Tesla Owner with a 2023 Ford Lightning XLT Long Range (Impressions/Review)

[transmutated]

Hello new friends, recently bought up a Lightning cause I really want a truck and not interesting in this first edition Cybertruck or any $100k truck honestly I scooped up a used XLT Lightning with 11k miles on it for doing truck stuff mostly. My wife and I both have Model Ys and love them as we go into our 4th year of EV ownership. Even with the tow hitch, I've struggled to make the best use of it because I don't wanna rent a trailer every time i need one and while the storage in the Y is great for boards...it's hard to move sheets around. So I'm living my biggest truck dreams with this used truck. Wanted to give my hot takes coming from Tesla land and lean on the community for any work arounds to the issues I may be having.

On the second day of owning the truck, I rented a uhaul trailer and helped move a storage unit for my parents which was 2 hours each way with a 6X12 covered trailer and driving at a constant 65 got 1.4 mpkwh loaded and 1.5 mpkwh unloaded

So the things I don't like first:

• The screen is actually nice in the XLT, but the void of third party apps like we have on the Tesla is shameful. No entertainment while charging or chilling in the ride is really weird. Beautiful screen...with super limited functionality. Entertainment is standard on ALL teslas.
• No phone as key as a standard option. It's not even an option unless you get Lariat with some extra trim level. Again, standard on all Teslas. This seems really weird to put behind a trim and model barrier.
• If you have 1 key, which is all my truck came with, don't add mykey...and try to remove it. OOF. Apparently I don't have the "admin key"? Who knows. I would have expected that to be requisit to add mykey but now I've limited what all my truck can do to the default profile? I don't know. Would love some community help here or else I'm bringing the truck to the dealership to get a new fob and remove the mykey nonsense.
• Route planning is stressful with the Ford interface. I can easily enough create a route, but I have no idea what % of battery I will have when I arrive at a charging station. Perhaps it is, but I'm just not used to the interface? On the dash, it shows how much range I have left and how far away I am from my destination...is that my final destination or the charging stop? I didn't pay enough attention I suppose because my charging stop was at my destionation effectively. It just wasn't immediately clear.
• After the truck was dropped off since it was delivered from out of state, my wife promptly sat in the truck and started pushing buttons She found the button that stows the gear shifter and pressed it a few times. Needless to say, it got stuck in park. It was this forum that some one recommended buying a 10mm wrench and keeping that in the frunk to disconnect the 12v battery and reconnecting it, which in fact did the trick. Thanks for that lil nugget of information because that fixed this. Will never touch that button again
• Didn't realize that bluecruise is a feature of higher trims. I wasn't buying the truck for smart features, but while road tripping with the trailer, it would have been nice to flip on auto pilot and roll. But I don't have the million dollar truck so I'm left holding the steering wheel like a peasent I suppose Autopilot is standard on all tesla models and is great for highway driving!

Things I don't like that are out of Ford's control, but guilty by association I suppose:

• Stopped and charged at my first ever Electrify America while I appreciated the trailer friendly pull through charger...it was a train wreck. The charger didn't work. I called them, they rebooted it, had me plug and unplug what seems like a dozen times when suddently it started working.
• Electrify America is expensive. Coming from Tesla land, high is over .40 kwh, .30something is typical. This charger was nearly .60 pkwh. OOF

Now for the awesome stuff:

• Towing was DREAMY over what I've done with the Model Y. Model Y was great and all, but the Lightning was champ. Wasn't sure what to expect concerning range, but the internet would have you believe I was going to tow 10 miles and be out of juice. I was happy with the range for the job I was doing and wasn't concerned with with my range.
• Super comfortable drive! Man this truck is smooth! Absolutely love driving it!
• APPLE CAR PLAY IS EXCELLENT! Tesla needs to stop playing games and make it happen.
• Can't wait to get my Tesla Supercharger adapter to use that network! This will ROCK. 4 years of charging my Tesla's while road tripping and I can count on 1 hand where I've had to wait for a charger to be open OR had a failed charger.

Workarounds I've got:

• I'm using a bluetooth obd device in conjuction with a better route planner + apple car play to DIY a smart trip planner that I've got some confidence in. The ford app didn't seem like it would tell me when I have a sufficient charge to carry on or anything like that. This more closely reproduces the intelligence that I've come to expect with Tesla and range calculations concerning weather, etc. I don't have a lot of confidence in whatever the ford app might be doing. Doing this setup with Apple Car Play is a great combo! Maybe I'm just doing Ford wrong? Am I missing anything?

