So I posted yesterday or the day before in the deliveries thread photos of me bringing home my truck. But I will now kind of outline my experience start to finish. It’s going to be a little lengthy, you’ve been forewarned lol.
When the lighting was first announced I was really on the fence about whether I would put a deposit down or not. I ended up being a little late to that game as I didn’t make my reservation until September of that year.
I bought my lariat from a dealership outside of Boston and the experience was just So So and definitely not worth driving all the way across the state in my opinion to pick up this truck. So I called around to local dealers and Marcotte, the dealership I ended up going with, was the only one that said they would sell the truck with no mark ups, no shenanigans, no etched glass, no nitrogen tire fill, etc.
In early January a few weeks before the order bank opened, they reached out to the people who had reservations with their dealership to invite them to come in and talk about the lightning and what they thought the order process would look like.
I came in and met with my salesman who happens to be fleet manager at the dealership as well. We had a lovely conversation not only about the lightning, and his Mustang Mach-E, but mustangs, cars, and more talks about cars lol He made sure that he could see my reservation, we made sure that what I had reserved was what I still wanted and from then on it was just a wait until the order banks opened.
I know here and online in general prioritization is a thorn in many people’s side. So I will admit now I was prioritized. I did not pay for that. It was actually offered to me by the fleet manager. when he offered it to me, I asked him why he was willing to give me a spot on the priority list. he said that it was because literally I was one of only 2 people (Out of 100 orders mind you) to take them up on the offer to come in. He also said when we met that he could see my excitement for the vehicle and my excitement to go electric. He also said I was nice, had a great personality, and he loved that I loved cars in general. So it is what it is, yes I have my truck now because I got prioritized- but there was no shady business in that. And I am grateful to the fleet manager for the opportunity.
BUT even with priority I want to be clear that I was not in wave one. In fact I think I was in wave two. I don’t believe as far back as three, but I really don’t remember. I just know that I was not in the first wave.
After that it was the waiting game we were all familiar with. I got an email about my scheduled production date I believe in February or March. And then there was more waiting. Meanwhile that was around the time I started stocking this site and eventually I started using the information in Coral‘s post about tracking your truck through to delivery. I was able to use that information to see my window sticker.
My build week was May 9, my blend date was May 13. I did not notice modules pop up until around the 20th- 23 of May. They popped up all at once in with a tear tag at the same time. I did not get the billed email until May 27. By the time I got the email saying my truck was shipped, late in the night on June 2/early a.m. June 3, the truck actually was already at my dealership lot that day.
The only reason I knew that it had arrived was because also due to that post, people had mentioned that once they had a vin number they had tried to add their vehicles to FordPass. If you were successful but mini, myself included, we’re stuck in a limbo status where we needed to complete the set up in the vehicle. Someone along the delivery route must have done that and I got an email in the middle of the night that my FordPass had been activated. I didn’t see the email until later that morning. I’m thankful that I took that Friday afternoon off lol because it dawned on me that my Lariat had already been in FordPass for four years. So for Haja sake I open FordPass to see if there had been some sort of update with the lightning. When I refreshed it lo and behold it said that as of an hour prior to that refresh the truck was located in Holyoke mass. I quickly opened the map and realized it was indeed sitting on the dealer lot.
So of course I jumped up threw on the shoes grabbed my purse and ran out the door to stalk my own vehicle lol
Long story short it has literally just rolled off the convoy truck and they were still in the process of getting the plastic off of it and everything. It had 31 miles on it. I got to drive it around a lot but we did not take it off the lot because it hadn’t even really been placed in inventory and this had no insurance on it at the time. I did all my preliminary paperwork that afternoon and the finance manager began working on finance.
Yesterday morning I went back finished up my paperwork I got my ridiculous interest-rate from Ford motor credit (thinks interest rate hikes! I appreciate that!) Took my truck off my auto policy, traded it in, added the lightning to the insurance policy – if you care, these guys aren’t too bad to ensure my insurance is barely going up $20 a month and less than $200 a year and this truck is worth way more than my lariat ever was.
Your states may be different but surprisingly here in Taxachusetts 😅 there is no difference in registration fees for an electric vehicle. I had just renewed the plates on my lariat and the dealer was able to transfer the plates to the lightning. So, while EV plates are out there, I just didn’t get them this year because I had literally just paid for the old plates. Also, we don’t have temporary plates in this state and on a Saturday it can be dicey as to whether or not dealers are able to get into the registry and get your car registered. If they can’t, you don’t get to take the car home. So I opted for the Devil I knew and it put my old plates on the new truck.
Marcotte was true to their word. No shenanigans, no push for warrantees, no etched glass. I paid MSRP (a first as in all my years I’ve never paid anything close to MSRP and have always been able to snag some very good deals so I’m still trying to wrap my head around that but this car market sucks and we have to do what we Gotta do) and not a penny over. For what it is worth, Marcotte is a family Ford dealership and the Marcotte family has been owners for three generations. Also, they ship vehicles routinely and we’re in the process of shipping a bronco to someone in California while I was going through delivery. They were so excited as apparently I was the first of their lightnings to be delivered. Literally I felt like every person in the dealership was coming down to where I was to talk with me and shake my hand and ask me questions about the process. It was quite humbling but quite welcoming at the same time.
They took pictures as they do for all of their new car deliveries. And then they also had me film a little video for their YouTube channel. The owners came out at the end when I was taking delivery and again shook my hand and thanked me for my business.
So as I’m pulling off out of the dealership parking lot literally, the entire sales staff comes running out the door and they are all making motions with their hands indicating they want me to do a launch. Several of them are pointing to their cell phones. So of course I had to oblige!
I put the lightning in reverse, backed up down the lane, made sure I was in normal mode because I hear that the launch is amazing either way but I wanted to see what it was like in it’s base mode; and then I dropped the hammer. Yep chirppes my tires twice on that launch- but they got their film and I got to get giddy 😂🤣😂
I don’t know if the other owner is lurking on this board but if you have an antimatter blue platinum through Marcotte your truck came in with mine.
