Ford email confirms F-150 Lightning orders starting at “beginning of the new year”

[Gary Gattis]

Gary - that will be awesome, 1000 miles or close to it will be huge!
Did you already picked out a color for your truck that you are already coming spring? In your hyper miling efforts, does color play any effect on mileage (thinking some colors are better at reflecting heat and affecting battery performance).
Looking forward to your posts…

The color matters with heat to the driver in hot weather because you may need to run the A/C or roll down the windows and reduce aerodynamics. The funny thing is I get up to 3mpg better when my FEH was real dirty and I lost the 3mpg when I washed and waxed it. It has to do with suction at the rear of the vehicle and a dirty vehicle breaks up the air going over the vehicle.

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[Pilot2022]

The color matters with heat to the driver in hot weather because you may need to run the A/C or roll down the windows and reduce aerodynamics. The funny thing is I get up to 3mpg better when my FEH was real dirty and I lost the 3mpg when I washed and waxed it. It has to do with suction at the rear of the vehicle and a dirty vehicle breaks up the air going over the vehicle.

appreciate the insights, makes sense.
What color did you go with on your truck? Did they give you a delivery date yet?

 

[Gary Gattis]

appreciate the insights, makes sense.
What color did you go with on your truck? Did they give you a delivery date yet?

If I get to order one, it will be the new white. I haven't seen the color but I usually get Platinum White or black.

 

[CoyoteJim]

If I get to order one, it will be the new white. I haven't seen the color but I usually get Platinum White or black.

Hey Gary, I found some info online about your hypermiling championship back in 2007. Sorry I didn't know about it, I didn't try hypermiling myself until I got a used Toyota Prius in 2015.

It sounds like you have a connection with Ford engineering through your hypermiling competitions...could be they are interested in getting you a Lightning to see what you could do with it. I can't imagine getting 1000 miles hypermiling the Lightning but I would defer to your judgement on that one. I look forward to hearing whatever results you get.

 

[Gary Gattis]

Hey Gary, I found some info online about your hypermiling championship back in 2007. Sorry I didn't know about it, I didn't try hypermiling myself until I got a used Toyota Prius in 2015.

It sounds like you have a connection with Ford engineering through your hypermiling competitions...could be they are interested in getting you a Lightning to see what you could do with it. I can't imagine getting 1000 miles hypermiling the Lightning but I would defer to your judgement on that one. I look forward to hearing whatever results you get.

Wayne Gerdes got 180mpg in a Honda in that competition, we were on "Good Morning America" that day lol.

 

[F150ROD]

Hey Gary, I found some info online about your hypermiling championship back in 2007. Sorry I didn't know about it, I didn't try hypermiling myself until I got a used Toyota Prius in 2015.

It sounds like you have a connection with Ford engineering through your hypermiling competitions...could be they are interested in getting you a Lightning to see what you could do with it. I can't imagine getting 1000 miles hypermiling the Lightning but I would defer to your judgement on that one. I look forward to hearing whatever results you get.

This makes a lot of sense. Gary will probably be the first one to get a Lightning on this site. My apologies Gary for doubting you. Good luck on your hypermiling.

 

[Gary Gattis]

Hey Gary, I found some info online about your hypermiling championship back in 2007. Sorry I didn't know about it, I didn't try hypermiling myself until I got a used Toyota Prius in 2015.

It sounds like you have a connection with Ford engineering through your hypermiling competitions...could be they are interested in getting you a Lightning to see what you could do with it. I can't imagine getting 1000 miles hypermiling the Lightning but I would defer to your judgement on that one. I look forward to hearing whatever results you get.

Also, the local News filmed me hypermiling in my '05 FEH when gas prices were high and played it over and over every time gas prices would go up. Every time I'd go to the dealership they said they just saw me on TV again lol. I must have got the Ford dealers happy because they treat me so well.

 

[techguydave]

Hey Gary, I found some info online about your hypermiling championship back in 2007. Sorry I didn't know about it, I didn't try hypermiling myself until I got a used Toyota Prius in 2015.

It sounds like you have a connection with Ford engineering through your hypermiling competitions...could be they are interested in getting you a Lightning to see what you could do with it. I can't imagine getting 1000 miles hypermiling the Lightning but I would defer to your judgement on that one. I look forward to hearing whatever results you get.

This seems to explain it all, then. An insider connection could actually allow him to get the truck without a reservation then, just like some media people will likely have one without waiting in line.

 

[astricklin]

This makes a lot of sense. Gary will probably be the first one to get a Lightning in this site. My apologies Gary for doubting you. Good luck on your hypermiling.

This is the sort of crap that makes me mad. No offense to Gary, but if Ford delivers a vehicle to someone that doesn't even have a reservation before hundreds of thousands of reservation holders that is just crap. I know there's lots of fine print with the reservation but honestly, why even have reservations. Just ship trucks to dealers and have people wait in line like at best buy on black Friday.
I know there's production scheduling and logistics and dealer allocation, but Ford can still pretty much just go down the list in order of timestamps but they chose not to. They chose to let dealerships prioritize customers and play all these little games to screw the people who got in line early and just want to get their truck.

