BruzerF150

First, I'm new to the forum, so of course I have several questions. I apologize in advance!

I'm trying to configure and price the following F150:

- 2015 or 2016 XLT
- 4x4
- SuperCab
- 6.5' Box
- Equipment Group 301A
- 2.7L V6 Eco-Boost
- Towing capability of at least 7000 lbs.

1. I've done an inventory search (inventory.ford.com) and saved several "window stickers" in order to review what options are on each one. Is there an easier way to search inventory in order to narrow down exactly what options are on each vehicle. The ford.com one doesn't let you specify things like "tow package, appearance package, etc.).

2. According to Ford's towing chart, if I want to tow up to 7500 lbs. with the 2.7L Eco-Boost, then I'll need the 3.55 (or 3.73) axle ratio. Several of the vehicles I found have this, but they don't all come with the "Trailer Tow Package" (which adds the Backup Assist, auxillary transmission oil cooler, and upgraded front stabilizer bar). The Ford brochure seems to indicate that towing anything above 5000 lbs. requires the "Trailer Tow Package". Can anyone verify that just having the 3.55 (or 3.73) axle ratio without the "Trailer Towing Package" would limit me to just 5000 lbs. of towing?

3. For determining a purchase price (without figuring in rebates or incentives for the moment), how much below the dealer invoice price would be considered a fair amount to expect? Something like $800 to $1000?

4. For determining dealer invoice price, I notice that sites like Edmunds include a pretty hefty "Advertising Fee". Is this valid, or is it one of those fees that I can get the dealer to waive?

5. I see that there are new rebates and incentives available, good until 7/5. The fine print says that "not all F-150 SuperCab XLT models may qualify". Is this at the discretion of the dealer, or are there other factors at play here?

Thanks again for the help.

jleason03

[QUOTE=BruzerF150;4671881]

2. According to Ford's towing chart, if I want to tow up to 7500 lbs. with the 2.7L Eco-Boost, then I'll need the 3.55 (or 3.73) axle ratio. Several of the vehicles I found have this, but they don't all come with the "Trailer Tow Package" (which adds the Backup Assist, auxillary transmission oil cooler, and upgraded front stabilizer bar). The Ford brochure seems to indicate that towing anything above 5000 lbs. requires the "Trailer Tow Package". Can anyone verify that just having the 3.55 (or 3.73) axle ratio without the "Trailer Towing Package" would limit me to just 5000 lbs. of towing?


5. I see that there are new rebates and incentives available, good until 7/5. The fine print says that "not all F-150 SuperCab XLT models may qualify". Is this at the discretion of the dealer, or are there other factors at play here?

QUOTE]

I'll chime in on these 2 items. Yes, you will need the trailer tow package to tow above 5000 lbs and be covered/safe and that is straight from Ford. I've seen Ford Rangers pulling 2 cars behind them where I live, so will it pull more than 5000 lbs? Sure. Will it cause excess wear if you go much above that, yes.


The max tow package allows the greatest towing capabilities, but I believe is only available on the 3.5 EB. So for your 2.7 truck, go with the tow package and 3.55 or 3.73 gears, the 3.73 being the ideal for towing.


And the incentives nearly always are the highest across F150's on the XLT's with the 302a package, so that is why there are differences from trim levels or optional packages in the rebates/incentives.

TooManyVehicles

1. You can also look at sites like cars.com as many dealers advertise there. You can also go to a dealer, tell them what you want, and have them search other dealers inventory for a specific match.

The ford site works, but as you noticed can be painful in trying to find out whats around to meet your specific requirements. If I wasn't so busy grading student stuff, it would be great to write some code to parse Ford inventory data to be able to locate vehicles with an exact configuration. The data is actually out there on Ford's site, i.e. most of the option codes, but hidden in the pages javascript.

2. For towing, there is what the model says it will tow and what it will really tow. What do I mean by that? Most of the time, your towing will be limited to your payload capability. That isn't on the window sticker, and while Ford publishes numbers in the towing guide, the numbers are the max. for any given configuration. It is only when the vehicle gets delivered you can look at the yellow payload sticker on the drivers door. When you two something, it will put weight on the hitch which puts weight on the vehicle. As I said, you will likely run out of payload first (especially on a configuration with a 2.7L EB). If you look at the spreadsheet in my signature, you can see real datapoints of vehicles of other forum members. Filter the data to see the 2.7L EB numbers to get an idea of the payload range you can expect.

3. There are a bunch of threads like https://www.f150forum.com/f118/just-...e-paid-295614/ where people have posted their purchase #'s.

4. Everything is negotiation. Note that Ford employee pricing (A plan) removes both the holdback (3% of MSRP - destination charge) and advertising fee, but includes a $275 program fee. I'd say that if you get anywhere close to employee pricing for someone working at Ford, you are doing great....especially as the dealer gets extra money from Ford for processing an employee plan deal (which they won't get on your deal).

5. Rebates and incentives are zip code specific, and may vary by model, but I found that all XLT's (for example) that I looked at had the same incentives. (Note, the 2.7L EB has a $300 incentive). The dealer can run a "Vincent" report for you which will show ALL the incentives that Ford thinks you are eligible for.

Hope this helps, and be sure to visit the spreadsheet and checkout the Towing sub-forum where you can learn more than you ever wanted to about towing capabilities on these trucks.

For myself, one of the primary reasons I wanted to get a new truck is that my old truck (2003 Silverado) had a 6800# towing limit. Because of this, I wanted to make sure I had a lot of headway, and in the end decided that the 2.7L wouldn't do that (legally). (I think the 2.7L EB is a heck of good engine.) So, in the end I went for a 3.5L EB as the price difference wasn't that much as compared to the 2.7L EB + HD payload package.

BruzerF150

jleason03 and TooManyVehicles, thank you both for replying and providing useful information. I'll follow up on your suggestions.