Hello everyone from just south of Houston, TX. While I've been able to borrow, rent, or otherwise work-around owning a truck for many years now (after all, you can hardly run down a street here without seeing a truck or three), I started looking to buy my own about 9 months ago. Finally at the end of March, the right deal fell into place on a new 2025 F-150 XLT Supercrew 4x4 with the V8 and 3.31 gears in Iconic Silver. So I pulled the trigger and spent the last month getting my add-ons done and putting on 1000 miles. This was my 6th Ford-brand purchase.

Why did I choose an F-150? As an engineer by trade who likes to "tinker" and who hopefully will be retiring soon, I had been going over the 1/2 ton options out there. I had looked at the GMC Sierra SLT with the longer "short bed" and multi-function tailgate. We were really close to pulling the trigger, but then when my relatively short wife drove it, she was uncomfortable with driving it due to the visibility, as she couldn't get the seat high enough to see well enough over the front to be comfortable driving it. I also had really liked the 2024 Ram with the Hemi, but the new 2025 models with the 3.0 Hurricane was just too new of an engine option for me. Plus I would certainly need the larger (3.92) diff to have the close the towing/payload capabilities of either the Ford or GMC, which limited some of the inventory at many dealers around me. Finally, the Tundra set-up was just not my "cup of tea", even though they are assembled in Texas - the shortest "short bed" and the current issues they are having plus their "proud" pricing kind of turned me off. In all, we kept coming back to the F-150 as the wife could see out the front and sides well (she liked the drop-off in the side windows), it came with a bed utility package for her to get in/out of the bed, it was comfortable, it had very adequate payload, towing, and GCVW numbers for what I needed and it had (2) solid engine options for my use with reasonable efficiency numbers. The only thing I gave up that I think are done better by GMC and Ram around the same price point, was a few extra inches of bed length and arguably better seat material at the same "market" price points (compare a SLT/Laramie to an XLT).

Some surprises. I had read the first 2 on this forum, but still these (3) things surprised me: 1) The amount of surface rust, moreso on the rear diff, that Ford thinks is good. 2) A white engine compartment and under hood paint (just looks odd up close). 3) There was an interior scratch on my driver's window and Ford/dealer wouldn't own it - looks very minor, but since I didn't notice it until I brought it in for tinting after a whopping 180 miles. Lesson learned on taking delivery on a vehicle after dark!

Finally, after I decided to go the F-150 route, I had been focused finding a 2024 as there was at first, a good amount around with smokin' deals. But I had waited too long to make up my mind on what to "commit" to. By then (mid-March), the V8's leftovers were mostly reduced to those with the 3.15 gears or without the factory bed utility package (remember the short wife...she needed that). If I had wanted to go to the 3.5 Ecoboost, there was better selection. So it wasn't until the end of "truck month" that the 2025's were advertised with good discounts around me, with plenty of units around. In all, based on the dealer taking roughly 15% off, coupled with Ford's private offer to me as a current vehicle owner and "junk" email recipient, I was able to get nearly the same deal.

Photos: Vehicle with added aftermarket bedliner, tonneau cover, and side tint. I also added the Ford wheel well liners, mud flaps, factory bed extender and trailer brake controller.

Right

Rear

Left

TX Edition Badge

Inside (trailer brake controller installed where coin holder was)

Coyote V8. Notice white engine compartment and under hood painting

 

Truck looks amazazing. Welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome. Nice looking truck.

 

Time for San Luis Pass!

 

..been down to San Luis pass on my MC.....even more fun!