 

[Gary Gattis]

This seems to explain it all, then. An insider connection could actually allow him to get the truck without a reservation then, just like some media people will likely have one without waiting in line.

I don't have an inside connection but I try to be a good customer. The dealers operate by selling and servicing Fords and that's what I need. I'm trying to get a Lightning like everybody here. I keep on good terms with the dealer employees because I need their help all the time and they help me buy and keep my cars running. Nothing is certain.

 

[F150ROD]

This is the sort of crap that makes me mad. No offense to Gary, but if Ford delivers a vehicle to someone that doesn't even have a reservation before hundreds of thousands of reservation holders that is just crap. I know there's lots of fine print with the reservation but honestly, why even have reservations. Just ship trucks to dealers and have people wait in line like at best buy on black Friday.
I know there's production scheduling and logistics and dealer allocation, but Ford can still pretty much just go down the list in order of timestamps but they chose not to. They chose to let dealerships prioritize customers and play all these little games to screw the people who got in line early and just want to get their truck.

I mean to me from a marketing stand point it makes sense. Gary being able to achieve high mileage hypermiling will give Ford Big Headlines.

Unfortunately, Gary won’t be the only one getting one first. Be prepared to watch Social Media Stars roll around in Lightnings months before we get a hold of ours. I’m rooting for Gary though.

 

[Gary Gattis]

I mean to me from a marketing stand point it makes sense. Gary being able to achieve high mileage hypermiling will give Ford Big Headlines.

Unfortunately, Gary won’t be the only one getting one first. Be prepared to watch Social Media Stars roll around in Lightnings months before we get a hold of ours. I’m rooting for Gary though.

I can't wait to try some of my techniques on the Lightning. I learned some of my techniques from the Ford patents when I was learning about the motor transaxle and how it works. I found out how to supercharge the traction battery so the cells all balance for a 100% charge. I turn off regen for a longer glide without reducing speed when I can. I learned how to glide a car with no power for the longest coasting and use regen only when I need to stop. If I need to get a plug-in charge and know how far it is, I know I can adjusting my driving to make it most of the time. I think I'm ready to go all electric with a Ford Lightning and share what I find!

 

[techguydave]

I don't have an inside connection but I try to be a good customer. The dealers operate by selling and servicing Fords and that's what I need. I'm trying to get a Lightning like everybody here. I keep on good terms with the dealer employees because I need their help all the time and they help me buy and keep my cars running. Nothing is certain.

That's confusing, then. You're not trying to get a Lightning like us. We put in a reservation on Ford.com from May-December. If you didn't do that, your dealer either knows something about receiving lot stock that we're not aware of, or they did/will do something really shady to make a truck available for you.

Or, the third option, is they're lying to you or straight up blowing smoke up your butt.

 

[Gary Gattis]

That's confusing, then. You're not trying to get a Lightning like us. We put in a reservation on Ford.com from May-December. If you didn't do that, your dealer either knows something about receiving lot stock that we're not aware of, or they did/will do something really shady to make a truck available for you.

Or, the third option, is they're lying to you or straight up blowing smoke up your butt.

For the last time I reserved a Lightning in September with my dealer not the internet. I don't think anyone had gone to my dealer to inquire or reserve one up until that time. I made every effort to have my dealer reserve me one to order and I didn't want to confuse the system by trying to reserve another one on line. Ford was saying work with a dealer to place an order so that is what I did.

 

[EVTruckGuy]

For the last time I reserved a Lightning in September with my dealer not the internet. I don't think anyone had gone to my dealer to inquire or reserve one up until that time. I made every effort to have my dealer reserve me one to order and I didn't want to confuse the system by trying to reserve another one on line. Ford was saying work with a dealer to place an order so that is what I did.

No.. That's not what Ford said at all. I'm not even sure you realize what we mean by "reservation."

Not only did Ford NOT tell you that's how to reserve a Lightning... Ford said the opposite. Ford said the ONLY way to make a reservation was using the online Ford reservation system. Dealers cannot make reservations for the Lightning. There is no system in place in which a dealer can make a reservation for a customer without breaking the rules of the system put in place by Ford. You have no reservation if you did not make it with Ford.

Dealers only come into play in this process when it comes time to convert the reservation to an order, which is determined by Ford, not the dealer. Ford must send you an invite before you can place an order. If you didn't ever make a reservation with Ford, you aren't in their que to receive an order invite.

Whatever your salesman told you is in direct contradiction to what Ford, and everyone else for that matter, has told you about how to reserve a Lightning. Since you did NOT reserve a Lightning with your dealer (since that's not really possible), your dealer is BSing you or is planning to somehow cheat the system.

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