At $7,500, Is This 1995 Ford F-150 A Work Truck That’s A Deal?

Ford’s F-Series has long been a perennial best-seller in the States, and as today’s Nice Price or No Dice F-150 shows, that’s not because they’re wearing out and being replaced. Let’s see what this working truck might reasonably be worth.

Yesterday’s 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage proved to be yet another squeaker of a vote, with many of you calling into question the car’s color and its auto-manual gearbox as reasons to vote down its $42,000 asking price. What that eventually boiled down to was a 53 percent No Dice loss for the besieged Brit.

The Ford Motor Company once oversaw Aston Martin. In fact, at that time — from the late ’80s through the mid-’00s, — Ford held shares in or owned outright a number of small and mid-sized automakers. The funny thing is, even bundled together that cornucopia of companies — Aston Martin, Jaguar/Land Rover, Volvo, and a slice of Mazda — couldn’t match the sales prowess of Ford’s long-term juggernaut, the F-Series pickup truck.

With Ford seemingly eager to continue that trend year after year, it might be reasonable to think that the supply of F-Series trucks, both new and used, more than meets the market’s demand, and hence prices are kept down. That’s not the case, as the new trucks continue to outstrip Ford’s ability to meet their demand and older trucks move into that nether world of sudo-classic.

This 1995 Ford F-150 XLT 4X4 sort of fits into that Mama Bear position of being old enough not to be modern but new enough that it still could be considered a daily driver without people thinking its owner is a nut.

The seller describes the 172,000-mile truck as being a “gold time machine,” and claims in the ad that the “time has come for one of you lucky buyers to pull off into the sunset” in it. A time machine is an apt description of this truck since with its standard cab, straight-six, and five-speed 4X4 drivetrain, it’s pretty much spec’d in a manner that might be hard to duplicate in today’s F-series lineup.

Per the ad, the truck has everything a person needs. It also has a slew of new parts, including some of the pricier bits like a new gas tank and a fresh set of tires. There are new hydraulics for the clutch, spark plugs, and wires as well, plus a replaced battery and starter to get things going.

Aesthetically, the truck shows no major issues, although there is a bit of rust creeping up the edge of the driver’s side front fender. Additionally, the beauty panel on the rear gate looks to be missing. Making up for that, perhaps, there’s a bull bar up front to keep the tumbleweeds out of the radiator.

The paint looks to be Desert Copper Metallic and that’s matched to a Medium Mocha interior. Being an XLT, that means it comes with carpet on the floor and a convenient two-and-a-half bucket seating arrangement above that. While showing some signs of age, it all looks perfectly serviceable in the cabin, although you should note that there’s not much room in there seeing as the truck affords most of its space to the open-topped longbed in the back.

You’re not likely to find many more reliable and durable engines than Ford’s stalwart straight-six, and here in 4.9 liter displacement, it gives it up to the tune of 145 horsepower, and, more importantly, 265 lb-ft of torque. Matched with the five-speed stick, that should make slow acceleration an at least somewhat engaging activity. The part-time 4WD system has a two-speed transfer case for extra grunt when the going gets tough. With this setup, the F-150 should be able to tow 7,500 pounds and has a carrying capacity of better than a half-ton.

While Ford has been pumping out trucks of this sort for decades on end, you don’t come across many original older models in this nice of shape all that often. Should someone be in the market for an old F-Series that’s been well cared for, this seems like a viable candidate for consideration. That is, of course, if its appearnce seems in alignment with its $7,500 asking price.

What do you think, is this sexy senior citizen of an F-Series worth its $7,500 price tag? Or, does that make this a pickup that’s not worth picking up?

You decide!

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Glemon for the hookup!

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