At $14,999, Will This 1986 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat Rope You In?
Today’s Nice Price or No Dice F-150 was dubbed the “Bullnose” for the way its grille cants into the hood. This one also happens to be the model’s fanciest edition. Let’s see if that makes its price a deal, or if it’s just a load of bull.
The general consensus in the comments for last Friday’s 2001 Mercedes-Benz CLK 430 with a touch of AMG was… meh. For whatever reason, that seems to almost always be the response CLKs engender. At just $2,900, however, our V8-powered convertible edition piqued enough interest to pick up a solid 77 percent Nice Price win. That proves just that Black Friday deals can be had.
Speaking of deals, have you ever stopped and asked yourself “what’s the deal with luxury pickup trucks?” They’re supposed to be built for work, not for a night on the town and two tickets to La bohème. Despite that seemingly incongruous dichotomy, trucks today can be had with pretty much every luxury accessory imaginable while still being able to flex at the job site or when called upon to tow a few tons. And we can trace much of the luxury part of the pickup experience back to the Ford F-150 XLT Lariat of the mid-1980s.
Here we have just such an example of that two-year-only luxury Lariat, a 1986 F-150 XLT with the top of the line packaging. What exactly did checking the Lariat option box get you? Well, this truck sports an extra fancy interior—or at least what Ford imagined that to be in the ’80s—including plush velour upholstery on both the bench seat and the door cards, as well as full carpeting with extra sound-deadening beneath, a dashboard resplendent in faux wood trim. Added to that was power windows and door locks, both previously unheard of extravagances in a pickup.
G/O Media may get a commission
The engine is also pretty fancy for a truck. The 5.0 V8 underhood here sports Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI), a first on the Ford truckline and an important enough feature to earn its own body-side badge. Not only did the F.I. impreove driveablity over the carbureted edition, but it also bumped the two-barrel-equipped engine’s 133 horsepower to a more respectable 190 horses.
Backing that up is a four-speed Ford AOD automatic driving the leaf-sprung rear axle. The front suspension is comprised of Ford’s unique twin-I Beam independent setup, which will save money on camber adjustments since none are possible.
According to the ad, the truck sports a clean title and just 85,500 miles on the odo. The paint is monotone brown over the standard cab/fleetside bodywork. That’s all offset by a set of handsome (and reasonably rare) factory alloy wheels.
The pictures in the ad show off the truck’s best face, although, upon closer inspection in the linked gallery, there are quite a few boogers on this baby. None of those seems too egregious, and the seller’s declaration of there being no major rust seems borne out in the under-side pics.
Of course, where the Lariat really shines (or, perhaps, coddles) is in the cabin, and this one looks to be in great condition. Everything appears clean and showing only minimal wear. The only significant snafu here might be the radio which looks like it was bought for $29.99 from Pep Boys. An era-correct Ford-Philco unit would be a nice change-out.
Other plusses noted in the ad include some undetailed recent mechanical work and Pennsylvania State safety inspection tags for the last two years. According to the seller, the truck was outside of Pennsylvania before that, and the paperwork shown in the gallery indicates this may have originally been a California truck. That could help explain why it’s reasonably rust-free.
Could buying it be reasonably hassle-free as well? We’ll just have to see about that.
The asking price is $14,999 which the seller has recently reduced from $16,299. What do you say about that price drop? Was that enough considering the truck’s condition and kit? Or, will the seller need to keep dropping before they’ll lasso in a buyer?
You decide!
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at rob@jalopnik.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.
