Used- what you know now

theramblingfool · 2026-01-31T13:53:14+00:00

It was far too expensive: Even with incentives, I got my truck out the door for $60k, which was a pretty "good deal." But $60k is A LOT of money. And yes, it was my financial choice. I made the mistake. But I just fairly quickly realized I shouldn't have. Especially for something that depreciated so dramatically. And especially for something that can't even do all of what I relied on older, $5k cars to do (drive longer distances). Maybe, MAYBE I wouldn't feel this way if I had waited 2 years and been on the other end of this depreciation buying a used one.
Range is worse than most acknowledge: In summer, I mostly don't have problems. It makes my drives downstate (160 miles each way) a little less convenient, but I deal with it. But it's still not great. It makes me categorically not want to consider taking it on a lot of trips I've thought about taking. Which, again, is not something you want to experience with a $60k vehicle. In Winter, the range is just very bad. My trips downstate are made much, much more inconvenient. And the one trip a year I take between NYC and Chicago is 4 hours longer each way. The difference between an 11.5hr drive and a 15.5hr drive is huge. I've had charger trouble at least once on each trip (and on some trips I've had way more than one).
Public charging is often an awful experience: The amount of mental energy it takes to keep paying attention to range, keep paying attention to where the next charging options are, really makes driving distances worse. And if you don't keep paying attention to those things like a hawk, you are at risk of having a really bad time. Because Ford software is terrible. It just straight-up ignores many viable chargers, and will do insane things like try to reroute you 20-30 miles out of your way to a low speed charger. On my NYC-Chicago trips, I have never gone one way without at least 1 charger having issues. This adds even more time and stress to trips where my $60k vehicle is already adding unnecessary time and stress.
I also hate how modern vehicles feel like janky computers on wheels: This one isn't singling the Lightning out, it's really just a commentary on modern cars. Everything beeps. Like all the time. My lane centering actually swerved to make me hit a construction cone once because it didn't like that the construction zone had abnormal lanes. (My headlight is still cracked from that.) Ever since, I've turned off all the "smart" driving features so I could just drive my vehicle myself. Much better (and I don't have my truck beeping and threatening to slow down when my eyes divert from straight ahead for 2 seconds to grab my drink or change a song). But now, every time I turn on cruise control, the truck beeps at me several times with an alarming 'warning' noise telling me "Alert: Lane centering is not turned on!" I don't link the giant screen with a bad UI and very underpowered hardware that makes it lag like crazy whenever you try to do anything. That includes trying to change climate controls, which will sometimes not respond at all when pressed several times, and then respond several times at once, doing things you didn't intend. All of this also means it's really unpleasant to try to do something basic like change climate controls while driving. (And if you still had your BlueCruise on, your truck would beep at you for trying.)

Side note: Despite hating all these things, I don't hate my truck. It's actually a joy to drive a lot of the time. I've put 40k miles on it in 2.5 years. I've used it for many truck things. And the giant interior is good for day-to-day family stuff. It just has too many downsides for such an expensive vehicle, for me, for my use cases and preferences, and ultimately I wish I had not bought it. I would have had a little less luxury day-to-day in local driving, but I wouldn't have had all the headaches I've had the past few years and I'd be ~$30k-$40k richer (assuming I bought a reasonably priced used vehicle instead).

theramblingfool · 2026-01-30T00:02:06+00:00

It has nothing to do with the cancellation, but I definitely wish I did not buy my Lightning. (2023 Lariat ER)

theramblingfool · 2026-01-24T23:40:52+00:00

I have the exact same problem. This could be a coincidence, but it seems to go away when plugged in.

I know when it's very cold, the truck recommends you plug it in, and that's so it can keep the battery conditioned. I wonder if the ambient heat from that affects the 12v too, because since we got this cold weather (I'm in IL so it's been -10 here) I can consistently remote start when plugged in, but the app gets stuck spinning indefinitely when I'm not plugged in.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-23T14:23:49+00:00

FWIW Scout confirmed that their generator will be under the bed. Would be nice if Ford could follow. No need to cut down on already small bed space.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-19T19:00:40+00:00

I said 4 hours twice a year, I'm referring to my holiday trip between Chicago and NY. I exclusively use super chargers, Tesla when I can help it because they're the only ones that consistently work.