This is where I am with the truck after owning it for 70 something hours and taking it on a good sized road trip with a trailer. The truck really is awesome. No regrets. I loved the used price, the smooth ride, and the range is better than expected. I find myself missing the standard features that I've come to expect from Tesla that are only available in higher trims on the Lightening...ie phone as key, lane keeping, bluecruise, etc. I'm sure some other stuff will come up as time goes on, but aside from the 12v problem concerning the shifter getting stuck in park, I'm really excited about the truck otherwise.

What are some recommendations from the community for new Lightening owner? I've got charging handled since we've got two Teslas already. But yeah, hunting for any other workarounds that other Tesla users have done or what everyone else thinks is useful. Thanks

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[GDN]

First - welcome to the forum. Second hit that edit button and fix the spelling of Lightning, your profile too. It's a small thing, but if you are going to drive it, we have to get it right. Third - a good many of us have Teslas in the garage and drove them first, and there is just very little to be able to fix that first list of things you don't like. Ford is old school and their mode is to screw you in the thousands for adding small add on's. That is one of the great things about Tesla with basically just one or two levels of trim. Ford will charge $20K for the $2K upgrades to get from one level of trim to another. It's one of the things that will eventually still take them down.

Navigation and changing is improving, the app truly has made huge strides, but still a long ways from being on par with Tesla.

If you plan on towing, don't plan on going very far very fast due to charging stops.

If you want to enjoy the truck, forget the things that you learned to love about Tesla. Accept that it is a good built truck that rides well from a company that knows tech like Windows 3.1. They claim the second gen truck will have it all put together, but you won't buy one of those for the price you paid and you probably won't be able to buy one for another 3 to 5 years period. Ford doesn't want to play the EV game, they are playing the profit game.

 

[transmutated]

Edited! That’s how new of an owner I am.

yeah, totally need to lean into what makes the ford awesome and look past the great things on the teslas.

 

[MyJoule]

We too own both a Tesla ( actually 2 Model S's, a 2014 and 2021) and a used Lightning. '22 bought 14 months ago with 6K miles. Our first trip was 72 hours after we bought it, 1600 miles and totally ignorant on just how bad the EA and EVgo charging experience would be. We'd been using Tesla Superchargers since they first were activated, and were so use to them just working, we figured, that would be the same with the other networks ... We weren't very smart a year ago. We completed the return trip and parked the Lightning for long trips until just last week when we were able to use an NACS-CCS adapter - While the Lightning doesn't charge as fast as the '21 Tesla, it worked well all the way from AZ-WA. The '14 Tesla supercharges slower than the Ford though.

You hit the nail on the head with respect to the Ford SW-We missed many of the features we got accustomed to in the Tesla when driving the Ford. I hope Ford takes a few more lessons from Tesla and incorporates things like Camp Mode into future OTA updates to the Lightning. I'd even be happy if Ford just paid Tesla and copied the Tesla SW into the Ford.

 

[ChrisInVegas]

We have a '23 Tesla MYLR and a '22 Lightning Lariat. The experience is very different between the two vehicles, but both have positives. I 100% agree that the Ford software is miles and miles behind Tesla, but Carplay makes a huge difference. Waze alone has saved me time and time again. Also... the ride in the Lightning is like riding on air and the Tesla is more like a sportscar suspension. I like both, but they are different. On trips, the extra room and soft ride are awesome in the Lightning.

The tough part at first was charging the Lightning. When it worked, it worked just fine. When it didn't work (because of network issues), it was a really bad feeling. The second road trip in our truck was rough. Added about 2.5 hours to the trip due to EA being trash. The NACS adapter is a game changer. No hesitation taking Elsa (the Lighting) on road trips.

It sounds like there are some differences between the Lariat and the XLT that would bug me and I get it if they bug you. After market may help with some of those, I'm not sure.

 

[davehu]

Welcome to the club!

 

[transmutated]

Yeah, it’s real easy to like the truck…it’s awesome. But death by a million cuts is real I suppose. Every time I go get into the truck and forget I need to grab the key will be real. I don’t carry any keys today, but will be carrying this one key going forward when I want to drive it. First world problems, I get it. But I love the truck and we bought it for it utility granted it most def has a leg up on a few things on Tesla! Love the truck though.

 

[GoodSam]

I think with your 20" wheels you have the XLT 312A with adaptive cruise control and lane keeping. To me, hanging one hand on a side of the steering wheel keeps me from getting bugged by the "are you paying attention" warning. And I cannot imagine the Blue Cruise that is watching if your eyes are on the road system...I would get a lot of warnings!

