand to wait six months).  Also, standard tire pressures on modern 2500s are generally insane; if you knock them down by 15-20 pounds, which is perfectly fine, ride quality changes nicely . . .

The thing about 2500s is general durability.  Everything is made to endure a crap-ton of stress.  With a 1500, you don't get this.  Oh, and the 6.4 pulls a car around like it's nothing.  It's got the same torque as the old 12-valve Cummins, but without the characteristics of a tractor.

My vote is 3/4 ton GMC / Chevy. Pick whichever styling you like better. Get a tune to shut off the active fuel manegement.

rustomatic said:

With a slight bit of work, you can greatly improve the ride of a 2500 without much money (comparatively speaking in relation to what OEMs charge for Raptor/TRX shocks).  I put Thuren springs and pretty basic (Thuren-tuned) Fox 2.0 shocks on my 2021 Ram 2500, and the difference was quite good (along with air pressure changes on the stock Firestones).  There is further to go with shocks (like Kings, if you can stand to wait six months).  Also, standard tire pressures on modern 2500s are generally insane; if you knock them down by 15-20 pounds, which is perfectly fine, ride quality changes nicely . . .

The thing about 2500s is general durability.  Everything is made to endure a crap-ton of stress.  With a 1500, you don't get this.  Oh, and the 6.4 pulls a car around like it's nothing.  It's got the same torque as the old 12-valve Cummins, but without the characteristics of a tractor.

I might have to look down this route. I'm not a huge fan of the Ram interiors but if it gets the job done. 

I looked at new Tundras this weekend and they are nice but not my vibe for some reason. The Toyota dealer here gets picked apart by all the active duty and bro vets so there weren't many options to look at other than the base model and the platinum. 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

 get the RAM unless a solid front axle is a deal breaker. the coil spring ride is so much nicer than leaf and torsion IFS but the GMHD platform can 3 point turn a lot better because of this. Plus if you do want to wheel (offroad) the GM computers will turn off 4wd on you if you have too much throttle and brake, which is annoying like most of their computer operated systems/nannys. The 10 speed is stupid and is very similar to the ford one, calibration is different but hardware wise they are almost identical.  cruising 60mph my power wagon gets 15+ MPG unloaded. towing its more like 8-10mpg but with none of the added maintenance costs of diesel these 8 speeds with the 6.4 is a real appealing option. I tow about 7000lbs plus payload with mine and I never see the temps/pressures abnormal the truck doesn't even know a trailer is there, it looks like I'm doing regular commuting but I'm going 75mph down the highway. 

plus nobody else offers heated/cooled leather seats with a manual transfer case anymore so theres that. If you want to look at a ram don't look at the tradesman package its a hard plastic interior meant for powerwashing, big horn or powerwagon trims is where it gets comfy. the front bench is a joke, like all front bench seats these days, so captains chairs isn't a deal breaker. I have been a big fan of this truck since day one, everything is beefy and I treated this a 2nd vehicle/investment for smiles per gallon and its worked flawlessly. no dealership sleepovers for me so far, everything platform wise is pretty tried and true for this so it should be a very reliable option in comparison, especially to fords. 

but I also like a big bonus so go hog wild and get a GM AT4 2500!!!! 

fidelity101 said:

 The front bench is a joke, like all front bench seats these days...

We feel exactly the opposite. In our experience the comically large bin filling the gap between the bucket seats in modern large vehicles became a black hole of crap accumulation, and it was mostly wasted volume for those short periods when it was actually cleaned out enough to be functionally organized.

However, the modern benches are great to us. The latest generation (I'm shocked it took so long) of full-size trucks finally have 3-point belts for the center seat, making it safe enough to consider putting anybody we actually care about in. We replaced our minivan with a crew cab F150. It took 3 months to find the unicorn option mix we were looking for, but even more than expected we find ourselves thankful that we didn't settle on one without the bench. We haven't once missed out on the junk storage bin though. Since we only need one vehicle that can safely haul 6, that also made the minivan redundant enough for my wife to be much happier daily driving something that only needs to be 2-kid sized.

Driven5 said:

fidelity101 said:

 The front bench is a joke, like all front bench seats these days...

