Tampa, Florida // 3-6 June
With our RV shortlist down to two options by Friday of our first week, we hit the car dealerships on Saturday. Now we knew we were going with a a travel trailer we could start the truck search. Chevrolet, Ram and Ford are the most popular makes and we were looking for a half-ton or three quarter-ton truck. We thought the half-tons would be easier to find but it turned out that both the half- and three quarter-ton used trucks were pretty scarce. Robin had a list of dealers to visit, so this was a browsing day to see what was out there. To tow our travel trailer we’d need to buy a pretty high spec half-ton, so most likely we’d be looking at a three quarter-ton. The trick would be our budget!
The first truck we looked at was a 2019 Ford F-250 Lariat. It had just been traded in but hadn’t yet been serviced and detailed. Despite being a little dusty it looked really good. We weren’t able to test drive it as it hadn’t been through their servicing but the salesman said he’d let us know when it was ready. The second dealer showed us a Ram and Chevy, we took the Ram for a test drive. It was a 2018 model, in good shape but the more basic interior. At the third dealership we drove another F-250, this time the base model, but a very good option as it was a 2020 and in great shape. No surprise we liked the Lariat version (fancier interior) because we’d be spending a fair bit of time in it over the next few months! They were all good options and we talked price on the third F-250. Of course there were a few dealer fee surprises, so we went away to consider. Robin was stressing a little about our budget and the lack of options. As with the RVs we went back to scouring the internet!
Fast forward to Monday, and Robin was ready to sort the truck now that we had our RV! (Our trip to Crescent City had been Sunday and we’d agreed with Ashlee Sunday night.) Robin had a new shortlist of trucks, and called ahead at the first one as it was about 45mins away. The saleswoman was waiting for us when we arrived. The truck was a Ford F-250 Lariat, very tidy, with bed liner and cover. I liked that it was white too. We headed out for a test drive! It was over our budge but we’d gone under budget on the RV so there was a little wiggle room and also we’d decided it was worth getting what we needed as we’d be spending so much time on the road. After the test drive there were the usual back and forth negotiations. The saleswoman was super nice and not too pushy. It was funny to go through the steps of offer, counter, saleswoman leaves the room to consult manager, returns with ‘best’ offer, rinse and repeat. Once we’d agree a price then there was the process of insurance (which we didn’t yet have as it was our first car purchase in the US) as they can’t sell you a car without insurance. We had all our ID with us and knew which insurance we were going with (Robin was on a mission today) so it just meant taking the time to make phone calls and get email confirmation’s sent through. We got everything settled eventually and arranged to have the truck delivered to us at our hotel the next day (which would be Robin’s birthday!). We were driving our hire car and I wasn’t registered as a driver on it. Big day and we were super excited to have both truck and RV sorted!
