Why I traded in my Expedition….for Another Expedition

written by Samantha Stuenzi

 As my husband and I approached our baby years, we knew we would need a larger vehicle. We decided on the big boy family hauler, a 2015 Ford Expedition EL XLT. HOLY. SMOKES. The cargo space was insane, it was fun and easy to drive, and we were able to tow a small car trailer as needed. But there were some nicer features I was missing, we were racking up the miles, and I had fallen in love with the redesigned body of the 2018 model year Expeditions so the shopping began in early Fall 2020.

Our first stop was at our local dealership to see a new Expedition in person to confirm that it would fit our family and our needs. We were able to see a couple different trim levels and quickly realized that the features I really wanted (heated steering wheel, memory driver’s seat, leather, and power tailgate) were actually available on the lower trim levels. This helped narrow the search quite a bit.

Since we were looking at buying used, the shopping process took some time and extra effort. I was checking dealer websites and Auto Trader a couple times per week in a pretty large radius, not so patiently waiting for the right vehicle to pop up. On top of the features I wanted, our “perfect” Expedition also needed to have the Heavy Duty Tow package, four-wheel drive, and of course had to fit in our budget. Finally, on a Friday evening in December, there it was in my search, a recently reduced price on a Certified Pre-Owned 2019 Expedition XLT with 16,000 miles and everything on my checklist, 107 miles away. 

After double checking our car seat installation and loading up the stroller, we sat down to hash out the details of financing. This wasn’t my first rodeo, so I used Kelley Blue Book to find my trade in value beforehand. We were able to bring our the trade in offer up and even got the price of the 2019 Expedition down a bit more. Rubber floor mats are a requirement for us, so we negotiated them into the deal, too. 

If I could go back and do it over again, there isn’t anything I would change. All of the best parts of the 2015 Expedition combined with the upgrades we got with the 2019 gave us the ultimate family vehicle. Now, I just need to convince my husband that we need to add some cool new wheels, wish me luck!