Fleet vehicles are pretty bare bones. I had a '71 Ford Custom 4 door sedan that was a fleet left over. It was puke yellow and had a 302 V8.

But talk about bare bones, my '77 F100 (see gallery) had manual steering, no power assist on the brakes, no air con, rubber mats, crank windows, and three-on-the-tree. Oh yeah, the clutch was totally mechanical--no hydraulics. You had to have a bit of muscle to work that truck. Ah, for the good old days. :-)

 

Having been in the car business (and I have NEVER done this) I know people take XLT tags (either new or used) and stick them on base models to dupe unsuspecting customers.

If you have a plain jane that says "xlt", you got taken. If you look under your seat on most late model trucks, you can find the factory build sheet.

 

just my 2 cents here..

now i didnt read every post so dont get annoyed if i dont comment about youres but what i have to say is..
i have both trucks listed below ..both with vinyl floor and cloth seat th ranger has no options other than auto tranny and the 150 has tilt, cruise, air ,and duel tanks...and my dad has an 88 150 2wd auto with vinyl seat and floor,and no options at all and all 3 of these vehicles are listed in the xl trim package group.so i think the package(xl,xlt,xlt lariat)doest change the seat and floor matierial,but may cover more less stereo and pwr windows and locks.etc...

 

XLT was a Package, they varied from year to year on what they had in them. The first couple of years on the full size trucks it was the all chrome package. As for Rangers it included the carpet and cloth seats, usually a stripe kit and aluminum wheels, upgraded Radio, headliner etc. I had a 90 XLT 2.3 5spd, ac, ps, pb anti lock rears, stripe delete, cloth split bench, carpet, headliner, delux door panels, chrome grill and bumpers as well as wheel well chrome, aluminum wheels and white letter tires. My brother bought a 91 w every available option, big six and all, he used to get pissed cause my 4 cyl would out top end his 6...macs

 

 

I used to work at a Ford Dealership 1999 to 2002 and I know from my experience there that it can be even more confusing.

You could get an XLT and order it with delete options, so there are possibly XLT trucks out there with no carpet, no AC, and no radios. and I have seen XL trucks ordered with cloth seats and carpet.

I know Ford has changed the rules a little and has bundled options together in packages so for newer stuff that might not hold true, but for stuff from before al least 2002 you had more flexibility about the options.

 

First XLT: 1970 / First Ranger: 1965 (1958 Edsel Ranger was the 2nd cheapest).

1970/72 Ranger XLT's had wide upper side mouldings with wood grain inserts, huge tailgate finish panel also wood grained.

1970/72 Rangers had the same mouldings, finish panel, but had painted black inserts.

1970/72 Sport Customs had narrow upper side mouldings, tailgate finish panel that only covered the FORD letters below it.

1970/72 Customs were bare boned strippers, had none of this jazz.

XLT's had cloth/vinyl seat, carpeting. Rangers, Sport Customs, Customs had all vinyl seat, rubber floor mat.

All optional: Styleside/Flareside beds, AM radio, AM/FM monaural radio, A/C, rear bumpers, 4 speed or A/T, 300 I-6, 360, 390, dual piston caliper PD/B (F250 2WD & F350 only), power drum brakes, P/S, R/S outside non remote mirror, R/L remote outside mirrors, Western mirrors.

 

Right on Bill. So what was it the XLT was meant to stand for?

 

I haven't a clue what XLT refers to. Haven't a clue what XL refers to in Galaxies, either.

 

Watch a few episodes of Mad Men and you'll get it.....

eXtra Large Truck.

Exultant.

Exalted.

It means it has a few items, bells, whistles etc and is not a stripper.

My '98 Exploder is XLT. Leather, tilt, cruise, air, AM-FM casette/cd, PDL, PW, PDS, running boards. I could find the window sticker if need be to determine what was "XLT" and what I paid more for.

The next one up in the Exploder and iirc the Bronco & Expedtion is the Eddie Bauer. More bells and whistles.

Then there was the "Limited". They made lots of those, how can that be?

Oh, one other thing: This thread is 10 years old.......

 

Doncha wish you were 10 years younger? I do.

When the Explorer was introduced it sold like hotcakes, dethroning the Jeep Grand Cherokee within a year that had been numero uno for decades.

When FoMoCo finally got around to offering a V8 (2nd generation, 302 initially), even more were sold.

Sales took a nose-dive after the Firestone tire debacle, Jeep regained the throne, still retains it.

New (current) Explorer really isn't new at all, it's basically a Ford Freestyle, which never sold worth a hoot. Freestyle name dropped, replaced by Taurus X, it didn't sell worth a hoot either.

So Ford dropped the Taurus X name, then made a few changes, the "new" Explorer was born. No more V8, I-4 or I-6 only, available with FWD or AWD.

Rented one (AWD) in Anchorage last month for 5 days. Ho-hum...it's OK, but I wouldn't want one. 2nd seat legroom with the front seats all the way back is so cramped, only Billy Barty sized peeps would be comfortable.

There was no indication anywhere it had AWD. I had to read the owners manual to figure out if it was, then how to operate it.

 

mine has a map light but no one has maps anymore!

 

Whiz over to your local AAA office, they have plenty of maps, free to members.

Book stores sell 'em, including Thomas Guides and for every foreign location including Antarctica.

 

Wow, a 10 year old thread revived! My interpretation from since I was a kid was Xtra-Luxurious-Truck! I have stuck with that since the XLT came with more options than the bare bones Custom!

 

i should have said 'no one uses maps anymore'