This owner worried about excessive depreciation but was also unhappy with the Lightning's software and charging challenges.
Why would someone sell a brand-new all-electric truck after covering just 7,000 miles in it during six months?
Well, everyone has their reasons and the ownership experience is not the same for every individual, but this particular 2023 F-150 Lightning Lariat owner – Jed from the Jetters Garage YouTube channel – had four main reasons that made him sell it so soon.
First, it’s worth noting that he bought the truck new for approximately $88,000 before taxes, so it’s understandable he had great expectations about it.
While he liked how the electric pickup drives and the fact it is very roomy and luxurious for a truck, there were several things that cast a shadow on his ownership experience.
For starters, Jed was worried about the depreciation. He had his pristine-condition truck appraised by CarMax and was offered only $68,000, something that really got him thinking. He then approached the Ford dealership that sold him the truck, and they offered him $74,000.
Unsatisfied with that offer, he put the Lightning up for sale online and sold it two weeks later for $80,000. While he still lost money on it, Jed saw it as a fair price. But fears about depreciation were only one of four key reasons he decided to sell the truck.
The second was ease of travel, or more specifically, charging challenges. Jed says in the video that he often had difficulty charging the vehicle on his drives outside the city and finding fast chargers that worked and weren’t backed up with people waiting to charge.
The third main reason for which he sold the Lightning was the vehicle software, more specifically the experience with the app, which he describes as “very clunky” since it was not designed from the outset for an electric vehicle.
He also had a beef with the main interface, which he says it’s not very user friendly despite Ford recently updating it to the latest Sync 4 version. Jed complains about poor phone call quality and the fact the interface does not default back to the map when driving, among other things.
Finally, he says that while initially Ford reached out to him and said he would be included in a test group, encouraging him to provide feedback to improve the user interface, none of that happened.
This made him think that Ford wasn’t really going to put in effort to work through some of the infotainment system’s bugs and improve the product. Jed says he has a reservation for a Chevrolet Silverado EV but doesn’t rule out buying Ford again if the Blue Oval improves its battery-powered truck.
There’s a lot more in the video – including some limitations that prevented him to use the truck to its full potential – so make sure you watch it. Bear in mind though that this is one person’s experience and obviously cannot be extrapolated to the entire F-150 Lightning customer base.
Source: Jetters Garage (YouTube)
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Keyword: Ford F-150 Lightning Owner Explains Why He Sold It After 6 Months