 

[transmutated]

I think with your 20" wheels you have the XLT 312A with adaptive cruise control and lane keeping. To me, hanging one hand on a side of the steering wheel keeps me from getting bugged by the "are you paying attention" warning. And I cannot imagine the Blue Cruise that is watching if your eyes are on the road system...I would get a lot of warnings!

I just got the update from Tesla where I don’t have to keep a hand on the wheel but daddy musk is always watching, similar to blue cruise.
Maybe the lane keeping setting is somewhere I wasn’t looking. Adaptive cruise is great though! Better than old school cc!

 

[rikster63]

I own a 2022 Tesla Model S and my wife drives a Model Y. We've been driving eVs since 2012 (Nissan Leaf with 70 miles of range), so we are very comfortable with eVs in general.

Tesla is miles ahead of Ford in software and self-driving technology, but Ford does have a leg up on actually building a solid vehicle (Tesla is more of a Tech company than a car company, in my view).

I bought a leftover 2023 Lightning XLT Standard Range for a crazy low price (it seemed to me - around $46k out the door after incentives and the point-of-sale tax credit). The SR works just fine for my use case, as I will never use the Lightning for long trips.

I've been loving the elevated driving position and amazingly smooth ride of my Lightning (compared to my Teslas). I loan my truck out to clients and family/friends fairly often, so it was important to me that the truck not be too intimidating to drive for non-eV people (like the Cyber Truck would totally be).

I don't have Blue Cruise (though I sort of wish I did, as I do have the Tesla Full Self Driving (not) software for my Model S).

Some people on this forum have noted that a 1-pound workout weight attached to the upper right side of the Lightning steering wheel completely eliminates the lane-keep nag, though I can neither confirm nor deny that I use that technique to avoid the nags (;-)

Welcome to the Lightning Club! It's a friendly bunch, not quite as active as the Tesla Motor Club group, but very helpful and nice overall.

Enjoy that new truck!

 

[TaxmanHog]

Welcome, great intro..... https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/account/account-details

 

[Oafy44]

Welcome, great intro..... https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/account/account-details

 

[Jseis]

In someways I feel sorry for drivers that never rummaged through the glovebox for a spare (good) condenser, dealt with water in the gas, a broken fan belt, stuck float, ice’d carb, or any of a dozen other vehicle problems that bit you in the ass. And you carried the tools to fix almost anything thrown at you.

So a wrench to loosen a battery terminal is modern par for the course on the road fix right up there with a broken coil wire you can’t see. Modern EVs have cheap & expensive part failures (BSM is the best cheap example) that will incapacitate the vehicle. Just like ICE engines burning a valve.

I don’t find software glitches surprising and we don’t tow a trailers worth of tubes (vacuum) either. But given we aren’t adjusting valve lash, timing, changing oil every 2K, diagnosing a faulty radiator cap or god knows what. I’m ok with an occasional reboot and smartphone level weirdness.

I’m not yet prepared to say BEVs are super low maintenance (having only laid 80,000 miles down between the Mach E and the LT).. but damn they are easy on maintenance so far. I still get nails in tires (now I’ve a portable compressor in the bed ) and run low on washer fluid, forget to change out windshield swipes. And.That.is.It.

And charging stations complaints are expected but that new section of I-5 put in ~55 years ago south of Sacramento had no gas stations for 180 miles or so. You’d be surprised how many cars ran out. Where I live town gas stations closed up at 6 pm. Good luck on rolling in late on E. So travel gives travails. The S.O. and I have been round trip from the coast to Great Falls 3X in the last year racking up 1800 miles each time. Yeah, the EA sites were wonky and GF had zero DCFC available for non-Teslas. But we stayed loose & flexible, used L2 sites over night, switched EA units to find a working one or just chatted with other fellow travelers waiting our turn.

My father & father-in-law told me what long-distance travel was like in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, even 50’s. We have it so good.

When I’m rolling in the LT my mind wanders back to my grandfather’s Buick Roadmaster… that was a machine.

 

[potato]

CarPlay / Android Auto mostly solves the app and nav/planning issues.

I don't think BlueCruise works when you're towing anyway, so you're not missing anything there.

 

[davehu]

Yeah, it’s real easy to like the truck…it’s awesome. But death by a million cuts is real I suppose. Every time I go get into the truck and forget I need to grab the key will be real. I don’t carry any keys today, but will be carrying this one key going forward when I want to drive it. First world problems, I get it. But I love the truck and we bought it for it utility granted it most def has a leg up on a few things on Tesla! Love the truck though.

never bothered me to carry a key. I have a house key and several others anyway. wish the FOB was a little smaller, though.

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