Adventures at the Great State Fair of Texas

[Patty C.]

Sooooo....we decided to go to the fair yesterday since it was the last day. It has been raining in the DFW area for nearly 3 weeks straight and finally the rain stopped and our schedules opened up....

We were going to eat our way over to the automobile building (eating belgian waffles and corny dogs). We wanted to look at the cars because I am in need of a new car - not a tow vehicle just an around town car for me (mine is 10 years old now).

Our first stop was Ford. Okay, no problem. Then we saw it - no, not a car, but an incredible truck:

It's called a Ford Platinum Truck. 5.3 L engine, 4 doors and beautiful. I'll try to list just the things I can remember about it. Fabulous vehicle. I asked if it would tow my camper and was told - probably both of them at once! Great.

1. It has a lighter weight tailgate for us ladies and older folks to operate more easily.
2. A pull down extra step on the tailgate to step up into the bed along with a handle to hold onto to. Great feature.
3. All seats - front and back, are both a/c'd in summer and heated in winter.
4. A back-up camera with onboard dash viewing screen
5. GPS system of course that you talk to....your driving along and you say, gas station...you get the nearest one, price, etc. or "movie theatre"
and it tells you whats on and the times. You get the idea. You talk to it, it talks to you.
6. Are ya ready? The brake controller for what you are towing is built into the dash!!! No box added on under your kneecap. Way cool!
7. CD player, MP2 port and USB port. You can load your tunes onto one of the little USB sticks and plug in. Seriously cool.
8. Cell phone is hooked up and you talk to your dash board when you are on the phone with someone. Also can send and receive text
messages....the voice reads the texts to you and when you want to dictate a text....you do and it gets sent as a text message to the person.
9. Garage door opener has a button to turn on your home lights as well as open the garage. Love it!
10. Running board deploys when you open the door and disappears when you close it. Like that too!

Whew! There is so much more to this vehicle I can't even tell ya but it's late and I'm whipped. So...this is how we found our dream tow vehicle...price? In the 50K range. Yep...yikes. How to get? Hubby and I both loved it but price??? So on the way home, we talked about a garage sale...nope won't cut it....selling one of the campers? Not happening ... sell our bodies to science? Looked at each other and said "nay, they wouldn't want em."

I guess the dream will have to stay just that for now. Oh yea, when I was a kid I used to look for coke bottles and go sell them for 2 cents each. I wonder how many it would take?

Hubby asked where I was going to find that many GLASS coke bottles.

Party pooper!

Patty

[Kevin K]

[Steve Dunkel]

The new F150 has been out for a while and is now heavily discounted. I wouldn't be surprised that you could find one with most if not all of the features you mentioned for half the price. It's interesting that Ford chose your fair to introduce the new 2011 F250, my next purchase but probably not until 2012.

[Patty C.]

Thanks for posting the picture Kevin. That is one sweet ride - and you even posted the color I want - white to match my Casitas.

One of these days you'll be able to open your front door and yell, "truck, go hook yourself up to the trailer, we're goin' camping!"

Then when you jump in, just say "take us to Pike's Peak, please."

I'm joking of course, but I bet I'm not too far off!!!!

Patty

[Kevin K]

Nice rig
I would pick white also.

[Lizbeth]

Nice!

When I dream of having the money to buy any vehicle I want....I always want a truck. A big one, a
B.A.D.D.T. A Big *ss Dodge Diesel Truck..... a new one all my own, with EVERY option.

I can't decide which color? http://www.dodge.com/en/2009/ram_2500_3500/

[Adrian W]

Wow! Lots of bells & wistles for sure.

We decided on Ford this Spring, but went with a base model. The only feature on your list which ours came with was: 1. It has a lighter weight tailgate for us ladies and older folks to operate more easily.

However, ours did have what we were really wanting, the most safety features of any pickup:
Side air bags - side impact ones in the seats and roll over ones in the side panels also.
Hear rests taken form Volvo to improve whiplash injury.
Some other things as well, even a anti-sway feature when towing.

Ours also had what we needed with the towing package and extra large gas tank for towing.

Your number 6. "Are ya ready? The brake controller for what you are towing is built into the dash!!! No box added on under your kneecap. Way cool!" We were able to replicate, our old controller was fit in the small opening next to the radio. A mechanic at the dealership pointed it out to me when I could not fine the connection tor the "pigtail" for the controller. Not too bad a look, I would say.

It does have a CD player and may have these other features, can't remember right now.
"7. CD player, MP2 port and USB port. You can load your tunes onto one of the little USB sticks and plug in. Seriously cool." May not? We did get that on our Toyota Matrix.

As for "10. Running board deploys when you open the door and disappears when you close it. Like that too!" My wife & I installed an after marked step ourselves. She really likes the step. Makes it much easier to enter & exit. I like the looks of it.

We added a topper or cap from ARE to finish our tow out. Oh, yes, I added the "daytime running lights", ei fog lights in front.

[Adrian W]

Nice!

When I dream of having the money to buy any vehicle I want....I always want a truck. A big one, a
B.A.D.D.T. A Big *ss Dodge Diesel Truck..... a new one all my own, with [b]EVERY option.

I can't decide which color? http://www.dodge.com/en/2009/ram_2500_3500/

My son likes his big bad Dodge Diesel, got it used and has added may upgrades to make it growl and tow better as well. But he is a very good mechanic and can do things I could not think of doing. Ha!

His Big Blue next to our Ford Ranger. The Scamp was first towed down to Lovington, CO to us. He picked it up at the factory in MN and delieved it to us halfway down to us. He turned heads when he pulled into the RV park towing a Scamp with such a big pickup. Ha!

[Lizbeth]

Adrian, hubby has his 2001 Dodge diesel 4x4, the Boler looks pretty funny behind it but the BF 5th looks great!

[pjanits]

My buddy bought one of these, beautiful truck for sure.
Eats a little gas tho and it "just" barely fits in his garage. He has the 4wd version.
Sits pretty high alright.
Alas no bucks

[David & Leslie]

Liz - that is one nice lookin' outfit. Hope we get to see it (and you two) in person again in the future.

Patty - WHAT an amazing truck! We saw a pickup with those 'automatic' running boards/steps and are they kewl. D want's to add them to our 'Overkyl" van asap!

Kevin - thanx for the neat pic.

Take care, all - L 'n D