And she’s a beaut!  She’s a 2008 F450 4x4 diesel and appears to be in excellent condition.  Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to see her in person yet and won’t be able to test drive her this weekend due to our scheduled garage sale.  But we’re planning to drive by on Sunday and possibly take her for a test drive next week. 

But the problem is we weren’t planning to buy quite yet.  I still don’t feel like I know much about trucks and I don’t want to rush into a decision and end up regretting it.  I’ve been poring over past forum threads and doing as much research as I can to educate myself, but I worry that there are questions I should be asking that I won’t know to ask.  And this truck almost seems like too good of a deal and as the old adage goes: if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.  And then there is the practical side of me which is fearful of making such a major commitment this far in advance.  We are hoping to hit the road in the Spring of 2010 and although we are mentally ready and actively working through the other details, there are still many things that could happen which may cause us to postpone our dream.  What if the house doesn’t sell?  What if one of us becomes ill?  Yes, I know we could always sell the truck and buying it used would reduce the hit we would take, but I still want to make a smart decision. 

On the other hand, I don’t want to pass up a good deal.  We haven’t seen many 450’s around our area and this is the first used one.  Based on what I’ve read and seen, I don’t think there are probably that many used 2008’s with low mileage on the market.  I’m afraid that if we pass this one up, we won’t have any option but to buy new, which really isn’t in our budget.

So I’d like to get input from all of you that know far more about this than me.  What would you do?  This truck seems to have everything we would need - diesel, longbed, tow package.  Are there other things that I should be considering that aren’t listed?  Oh by the way, we haven’t landed on a 5er yet, but our short list includes the Keystone Montana, Carriage Cameo, and other like models,.  So I believe that this would be more than enough truck for this level of 5er.  Here is the actual ad – what it doesn’t say is that it has 29,000 miles and is listed at $36,988.  According to Kelley Blue Book, this is a pretty fair price.  Do you agree?

F450 CREW CAB LONGBED DUAL REAR WHEEL, 4X4, AUTO, DIESEL, 4.88 LIMITED SLIP, ADVANCED SECURITY GROUP, OFF ROAD PACKAGE, SKID PLATES, FULL POWER PACK, ENGINE BLOCK HEATER, SLIDING REAR WINDOW, CAMPER PACKAGE, HIGH CAPACITY TRAILER TOW PACKAGE, POWERSCOPE TRAILER TOW MIRROR, FOG LAMPS, BACK UP SENSORS, POWER DRIVER AND PASS SEATS, TOW COMMAND SYSTEM, PRIVACY GLASS, 4 WHEEL ABS, POLISHED ALUMIN WHEELS, THIS TRUCK IS MINT