This is no ordinary F-150 Raptor, but this price tag is ludicrous.
Would you pay a nearly a quarter of a million dollars for an F-150 Raptor?
It’s no secret that some dealerships mark up hotly anticipated new models. We covered that last year, actually, with the Ford F-150 Raptor. The Raptor is hugely popular, and that made it nearly impossible to find one at sticker price. When we looked into it in March of last year, we found that dealers in the Denver area were charging anywhere from $3,500 to $15,000 over MSRP. Now, the 2018 Ford F-150 Raptor starts around $50,000, but by the time you spec one out, you’re easily looking at $70,000. On that basis, even a comparatively modest markup of $5,000 hurts the old wallet – especially since you’re already paying a lot for the truck.
As it turns out, that sort of markup is nothing. This Raptor for sale in California has a bit of a higher markup than that. Of course, this is no ordinary Raptor – it’s been breathed on by Shelby American. This is the Baja Raptor. They’ve taken the already hardcore Raptor and made it even more extreme. Pushing the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 out to 525 horsepower from 450 and 610 lb-ft of torque from 510, you’d expect this beast to perform. And thanks to a tune, cold air intake and a performance intercooler, you wouldn’t be wrong. But that’s not where the changes end. Shelby also bestowed the Raptor with custom bumpers, a chase rack, and LED lights everywhere, not to mention embroidered leather seats and distinct badging inside and out.
Wait, they’re asking how much!?
We know it’s a different sort of animal, but the markup on this truck is a bit extreme. Are you ready? This truck is listed for $227,000. A TFLtruck reader, master technician, and avid F-150 fan alerted us to this truck at a Ford dealership in Chino Hills, and he had the same reaction we did. The dealership is marking up this truck by $110,000 on top of a $116,000 asking price. We confirmed that price with the dealer’s sales team. Again, this is a special truck, but that’s a big ask nonetheless.
This sort of price hike begs the question of whether manufacturers should step in. This is a Ford franchise dealer, and while markups are nothing new, nearly doubling the price of the truck does not cater to the interest of the customers. It’s certainly not the only case where dealers have marked up their vehicles, but this leads us to believe someone should think twice about what they’re asking from their potential customers. We think that will likely happen if this truck sits for awhile and doesn’t sell. Would you even consider paying that sort of price for any truck, let alone a Baja Raptor?
Come back to TFLtruck.com for more news, views, and real-world reviews, including our take on the new F-150 Raptor against a standard F-150:
