1999 Ford F250 review from North America

I purchased this vehicle from a Ford dealer when it was three years old with 74,000 miles.

At purchase it had to have an injector and a glow plug replace. This was replaced under Ford's 100,000 mile engine warranty.

At the time, Ford wouldn't replace more than one similar part (like two fuel injectors), under warranty, at the same service call. So I had to bring it back repeatedly to get two more injectors, three more glow plugs and two glow plug circuits replaced.

The dealer had new tires on it when we purchases it and just after 10,000 miles, we had a blow out on a rear tire. We had towed very little at that point and I'm careful about maintaining the air pressure in the tires.

After 90,000 miles, the main shifter fork in the transfer case went out. The dealer said it would cost $800 just to look at it. I had a local transmission shop fix it for under $900 and that was with $450.00 worth of Ford parts. They had discontinued that shifting fork so we had to replace the fork, the gear it moves on and the shaft.

The camshaft position sensor went out after 108,000 miles. Ford wanted $212.00 for the part. We got the same part from International Harvester for $93.00.

We replaced three more injectors at 115,000 miles (at $400 a piece for re-manufactured). For this we took it to a real diesel shop (not a Ford dealer) and he told us the air box was broken and it was likely that break was letting dirt into the injectors. I had no idea it was broken in such a way and in the repeated trips to the Ford dealer, they never identified the break, or possibly broke it themselves. Since they installed a new air box, we've had no further problems.

After 125,000 miles, small pieces of the clutch literally exploded and made it so the clutch could not be disengaged. Of course, this happened in traffic.

I don't find the driver's seat comfortable, it actually bothers my back if I'm in the seat for more than half an hour.

It's louder at freeway speeds than the pre-Superduty body style.

The fuel mileage has been, on the average, 15.5 MPG. Other Superduty owners I know get around 17 MPG.

Coming from an F150 with the 5.4 liter, this truck has tons of power. It's reasonably fast -- in fact I pulled away hard from a Dodge Cummings that tried to cut me off one day even though he had a big head start. That's not towing of course -- towing would be a different story I'm sure.

I love the diesel on the highway and I love not having to slow down for the hills. I don't tow real heavy, usually no more than 7000 pounds. I've been very happy with the torque and the horsepower.

My wife sits in the jump seat next to me and loves it. This is a super cab and it has the half doors on each side. It's very roomy and has easy access to the rear seats. There is some wind noise from the top of the half doors, but it's not too annoying unless you're in a strong cross wind.

The four-wheel seems to work like it should, but the truck is very heavy in the front and in the soft stuff (mud and sand) it does a really good job of sinking.

I think many of the mechanical problems we had were due to; 1) truly poor mechanic work at the dealership and, 2) this was the first year of the new body style so there were some bugs that weren't worked out (like the transfer case). That being understood, maintenance for another like truck would probably not be as expensive as this truck was for us.