TTT
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We didn't buy our Lariat last weekend planning to flip it, but we've made the decision to sell it in a week or two to a local dealer for about what we paid for it, with regret...
Last year when we got confirmation that GM was going to buy back my Bolt I ordered a Mach E and a Lighting (eventually to be a Lariat) as potential replacements, not sure which would come in first or what would be a better fit. We knew we would be moving across town in '22 and the truck would be a great help, but that it was likely the Mach E would come in first.
We were able to spend last fall sharing a car as I tend to travel a lot for work, especially in the fall, and hoped that one of the vehicles would come in early in 22. No dice. Finally, We had to move into the new house and picked up a Maverick locally, moved, and continued to wait. By may the Mach E finally arrived and I loved it. No question. We considered getting the deposit back on the Lightning because it didn't have a build date yet but my father-in-law really wanted the Maverick and couldn't find one so we promised that to him as my wife was pretty excited about the Lightning. The size difference was something we thought about but with the 360 cameras,
we figured no problem. By the time the Lariat was on its way to us early this month we took the trusty Maverick down to Long Beach and shipped it off to my father in Law on Oahu and waited for the Lighting, which arrived last weekend.
We were still careful. My wife had driven another F150, we checked out the cameras and were cool with everything so we signed and brought it home. Turns out our first mistake was we paid for it outright and didn't finance any of it - but we didn't know what was to come. I knew it was going to be a tight fit in the garage, but we only have 1.5" of extra space once the truck is in to divide between the front and the rear in order to fit it in and close the door. This has turned out to be a bigger deal than expected. I've tried putting a chart on the wall in front of where the camera is, the tennis ball, but when push comes to shove putting the truck in the garage has just boiled down to a 2 person exercise where I must drive the truck in while my wife acts as tarmac spotter talking me down the last four inches manually. She won't do it and I can't do it myself in less than a few minutes without getting out and looking and moving it a half inch at a time which is not easy in this vehicle. In past vehicles, I could get out, see how many more inches I wanted to move and hang my foot out the driver's door and watch my shoe move along the textured epoxy flakes that exact amount, but in the truck my leg is 3' too short. Once its parked, the garage has to be opened again to get to anything else in the garage which is on the far side of the truck. No, we can't put it in the driveway, the new house doesn't have a driveway...
After doing it for a week, we made the rounds and showed the truck to a couple local dealers and will be taking an offer from one of them. If we had meant to flip it we would have done things differently. One dealer scoled us thinking we were flippers and advised us that we should have purchased as a Montana corporation to avoid sales tax, and if you want to turn a vehicle around quickly I guess you should actually finance part of it through Ford Motor Credit or something. Its a lot faster for a dealer to simply call them and verify that they hold the lein, and what the payoff is - they can get a title in a few days with that but now in CA, because I paid cash I have to wait basically until the title comes in before I can actually transfer it to the dealer.
I did check with the dealer we purchased from, but the salesman advised me they were not paying top dollar - he did bless the deal the other dealer made as sounding fair for a dealer trade in. I'm not looking at doing any sort of Craigslist drama.
So there is my (A) Cautionary Tale, or (B) Episide of Stupidity on Display for all to See. There will, pretty soon be a perfect Lightning Lariat available in Santa Clarita looking for a forever home. We will look for another hybrid Mavrick and remember that these are all first world problems.
Unless there is a setting on that giant screen to suck the length down by 14"? Didn't think so...
Last year when we got confirmation that GM was going to buy back my Bolt I ordered a Mach E and a Lighting (eventually to be a Lariat) as potential replacements, not sure which would come in first or what would be a better fit. We knew we would be moving across town in '22 and the truck would be a great help, but that it was likely the Mach E would come in first.
We were able to spend last fall sharing a car as I tend to travel a lot for work, especially in the fall, and hoped that one of the vehicles would come in early in 22. No dice. Finally, We had to move into the new house and picked up a Maverick locally, moved, and continued to wait. By may the Mach E finally arrived and I loved it. No question. We considered getting the deposit back on the Lightning because it didn't have a build date yet but my father-in-law really wanted the Maverick and couldn't find one so we promised that to him as my wife was pretty excited about the Lightning. The size difference was something we thought about but with the 360 cameras,
we figured no problem. By the time the Lariat was on its way to us early this month we took the trusty Maverick down to Long Beach and shipped it off to my father in Law on Oahu and waited for the Lighting, which arrived last weekend.
We were still careful. My wife had driven another F150, we checked out the cameras and were cool with everything so we signed and brought it home. Turns out our first mistake was we paid for it outright and didn't finance any of it - but we didn't know what was to come. I knew it was going to be a tight fit in the garage, but we only have 1.5" of extra space once the truck is in to divide between the front and the rear in order to fit it in and close the door. This has turned out to be a bigger deal than expected. I've tried putting a chart on the wall in front of where the camera is, the tennis ball, but when push comes to shove putting the truck in the garage has just boiled down to a 2 person exercise where I must drive the truck in while my wife acts as tarmac spotter talking me down the last four inches manually. She won't do it and I can't do it myself in less than a few minutes without getting out and looking and moving it a half inch at a time which is not easy in this vehicle. In past vehicles, I could get out, see how many more inches I wanted to move and hang my foot out the driver's door and watch my shoe move along the textured epoxy flakes that exact amount, but in the truck my leg is 3' too short. Once its parked, the garage has to be opened again to get to anything else in the garage which is on the far side of the truck. No, we can't put it in the driveway, the new house doesn't have a driveway...
After doing it for a week, we made the rounds and showed the truck to a couple local dealers and will be taking an offer from one of them. If we had meant to flip it we would have done things differently. One dealer scoled us thinking we were flippers and advised us that we should have purchased as a Montana corporation to avoid sales tax, and if you want to turn a vehicle around quickly I guess you should actually finance part of it through Ford Motor Credit or something. Its a lot faster for a dealer to simply call them and verify that they hold the lein, and what the payoff is - they can get a title in a few days with that but now in CA, because I paid cash I have to wait basically until the title comes in before I can actually transfer it to the dealer.
I did check with the dealer we purchased from, but the salesman advised me they were not paying top dollar - he did bless the deal the other dealer made as sounding fair for a dealer trade in. I'm not looking at doing any sort of Craigslist drama.
So there is my (A) Cautionary Tale, or (B) Episide of Stupidity on Display for all to See. There will, pretty soon be a perfect Lightning Lariat available in Santa Clarita looking for a forever home. We will look for another hybrid Mavrick and remember that these are all first world problems.
Unless there is a setting on that giant screen to suck the length down by 14"? Didn't think so...
