Thinking about trading in my bronco

[BostonSasquatch]

Living in an area with power outages is a good reason to get a Lightning, because you can power your house with it.

Conversely, you may have trouble keeping it charged.
You have to give serious thoughts about the advantages (such as they are) of EV over ICE. Unless you have a free charge port (say, at work) and plan to charge at home, the mileage savings are not substantial. Also--do you really buy into the "global warming" thesis? I myself am a big-time skeptic. It will be cheaper in 10-15 years to replace an ICE engine as opposed to an EV battery. If you're doing it for environmental reasons, your old ICE can be recycled; we don't know, yet, about those batteries.
Can you imagine fleeing 300+ miles from a natural catastrophe (forest fires, hurricane) in an EV? Scary!

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[PaBronco]

Hey if you don't want your Lightning I'll give you $5k ADM to buy it! Dead serious. Actually if you're price pro'd to the $41k model I'll give you $10k more than you pay for it!

I had big plans for my Bronco and ultimately it wasn't fit to be my daily driver. Ford never delivered my 2022 Maverick and I sold my other daily driver so the Bronco ended up going shortly after it.

Back to the lightning Pro - it's flat out the best bang for your buck vehicle on the market. Not even truck - vehicle, period. If you get price protection that is absolutely insane.

Currently in a Model 3 and although the range is nice I've only needed it for road trips. My (hypothetical) Lightning Pro and its 230 miles of range would be plenty for daily and in town use.

I wasn't able to place an order for one. I've called every dealer in the midwest about their demo lightnings and if I can buy it once they are released (supposed to be early Dec) but no luck yet.

Keep calling. They are out there. My dealer called me last night and said they have a SR Lariat available at MSRP. I would not buy a SR Lariat, but a lot of people will. I guess he was testing the waters to see if I wanted to upgrade.

I was able to order and take delivery of a Pro, and it is amazing.

 

[Stache12]

Bro, the Lightning has 775 lb-ft of torque (that's instantly and a strait line across the graph vs a 5.0 that has 410 max at some rpm) it can do plenty of "real truck stuff" and then some... Payload is also right on track with a standard F150.

It also has a 0-60 of 4 seconds flat.

It also cuts your range to less than half towing an empty aluminum trailer. If you have to tow more than 35 miles one way, you're screwed.

 

[Stache12]

How many times have you been without power for several days in a row? In my 37 years of life I can only tell you 1 time where we were down for like 4 days and it was a freak ice storm. The thing is I could have driven the 30 miles to my parent's house, where they had power, charged up, then driven back and powered my house.

Only if your parent's house is equipped to charge your vehicle. Are they going to spend thousands of dollars to put in a decent charger so you can charge your electric vehicle when your power is out...

 

[SubmarineNuke]

How many times have you been without power for several days in a row? In my 37 years of life I can only tell you 1 time where we were down for like 4 days and it was a freak ice storm. The thing is I could have driven the 30 miles to my parent's house, where they had power, charged up, then driven back and powered my house.

This is a subjective question dependent upon where you live. For example, someone in Texas, Louisiana, Florida etc have spent lots of time without power. Hurricane season is a real thing. Parts of Florida are without power right now and will be for probably a week or more. Houston, Texas has gone through it numerous times, Lake Charles/New Orleans LA area...the list goes on and on...and many of those people can't "drive 30 minutes to a parents house who has power". So it's certainly a very subjective question and situation and what works for you may or may not work for everyone. Glad you've never had to experience 2+ weeks with no power and hot water.

 

[710-oil-614]

Keep calling. They are out there. My dealer called me last night and said they have a SR Lariat available at MSRP. I would not buy a SR Lariat, but a lot of people will. I guess he was testing the waters to see if I wanted to upgrade.

I was able to order and take delivery of a Pro, and it is amazing.

They don't have a jealous button. HA! I've had a few dealerships offer me Lariats in the $75-80k range but I just want a Pro. I'm willing to go mid 50s for it but don't want to go any higher than that.

Of all the Fords I could get - that Lightning Pro tops the list (with the tow package)

 

[DriveAllNight]

No way should powering your house be a factor to buy an ev. It makes absolutely no sense.

If you live in fear of losing power, buy a generator.

Relying on your transportation to also power you home is going to create more problems than it will solve.

 

[710-oil-614]

Only if your parent's house is equipped to charge your vehicle. Are they going to spend $7Gs to put in a decent charger so you can charge your electric vehicle when your power is out...

$7k for a decent charger? Come on man!! That is ONLY if they have 100a service panel and no way to expand.

He can use a standard 240 NEMA 14-50 outlet that is common for dryers

- In a pinch a long 14-50 extension cord is a few hundred dollars and the laundry room is generally not far from a garage (in many homes).
- They sell splitters for the dryer plug if it were more permanent that range from $80 - $300.