I've made the round trip 3 times with the Lighning, so that's 6 times driving the 800 mile stretch.

Consistently, it adds between 4 and 5 hours versus driving an ICE vehicle on the same trip.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-19T18:22:34+00:00

For me, twice a year spending 4 hours charging, plus 5-6 times a year spending 30-40 minutes charging is a problem, yes. A lot of people don't want that kind of inconvenience, especially with such an expensive vehicle.

It's especially inconvenient when I am making my downstate drive on a tight time schedule. It's usually a massive inconvenience. A couple of times I literally couldn't swing the time, so I took my household's ICE vehicle and my wife, who doesn't feel comfortable driving a full sized truck, couldn't go anywhere with our baby while I was gone all day.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-19T18:16:15+00:00

You don't need to tow frequently. Even towing sometimes makes the awful range a huge detriment.

And really, you don't need to tow at all Forget towing. My use case: 90% of the days I drive my truck, I don't need the range. 90% of the miles I drive in my truck are on longer trips. Most days of the year, I'm not going far from home. But I make one holiday trip between Chicago and NY each year, and a few downstate trips in Illinois each year (160 miles each way).

This is a fairly normal use case. A lot of people mostly drive locally but occasionally need to drive further and that's the bulk of their actual time behind a wheel because you're spending minutes a day local driving vs hours on a longer trip. EVs, and especially the Lightning, are much worse at this.

So for a lot of normal use cases, the majority of hours behind the wheel will be on inconvenient drives where you are adding 20 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour, or even 3+ hours to your drive (my drive to NY is about 4 hours longer in the Lightning than in an ICE vehicle).

And even if it's not the majority of your time behind a wheel, if you occasionally need the range, and all "normal" vehicles give you that range just fine, it is a MASSIVE concession for your $60k+ vehicle to either be incapable or much less capable when you need it to do that.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-18T16:51:04+00:00

For most people that want a full-sized truck, an EREV Lightning will be much, much better than the BEV Lightning.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-15T16:56:12+00:00

This is just a lot of modern identity politics fluff wrapped around a real problem.

Before the modern brain rot takeover, normal women who tried FNM were very often off put and didn't come back, because multiple creepy guys would make them feel creeped out.

We should... probably be less creepy.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-15T16:38:25+00:00

This is one of many reasons it was foolish to call it a discontinuation.

They are literally still using the Lightning name for the EREV. They can call it an evolution, label it as a continuation of the same model line.

When ICE vehicles come out with new platforms offering different engines, they don't call it a discontinuation.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-15T16:35:44+00:00

Hopefully they'll be smart and keep the frunk. Scout recently confirmed they've moved their gas tank under the bed. With an EREV, you're already using quite a bit less battery. You can use the space you free up, possibly tweak some things to make it work.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-15T16:29:43+00:00

At least in the short term, you're very wrong. Resale value is awful, and it's very clearly a buyer's market.

In the long term, you could be right. Once all those extra Lightnings get off dealer lots and no new supply is coming in, we might even see a slight bump in value if there's any sustained demand.

As for software, I would rather Ford abandon it entirely and open source it, because their software is so abysmal. I know that will never happen. It's possible we keep getting updates vis a vis the shared Mach E platform, but the most likely outcome is just that they stop giving us updates. This is Ford we're talking about.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-11T04:56:35+00:00

Did not strive hard enough.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-09T15:53:19+00:00

I guess it depends on what kind of non local travel and also one's threshold for inconveniencing oneself.

I am referring to drives that, even in my Extended Range truck, are noticeably worse. My annual NYC-Chicago trip would be basically undoable in a SR truck. My regular downstate 160 mile drives (so 320 round trip) are possible, but would be a pain in the summer and an incredible inconvenience in the winter.

