Expedition or Excursion $6000 budget

1/2 ton (Expedition) 3/4 ton (Excursion).

$6000 budget for any truck is gonna be an old one with lots of miles, no matter what make or model.

All you can do is your own due diligence on the specific rig you are looking at and go from there.

All makes and models have **** vehicles and awesome vehicles.. Just depends on which one YOU get... ha, ha...

Fan boys will always boast about their brand, so hard to go by that.

More people ***** about their crappy vehicles than those that have great vehicles.

Choose your poison wisely and go from there..

Even in 2020 you will read about all makes and models sucking and the best thing since sliced bread.. Take you pick.

Good luck!

Mitch

Yeah very little of that applies to me. I have no fan loyalty just the gods of car buying made me a Ford guy and NOTHING compares to the Excursion

I've owned 50 cars and this is how i manage risk. $6000 for a 100,000 mile truck is the best use of money and an explorer at that point is good for another 50k before it stops being fun.

THe unkown for me is the V10 and the trans

Again, the V10 is a great engine, or it sucks... The Ford trans either sucks or it's great..

I had a 97 F150 with the 5.4 and the E4OD trans and drove it 255,000 trouble free miles.. Sure, had to replace a starter, alt, some vacuum lines...

The 97 5.4 was the worst rated Triton engine by far.. I acquired it with 60,000 miles on it with zero history on it. I just maintained the fluids and didn't MOD the hell out of it and it gave me 195,000 miles of service before I traded it in and it was still running fine.. I just wanted and could afford a new truck.

Everyone will point to the spark plug blow out issue... Well, that does and has happened, but in most cases, it was AFTER a plug change and the new plugs were not torqued properly or not at all, and bad things happened. Or, it was just fate that took over?

In general, I think that the Triton series of engines from the 4.6 to 5.4 to 6.8 have all performed well overall. I don't care for the 5.4 3v engines that came out from 2005 to 2009 or when ever, but I have a 3.5 Ecoboost and that's said to be a POS by a lot of people too.... Well, I have 86,000 on mine and it's just running fine..

I've only owned maybe 7-8 vehicles in my life since I was 16 years old.. I'm 56 years old now.. The current 2013 F150 in my life is my FIRST brand new vehicle I have ever bought.. I get a lot of years out of my vehicles for some reason.. Dunno if it's just the maintenance I do on them, or what??

Anyway, the last 3 vehicles I've owned since around 1989 has been a 86 Mustang GT (wish I still had it!). Traded it for the 1997 F150 in 2001 (wish I still had it) and traded the 97 F150 on the 2013 F150 I have now..

I'll admit, I like Ford, but I also like the other makes too... Just have not had a chance to own one of them for awhile... ha, ha...

Internet is full of advice.. But, you get what you paid for it... :)

Good luck!

Mitch

I've got two V-10's one in a Excursion another in a 2000 3/4 ton crew cab. The truck has the most miles 205,000 and the Excursion 139,000 miles. I had my mechanic change the plugs and coil packs on both vehicles when I bought them. You can go to the FTE forum to see the longevity of this motor. The transmission is the weak link if your towing heavy. With what your towing it should never be a issue. The Excursion is a far superior tow vehicle but very large. Some of the early models were famous for spitting plugs but I've never experienced this despite both being 2000 models. My mechanic follows proper procedure for changing plugs. I would not get the Excursion with the small motor (5.4) personal preference.

Our last TT was just over 8000 lbs and our 2004 excursion make it to 197??? miles. I put plugs in it at 110,000 and a trans filter at about 120,000. We sold it last year because we bought a used class A a few years ago and didn't need it any more.

The V10 is a VERY reliable motor, and the Excursion only got the PI heads so it'll have 8 threads for the spark plugs, although they didn't completely fix the root-cause tooling issue until '03. But still, it's rare. Bigger issues at 20 years: Probably needs radiator and heater hoses done, and plan on replacing all the COPs when he plugs are done next.

The 4R100 behind the 7.3L is nearly disposable, but because of the far different programming (it locks up in every gear behind the V10), it holds up MUCH better behind the V10 as long as it has the trans cooler loop in the radiator (ford deleted it on some '01s) or a Tru-Cool max installed. Best is having both.

I'm still on my original 4R100, just passed 478,000 miles last night. Over 300,000 of those are towing miles, typical weight is 22,000 combined.


That all said... The Excursion is nearly as payload-challenged as an Expedition, due to its soft spring rates. And because of this, it handling is a little sloppy, and gets worse when you load it up. If you want to tow heavy with it, you'll want to swap-in F250 or 350 springs and put on some good shocks.

Don't think of it as expedition vs excursion, but rather the best rig you can buy for 6 grand, Ford or GM. (Wont find a sequoia without a zillion miles for that and the Armadas seem spendy for the miles too, but I'd take any of them)
At that budget, brand specific is FAR less important than condition, records and miles.
Unlike some of the posts, you can find a good SUV tow rig for that much, rather easily, IMO. They don't hold as much value as pickups.

There's merit to getting a higher mile HD SUV than a bit lower 1/2 ton, if it was treated right. Less wear n tear apples to apples becasue the components are heavier duty.

Key is find one sooner than later so you can drive it for a while and root out any issues or things that need done.
And I typically go through older vehicles and do a full maint, unless there's records proving that it is not due. Think any service items up to the mileage it's at, whether you "think" it needs it or not.

IMO, I would equally consider LS engine GMs and Triton engines. If anything, the Tritons have more known "issues", but not huge ones. Less "issues" with early LS engines, IMO. Otherwise both are equally as reliable in other major components from my experience.
Trans condition and maint records or finding one recently rebuilt is one of the most important things.
And generally I'd rather buy an old vehicle that has a long list of new or newer appropriate parts than one that "never needed anything and never had any issues."

Excursion... just on the basis of the third row seating comfort is actually a thing and you can still store stuff behind the third row..

oh, and it's a heck of a TV. Just make sure you are ready to do some tinkering if the handling while towing isn't right.

You may have to swap springs and shocks and even a new rear sway bar.

Or you may need nothing.

Be prepared for all the little bugs a 20 year old vehicle can have. Brakes, tires, brake flex lines, brake hard lines, AC repair, etc.

Buy the best Excursion you can, be discriminating, use Car Guru or the like, shop, be ready to fly out and drive back.

I bought my V10 CC dually with 146k miles for $5,500 but I had to travel nearly 300 miles round trip. It was literally like new (basic trim level though)

anyway Good luck and let us know what you get!

Thanks!

Jeremiah