✅ 5/23 Lightning Build Week Group

[BeeLightning]

Just tried Driveway.com and they were pretty low compared to CarMax..

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[gorwell]

Yup, a bunch of these pop up car wholesalers will close shop in the next 24 months.

Just note that Driveway is Lithia Motors. They are the nations 3rd biggest dealership group.

Pretty sure their employees are likely just random people at random dealerships w/ nothing to do

I sold to them and it took a good month for them to pick up the car. But, it was the best price... And since they were so swamped with processing sales, they never even came to look at my car before paying me

 

[LightningShow]

Just note that Driveway is Lithia Motors. They are the nations 3rd biggest dealership group.

Pretty sure their employees are likely just random people at random dealerships w/ nothing to do

I sold to them and it took a good month for them to pick up the car. But, it was the best price... And since they were so swamped with processing sales, they never even came to look at my car before paying me

Hmmm…maybe i should take that offer….

 

[gorwell]

Hmmm…maybe i should take that offer….

If it's by far the best offer and you have time for them to eventually come pick it up., I would go with it.

Through my research, I never heard anything particularly bad about them (like I've heard from Shift / Vroom), but universally they take forever and have poor communication on what the status is. I did also sell a car to shift and didn't have issues (but they have a location near me and I did it all in one day).

Someone from a Mercedes dealership that is owned by Lithia eventually came and picked up my car.

If they are close to Carvana, I would just use Carvana -- it's a much more seamless process.

 

[jmrdmd]

The Eagle has landed!

I saw that the United Road Status changed yesterday morning to in transit so I began my obsessive tracking.
I called the dealership and told them it was coming. It arrived early afternoon and I picked it up at 6PM.
My dealer was awesome(Causeway Ford Manahawkin NJ)...MSRP as promised, fair price on my trade (2018 F150 Limited), no upselling nonsense.

The truck look better in person. Drove great. No issues thus far. I charged it on my Porsche Taycan charger last night without issue..Plug and charge. You'll see below the charge and mileage for a "full tank"

Tomorrow I'll be installing the Retrax MX Pro Tonneau cover and AMP Research Power Steps.

Thanks to everyone in the group for the invaluable research, guidance and camaraderie!

Best

Jan

 

[LightningShow]

The truck looks great, Jan!

My dealer was good, as well. I let them try to match the credit union financing but they couldn’t come close. The rate they got was 6.09% for the same loan that the CU gave me at 3.24%. They didn’t try to push it at all. They had one $1800 appearance package, essentially a ceramic coat and some paint warranty or somesuch. They put it on the initial invoice but told me it was optional right up front. They didn’t fuss about removing it. No hard sell on the warranty. Overall good experience.

The sales guy didn’t know much of anything about the FCSP. I told him i thought i was supposed to sign something but he didn’t have anything in his system for it. I believe this is the first ER truck they’ve sold. They’ve had a few SRs. I still don’t know if i need anything from them about the charger.

I’m picking up this afternoon. You can’t do same day pickup in MA because of all the hoops MA makes you jump through. It’s probably possible but they make it hard to do.

Now i need to decide where I’m driving it this weekend!

 

[Cape Breton Lightning]

Cape Breton Lightning

I'm away this week, and of course
My Lightning arrives at Dealer, and I have couple days next week not able to pick her up due to job issues.
However Dealer did call for permission to post pictures and informed that he would ensure that outside is NOT detailed and even going to leave any plastic coverings on the inside as well !!!
So I will give credit to My Dealer for the courtesy shown to me so far !!!

 

[LightningShow]

The sales guy approved my ford pass activation when we were in the truck yesterday. It’s so comforting seeing all of my truck’s data in the app.

 

[CRAIGC540]

Man, I should ask my dealer not clean as well. I've been worrying about how im going to take care of this black as soon as i selected the color.

So why is the dealer wash so bad?
Are they washing it with a wet bag of rocks??

 

[ericpullen]

The Eagle has landed!

I saw that the United Road Status changed yesterday morning to in transit so I began my obsessive tracking.
I called the dealership and told them it was coming. It arrived early afternoon and I picked it up at 6PM.
My dealer was awesome(Causeway Ford Manahawkin NJ)...MSRP as promised, fair price on my trade (2018 F150 Limited), no upselling nonsense.

The truck look better in person. Drove great. No issues thus far. I charged it on my Porsche Taycan charger last night without issue..Plug and charge. You'll see below the charge and mileage for a "full tank"

Tomorrow I'll be installing the Retrax MX Pro Tonneau cover and AMP Research Power Steps.

Thanks to everyone in the group for the invaluable research, guidance and camaraderie!

Best

Jan

So glad you got your truck Jan! Looks like we have 5/23 twins.

 

[jmrdmd]

So why is the dealer wash so bad?
Are they washing it with a wet bag of rocks??

The answer is it depends how OCD that you are. LOL

The dealers are not detailers. They are going to get their products cleaned as quickly as possible. Bag of rocks, no…bucket and brush yes.

For most people that have never hand washed their vehicles, that is perfect.

I did have my dealer wash my platinum in case there were any dings or scratches as it’s been sitting and being moved around. It looks nice. That being said, now that I have it it will get a decon wash, iron removal, clay bar treatment, paint correction, and ceramic coating.

See what I mean…OCD

 

[Oneand0]

Okay! Now it’s landed. Officially at dealer according to GPS. That truck driver must have hit accept when he saw the prompt on the screen on his last stop. Going to wait for the call from dealer and get my Tesla over to CarMax. I wonder if Ford would accept a signed check from CarMax, plus cash?

 

[CRAIGC540]

The answer is it depends how OCD that you are. LOL

The dealers are not detailers. They are going to get their products cleaned as quickly as possible. Bag of rocks, no…bucket and brush yes.

For most people that have never hand washed their vehicles, that is perfect.

I did have my dealer wash my platinum in case there were any dings or scratches as it’s been sitting and being moved around. It looks nice. That being said, now that I have it it will get a decon wash, iron removal, clay bar treatment, paint correction, and ceramic coating.

See what I mean…OCD

OCD that's not me.. I have star white coming so how bad can they damage that. My truck will get hand wash when it looks dirty and car washed when it's to hot or I'm lazy.

 

[jazzmanmonty]

Hmmm…maybe i should take that offer….

Check carlotz.com if u have one by you. They gave me 3k more than anyone a couple weeks ago.

 

[GDN]

So why is the dealer wash so bad?
Are they washing it with a wet bag of rocks??

Basically yes. If you've ever looked at a black or dark colored vehicle and have seen all of the spider webs in the paint and basically anything else that doesn't reflect like a mirror, that is from the brushes at the car washes (this is what most dealers have) and bad car washes in general

Now let's take a step back in time and realize that 98% of the people that buy a car, don't really seem to care, and I'm perfectly fine with that and they have no problem with the dealer car washes.

However, if you want to try and maintain that shine and that look, it is pretty easy to do with fairly new products on the market like quartz and ceramic coatings. They can be expensive, but also very cheap when you do them yourself. They are very easy to do on a new car with NO scratches and very clean paint. You still want to clay bar and give it a light polish to remove any marks, then add the coating.

If you do that and then still give it careful baths and stay away from the bush car washes - that paint will look as good as new in even 3 to 4 years, and it will bead water like you waxed it yesterday.

So, take care of it good from day 1 and in years to come you'll smile looking at it just like you did day 1.

If you don't care and you use it hard and you know it's truly just a truck, there is truly nothing wrong with a dealer car wash.

I love that mirror look for years to come and I'm lucky my vehicles have pretty easy lives.

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