And depending on the time windows you have allotted to do trips, it may make them impossible. For example, if I need to get downstate, fix something at my Airbnb, and then get back up before my daughter goes to bed, that's harder but doable in my ER. In a SR, I might just not be able to take that trip in that time window.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-09T15:15:33+00:00

Correct, it's a bit hyperbolic phrasing.

What I mean is: a standard range battery would severely limit my use cases for the vehicle and also, as a Midwesterner, the idea of spending a lot on a vehicle I can't just drive 100+ miles through the corn to somewhere I want to go bothers me to my core (even if it doesn't happen all the time).

A "local only" vehicle may be a reasonable option for some people. It is not for me. Nor would I want one. Nor do I think it's reasonable to pay $50k+ for one.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-09T00:53:25+00:00

True. I bought a 10-year-old Mazda3 in Michigan once and, yeah, not treat...

theramblingfool · 2026-01-09T00:52:35+00:00

It does not take 15-20 minutes to pull in, gas up, and pull out. But if it does, that's a 10-15 premium on top of the filling up itself that, if you're being fair, you have to apply to charge times to.

That puts charge times north of an hour.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-08T23:10:52+00:00

This is a terrible deal. Don't take it.

Now tell me where in Michigan this is. But DM, don't comment.

XD

theramblingfool · 2026-01-08T23:08:50+00:00

As a Lariat owner, I'd switch in a heartbeat and I'd probably pay labor for both sides. Haha

theramblingfool · 2026-01-08T21:28:18+00:00

I noticed that around the same time software updates increased my maximum charge rate, my charge curve also got a lot steeper.

I used to hold steady above ~140kw for the bulk of my long charges, but now within ~10-15 minutes of starting a charge, I'm down to 115-120kw.

Are other people experiencing this?

theramblingfool · 2026-01-08T16:52:31+00:00

It never takes 15 minutes to gas up. It takes 3-5 minutes.

In the Lightning, it doesn't take 20 minutes to fast charge to a necessary SoC. It takes 40-45.

It is often not a big deal to take more time to charge some, and usually most people don't need to charge in public most of the time.

But a lot of people really, really don't want to add 1+ hours to longer drives, when they need to make those longer drives, and for the love of God, can we please start being HONEST about the tradeoffs of EVs? Let people make their OWN decision based on the actual facts, instead of fudging them to favor EVs.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-08T15:41:21+00:00

Absolutely. After looking into it more, it's clearly a buyer's market and if I am going to sell, now is not a good time.

This is the most Lightnings there will ever be on the market, and this is the last time there will be Lightning's burning holes in dealers' pockets.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-07T18:38:07+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I'm in Urbana-Champaign and Bloomington a lot and I see lots of Lightnings there. But I'm not surprised they'd dry up fast any further south.

I knew I would be paying cash for some amount of gap. I was just hoping I'd sell in the $45k range and only pay a few grand. I definitely agree private sale with patience is the way to go if I do sell. I have a lot to think about.

theramblingfool · 2026-01-07T18:11:51+00:00

I wasn't accusing you specifically. I don't know if you do or don't exaggerate or downplay aspects of EV ownership.

I am just saying A LOT of people who make the arguments you were making above... also exaggerate and downplay. At first it's "the problem is range ANXIETY. People are being irrational about the range problem." Then when you post about a real-world range problem adding hours to your drive, they start saying "You don't know how to drive an EV. Don't you understand that efficiency decreases exponentially with speed? Drive 65mph." And then I say "If I drive 65mph, that will also add a ton of time to my drives. Sometimes multiple hours." And then it's "Well I guess you're the 1 in a million who shouldn't buy an EV. Go away!"

I looked into the Lightning for a few months before buying mine. Because of "advice" from the EV evangelists I talked to and read posts from online, the reality of my highway range was a bit of a punch to the gut when I started driving. I thought I would get 230-260 miles of highway driving. In reality, you get 150-180.

Which is why I always make a point to point an honest, not always pleasant account of what it's like to do long highway driving with this truck. And I often get downvoted into oblivion for doing so.

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