I lost my beloved 2000 7.3L F250 Crew Cab in the divorce. It was the paid for vehicle and he didn't want to wait for me to pay off the Jeep which I had left for him. When it came up in the settlement meeting I told my attorney that while I was emotionally attached to the truck, I would just trade the Jeep in for another one. I loved that truck and wanted something exactly like it or better. I figured if I was making a car payment it needed to be for something that I wanted to drive. There are a lot of 7.3L Fords for sale in my area but very few crew cabs and even less that the banks are comfortable offering good terms on. I fell in love with a 2002 Crew Cab that was burgundy with tan trim but ended up walking out of the dealer when they couldn't meet the cap I had for monthly payments.
I spent the next week scouring the Interwebs for my next truck. I felt like I was online dating. "This one is only 2WD, this one's bed is too long, this one's cab is too short, no I won't drive a 6.0!" I hadn't bothered to look at Dodges because I just assumed they were out of my price range. One of the dealers that had a 7.3L also had a 2003 Dodge 2500 in my price range. The only downside was that it had over 200,000 miles on it which the credit union balked at. I then found a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 Crew Cab with 167,000 at an Infiniti dealership. I spoke to the salesman and let him know upfront that I had walked out of a dealership the week before when they would not meet my terms. He recommended that I go through the approval process before making the hour drive to their dealership. I was approved at the payment I wanted, the only thing left to do was to test drive the truck. Meet my new Dodge:
