my 99 expy eddie bauer is off lease in a few months

(bought the car for wholesale used and leased it..
neat trick for anyone looking to float little car payments -
mine were $245 including tax).

anyhow, lease buy out is $11K. The leasing company is
already hassling me if I want to purchase the car.

I told them I'd offer $8500. They are going to get back
to me.

Should I buy it assuming they come in at that price or in
that ball park? truck now has 64K miles, 5.4L, leather,
etc.

Only problem I have with it right now is one mirror needs
replacing (the reflective material has deteriorated - TSB for
it, but ford won't fix it for free) and the digital odometer
comes on and off randomly - another known problem, some
think it to be a cold solder. Otherwise it's problem free.

Thoughts?

here's a picture of it:

 

Sounds like a deal. What else are you gonna drive for ~$8500?

 

I agree. Also a big plus is you know who put the 64k on it and what kind of care it was given. Also, if you look on ebay there are a lot of used and new mirrors for sale at good prices.

PS. The lightning wheels look nice.

 

not as good as those centerlines do.. haha, those things
look pretty sweet.

i was going to give the expy back and go pick up a new
expedition limited (since it's the only model that comes with
matching paint cladding). However.. even at invoice, just not
worth it comparing to the other cars in the same price
range.

thinking I might buy this truck to keep as a 2nd vehicle and
go pick up a car to tinker with again.. been a few years since
I've had anything fast. Got the bug again.

-d

 

Buy it!
That is what we did with our 98 and did not get as good a deal.

 

Edamon - thanks for the compliments on the wheels. I was at a dealership in Florence, Alabama the other day and they had a new 04 Eddie Bauer leftover from last year. It was a solid crimson red color and had the blacked out headlights like the 05 limited. I have also seen a couple of solid color 04 EBs on Ebay. Anyway, they had this thing marked down to $33,700. If I wouldn't have bought a used 03 Expi just a month before I would have gotten it.

 

Well I decided to buy a new expedition rather than keep the
old one.

Picked up a 2005 XLT loaded in dark shadow grey.

Also got a wicked deal on a set of 20" wheels at dealer cost
and had them residualized into the lease, so I got another
$~500 off the price of the wheels.

I spent like 20 minutes at the tire/wheel shop having the guy
search for rims - as apparently I'm the last guy on the planet
who wants 20" "silver" rims, lol. I don't recall the brand name
right now, but they where hyper silver and looked pretty good,
similar in design to the lightning rims.

bought the truck for $4000 under invoice and also got one of
those free magellan navigation things they were giving
away. I'll probably just ebay that thing tho.

For the first time buying a car was a nice experience - worked
the whole time with the sales manager directly, no monkeying
around. Developed a good relationship with the guy - which is
why he hooked me up w/the wheels at cost. American car
dealers are usually just a royal pita to deal with. I had gone to
another dealership first.. but after 45 minutes of them playing
games I got up and left. I don't reward bad behavior. So it was
suprising the way it worked out at the 2nd dealership i went
to. In contrast, last week I helped my dad buy his car (BMW 745iL) - whole deal took 30 minutes total, no games and he
got a pretty good deal ($850/mo on a 36 month lease with
only a $3K cap reduction).

I'll have pictures of the truck in the next day or so - I don't pick
it up until tomorrow (since they needed to order the wheels).

Did a 24 month lease - $440/mo including tax on a truck with
an MSRP of $39,500 with just drive off fees.

Can't beat that stick with a snake.

I wanted a limited, because the body cladding is paint matched..
but finding one without a ton of added dealer options was
impossible (they searched the whole state of CA) - not a single
one. Turns out.. the dark shadow grey blends nearly perfectly
with the lower cladding on the XLT.

-d