It’s amazing how trucks with certain levels of equipment continue to perform exceedingly well in the used car marketplace. Who would have thought ten years ago that a late 90s Toyota Tacoma or a pristine F350 Powerstroke like this one would be commanding over $20,000? Bidding is at $21,000 for this 1997 crew cab variant equipped with the rare five-speed manual, but the reserve remains unmet even at that number. Of course, it’s a unicorn truck that has seemingly escaped being beaten to death on a jobsite, so the limited supply of trucks like this is definitely driving some of the interest here. Find the F350 here on eBay and located in Lebanon, Oregon.
I’m sure the original owner had little clue that when he traded in his truck for a newer model that it’d still be pulling over $20,000 more than 20 years later. And when you think about how many late model trucks today are equipped with every luxury and convenience feature under the planet, seeing this one with its rubber floormat, cloth seating surfaces, and manual gearbox makes you realize that perhaps not every truck shopper wants t a lifted, four wheel drive Lexus variant. This one has survived in surprisingly nice condition, especially for a light-colored interior, as there’s no significant soiling evident and no rips in the fabric. The five speed is a rare find – you almost have to look twice to confirm it has three pedals.
The Powerstroke is definitely part of the appeal here, as it’s easily one of Ford’s most celebrated engines for its prodigious amounts of torque and impressive reliability. Plus, with 159,000 miles, it’s not really all that tired by the standards of this long-lived engine. The seller doesn’t provide any major details about the engine itself, but does highlight that the front axle was rebuilt 10,000 miles ago and upgraded with 4.10 gears. This thing is a serious stump puller, and while the toolbox in the bed may make it seem like a used-up work truck, it certainly hasn’t been treated as such. Imagine seeing this being wholesaled at a local auction and realizing what a slice of gold it was, hidden among the generic used-up commuter cars?
Of course, that’s just speculation on my part, but this does seem to be the type of vehicle a new-car dealer wouldn’t realize has real value on the collector car market, or simply among truck buyers who aren’t infatuated with Ecoboosts and other turbocharged nonsense. The seller notes the bed has had a liner in it, and while it does have blemishes, it’s not terrible. The bodywork looks quite nice, a testament to how forgiving the Oregon climate is. The four real doors and long bed make it the perfect accessory for a contracting business, or pulling boats around a marina – insert your favorite heavy-duty pastime here. And the best part? Someone will still pay you all the money for it five years from now.
You still see a few of these around, even up here in the North East. Work trucks are used on the job, they’re not everyday drivers and that’s the kind you can still occasionally see because they may not be used every day and some of them don’t rack up a lot of miles. It looks like a well-cared for pickup and I do like the 9th gen Fords but, personally, I don’t care for 4 doors on a pickup; I’ll stick with a regular cab. This rig is huge, it’s not something you’d want to use as a daily driver. It’s value is as a heavy duty work truck and one that still has a lot of work left in it.
Once you’ve been spoiled by having those two extra doors it’s hard to go back to a regular cab for a daily though at least in my opinion
I’m in my ’95 F150 XLT by myself 90% of the time so I have no use for two extra doors. I’m 6′-2,” have plenty of room and it suits me fine for the light jobs I use it for. When I need to carry more than two people I hop into my Dodge Magnum. I grew up with regular cab pickups and I’ll stick to ’em.
My neighbor has a lawn maintenance and this truck is identical to his primary tow vehicle, daily driver for as long as I have known him (20 years). Still see it everyday. Pretty impressive for an old Ford.
Cab configuration is a matter of preference but having ridden in my buddies’ regular cabs I find them the least accomodating. Older crew cabs tend to be long, my ’96 F350 was 144 in length IIRC. It was at times a bit of a chore to part but offered plenty of accomodations and elbow room for 5 people plus the driver. I used the dually to carry my track bike to the tracks and the back seat of the cab served as a comfortable couch.
Standard cab/short bed combo is the rage with hot rodders and customizers and fetch quite a bit more than the more useable versions which is all right by me.
My current daily is a Supercab F150. The back seat isn’t as accomodating as that of a crew cab but there is still plenty of room to securely store your gear and bring a couple of friends to the track meet.
These are another which fall into that weird exclusive cadre of ’90s vehicles which are worth a lot of money. I’m sure it’s going to bring in a lot more than 20k. We will see how much more. 30k maybe?
High bid of $26,100, reserve nit met.
Steve R
I can see this going for 25K [or more?] which is pretty astounding for 160,000 miles. But at least it looks nice. A friend has been looking for a used truck and we’ve both been astounded at the prices of trucks with 100K plus miles. Sure, there’s plenty of life left but still.
I guess with the price of new trucks being more than I paid for my first house it keeps the used truck market inflated. A rising tide lifts all ships!
OBS Ford truck market is currently on fire. The OBS term usually applies to these aeronose 9th gen Ford trucks, with Bricknose denoting 8th gen and Bullnose being 7th gen trucks. These three generations cover 1980-1997 (1996 for F150 as the last OBS year) Ford trucks and were perhaps the best Ford built.
This being a last of the OBS F series with the desirable 7.3L which is rarely married to a ZFS5 manual transmission and a 4×4 to boost is almost as holy grail ford trucks can get. The mileage is not an issue at all provided this truck has been properly serviced.
I daily drove a ’96 F350 dually crew cab in the suburbs of Los Angeles. It was big and looked like it meant business. No one ever tailgated me nor cut me off as in either case they would be wearing my bumpers as neckbrace in a hard impact. Comfort level was as good as an older truck could get and A/C was strong enough to turn the cavernous crew cab into a freezer box in a matter of minutes. For me two drawbacks were $2500 extra premium in my insurance for full coverage (the cat converter is easy to get to and is often stolen from these, as well the entire truck in general) and the 8 mpg flat. Sold it to get a Bullnose Supercab but still miss the ol’ beast.
I don’t remember if I sold the extended cab or 4 door version in 95. I do know they were hard to come by and my customers drove all the way up from Canyonville in Southern Oregon to Tigard to buy the only one we had in stock.I kept the managers late quite a few times but it was worth it for my customers.
OBS spans 1980-1997. There is still a ton of them out there. Clean ones in hard to find configurations tend to fetch top $$ but if you are willing to sacrifice a bit you will find what you are looking for. To me having convenience of a Supercab was more important than an 8 ft bed and I was able to find a very nice one not too far from my work.
Evidently bidders disagree