Even at just 16 amps he would be looking at 10-12 miles per hour. With a full 40a giving him about 30 miles per hour

If that doesn't work and they need to install a new 240v circuit - I just ran 6 AWG through 26 floor joists (yes) more than 140 feet with a double pole 60a breaker and Gen3 Tesla Wall Connector for $900.

 

[Razorbak86]

Yeah, they're so similar. It's tough to pick between the two.

I just remind myself why I dumped the white Outback for the Bronco.
To steal from the old Dodge commercial ... because no kid ever had a poster of a white Outback on his wall.

The same can be said of the Maverick. It will be a great utilitarian vehicle, but it will have no soul.
No kid will ever put a poster of a Maverick in his room.
That's the trade off.

At some point I decided I'd break the drudgery of the daily grind by at least driving something that stirs my soul a little bit. Something that is more "me" than the family truckster.
I think pulling up to a 4way stop sign and meeting two other white Outbacks at the same time kind of killed it for me.

Don't get me wrong, we still have the Outback, it does everything very well, but even though my 2dr Bronco is a bit cramped for the three of us compared to the Outback, guess which one everybody wants to take when we all go somewhere together.

So, that's my story ... you get to write your own.

Well, that's easy for you to say. You haven't struggled loading stuff in the back at Home Depot several times!!!

Think of the Home Depot strugglers! They're real... and they're spectacular!!

 

[710-oil-614]

No way should powering your house be a factor to buy an ev. It makes absolutely no sense.

If you live in fear of losing power, buy a generator.

Relying on your transportation to also power you home is going to create more problems than it will solve.

It's a neat selling "feature" and you might use it once or twice over the life of the vehicle in a real pinch - not a reason to be purchasing your vehicle.

 

[Stache12]

$7k for a decent charger? Come on man!! That is ONLY if they have 100a service panel and no way to expand.

He can use a standard 240 NEMA 14-50 outlet that is common for dryers

- In a pinch a long 14-50 extension cord is a few hundred dollars and the laundry room is generally not far from a garage (in many homes).
- They sell splitters for the dryer plug if it were more permanent that range from $80 - $300.

Even at just 16 amps he would be looking at 10-12 miles per hour. With a full 40a giving him about 30 miles per hour

If that doesn't work and they need to install a new 240v circuit - I just ran 6 AWG through 26 floor joists (yes) more than 140 feet with a double pole 60a breaker and Gen3 Tesla Wall Connector for $900.

yeah, 10 miles per hour is not a decent charger. Hard pass.

 

[JT58Bronc]

Not having a pick up with the Bronco was somewhat of a concern for me. Mainly for hauling kayaks and paddle boards and visits to Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. Roof rack a no go, the Bronco is too tall, won't fit in the garage and the racks are super expensive. Thought really hard about a trailer but that was a no go as well. The answer for me was to get a new and fun project antique vehicle (which I was going to get a car, instead I got a truck). I got myself a real truck- 87 Chevy SquareBody short box 4 X 4. 5.7L, Muncie 4 speed. This is a truck- they don't make them like this anymore. Problem solved- Bronco and antique truck. (Insurance on the Chevy is only $300 a year and registration is free). I much rather have the Bronco and antique truck than a EF150. Much cheaper too.

 

[jdznutz]

Keep the Bronco as the fun car. My family loves it and wants to take it everywhere when we go.

Get a beater truck for truck duties. I have a 200k mile Frontier that I use to daily and haul.

Also don't forget what stickshifthappy says...

Broncos are stirring more than souls. I think they're stirring loins .......

 

[710-oil-614]

yeah, 10 miles per hour is not a decent charger. Hard pass.

Nope - it isn't. It's the bare minimum that he would pull I'm glad we agree.

Good thing it is quite easy to achieve much better charging as I've outlined above.

 

[Jdyount]

This is a subjective question dependent upon where you live. For example, someone in Texas, Louisiana, Florida etc have spent lots of time without power. Hurricane season is a real thing. Parts of Florida are without power right now and will be for probably a week or more. Houston, Texas has gone through it numerous times, Lake Charles/New Orleans LA area...the list goes on and on...and many of those people can't "drive 30 minutes to a parents house who has power". So it's certainly a very subjective question and situation and what works for you may or may not work for everyone. Glad you've never had to experience 2+ weeks with no power and hot water.

You're probably not getting gas in those situations either.

With some pre-planning you'd really probably be in about the same situation except you can't power much with a normal truck. At least you could keep your fridge running for several days, cook some food with the microwave,... with a Lightning.

It's not like you have zero options. If I lived in hurricane effected areas I would probably have a generator (which you could use to charge an EV).

In any situation where I would buy an EV I would also get solar panels for my house. An on-grid solar system is much cheaper than an off grid system and the addition of an EV to an on-grid system basically makes it an off-grid system.

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