I feel exactly the opposite. In our experience the comically large bin filling the gap between the bucket seats in modern large vehicles became a black hole of crap accumulation, and it was mostly wasted volume for those short periods when it was actually cleaned out enough to be functionally organized.

However, we think the modern benches are great. The latest generation (I'm shocked it took so long) finally have 3-point belts for the center seat, making it safe enough to consider putting anybody I actually care about in. We replaced our minivan with a crew cab F-150 because we needed more towing capacity but didn't want to lose out on any functional seating capacity to get it. Since we only need one vehicle that can safely haul 6, that made the minivan redundant enough for my wife to be much happier and more comfortable daily driving something that only needs to be 2-kid friendly... And we haven't once missed the junk storage bin.

100% agree on them just being junk storage for the most part. I wouldn't mind a column shifter and a bench but also enjoy my captains chairs too. I don't need to put anything up front; but, the gf always goes "man a bench seat would be great, then dog could sit up front with us"

Although on road trips, they make a great storage bin for snacks, extra water bottles, and we carry a log book of cool places we visit. 

DirtyBird222 said:

I wouldn't mind a column shifter and a bench but also enjoy my captains chairs too.

Yeah, that's why their seating is all 40/20/40 these days. The 40's are the exact same seats between the 'bench' and 'buckets'. It's just the middle 20 that's different.

In reply to Driven5 :

this may be a ram/chevy thing for me then, in both instances the center seat has less foot room than a std shoebox and given that you can articulate the driver/passenger seat the middle seat is never level so its hard to wrap your arm around SWMBO and drive at the same time. 

with the ram you need the diesel for the column shifter, the dial you get used to but i feel i can bang through PRDL pretty quickly in it with the thuds the transmission gives me shifting that dial. other dumb thing is the truck will throw itself in park if youre moving with the door open, which was how i mostly backed up trailers until then which took some getting used to but the truck is loaded with cameras now which helps. 

Had to submit a litany of documentation for this Lemon Law case. Stopped by the dealer yesterday (because they don't pick up their phones), no update or even an ETA on when parts will be available for the front dampers, rear window trim, or the PCV valve. Also told them to check out the TSB for the exhaust rattle and the service advisor didn't want to add it to the repair order because "it's normal." 

A friend of mine just flew to NOLA to pick up a GR Corolla, he's stopping by for dinner on his way back to Orlando. I really hope it's not a cool car and hope it doesn't vector my search LOL. 

Found a '21 Tundra TRD Pro in Lunar Rock (love that color) up in Georgia that's a reasonable price. Locating new 2500s right now seems to be impossible. 

I see you're in Florida. Ever consider some rallyx at the Firm in that Raptor before it goes away?

Lof8 - Andy said:

I see you're in Florida. Ever consider some rallyx at the Firm in that Raptor before it goes away?

Help me disable the GPS systems on this truck and we can thrash it before it's handed back over to Ford (/joking) [butamI]

Update:

Still in the mediation process with Ford and BBB Autoline (3rd party mediator, impossible to communicate with).

1) Ford has tried telling me they have to charge me 105% of the MSRP of the vehicle they are replacing and are trying to stick to that argument. Despite the Florida statue 681.102 stating this "(21) “Replacement motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle which is identical or reasonably equivalent to the motor vehicle to be replaced, as the motor vehicle to be replaced existed at the time of acquisition. “Reasonably equivalent to the motor vehicle to be replaced” means the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of the replacement vehicle shall not exceed 105 percent of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of the motor vehicle to be replaced. In the case of a recreational vehicle, “reasonably equivalent to the motor vehicle to be replaced” means the retail price of the replacement vehicle shall not exceed 105 percent of the purchase price of the recreational vehicle to be replaced."

2) Ford has offered me a base model Bronco and a King Ranch F-150 as a replacement instead of a 1 for 1 on the Raptor. 

3) Ford has refused to provide me complete numbers to buy the vehicle back or replace the vehicle. They are dragging their feet and the mediator isn't relaying information in a coherent manner. 

4) Should I get a Lemon Law attorney? Too bad I'm a year out from completing law school. 

5) I've settled that if I opt for the buyback+cashback, I'm likely going to get a used Odyssey for a kid hauler.