I test drove the Ford, Dodge and Nissan. I did not consider Chevy due to past bad experiences with GM products. I didn't consider Toyota due to the meager size and engine, and previous bad experience with Toyota dealers (very crooked in Texas due to distributor adds).
Only the F150 and Titan were competitors. The Dodge does not have a backseat anything like them, so it was eliminated. One of the reasons that I was trading in my 2000 F150 Supercab was that I wanted a usable back seat. The Dodge could have been a competitor, the 4.7 with the 5 speed auto is pretty peppy as compared to other manufacturers' base engines. The Dodge also had the most powerful brakes of any of the full size trucks. And they are discounting them up to 11,000 at the local Dodge dealer. But the backseat was the killer for it. Time to stretch the cab another 6 inches, then it would have been a player in my full size truck comparison.
I had driven several F150s and made email contact with about every Ford dealer in the area. I had a deal worked out for an F150 at 500 under invoice, plus 1021 discount for the Tow and Go (5.4, Limited slip, tow package) and 4000 in rebates. Would have been 22,600 walkout on a truck that retailed at 31,755. But it was fire engine red. So I decided to think about it. I really did like the way the Ford drove, but the engine didn't quite feel like 300HP.
So I drove the Titan. The rest is history. It's in my driveway now! What a hot rod. I have a base model (XE) 4 door and I picked it up for invoice minus the 2000 rebate, so a total of 22,400. About the same as the Ford, and about the same amount of options. Ironically I got a free interior upgrade because they could not find the key of the truck that I had negiotiated on, so they asked me if I wanted to take the one I had test drove and I said sure! So it pretty much had all the same options as the Ford XLT level, save for power mirrors. But I wasn't going to go up to the next level (SE) just for that.
