Ford is chasing :melon-musk: 's business model and doing an end-run around their hordes of loyal car dealership minions. Blood in the fucking water.

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don't like pickups, or the glorification of EVs as a perfect solution, but I love the lightning for the sole reason that the were able to make a far better electric pickup than the cyber truck could ever be, in a third the time, in a form factor people can actually use.

      • learntocod [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Correct on all counts. One other nice aspect of the lightning is that it can function as a battery for your home. So, while EVs are still not a panacea, they’re a lot better if they help give the grid distributed energy storage that can make clean sources more feasible

      • JoeBrandonOfficial [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The lightning is so unnecessarily huge and bubbly though.

        Give me a 1995 Toyota Tacoma 2wd extended cab as an EV, that would be a fucking banger, and could actually be efficient

        • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          The Maverick is honestly very close to what you want. A friend of mine got lucky with getting one and its honestly really nice. A lot of cut corners to make the low cost but the corners were cut in the right place. We hauled my ~300 pound motorcycle on the back along twisty roads and it felt like nothing was in it. When I first bought the bike, I rented one of those jeep pickups to haul it and man it drove like shit with just one motorcycle, let alone two.

          Maybe they'll make an EV Mav but the hybrid already gets insanely good mileage.

          • JoeBrandonOfficial [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I think it gets like 40 mpg? Which, for a truck, is very good. I already have a hybrid that gets real life more than 50 mpg anyway though, but the maverick definitely caught my eye when it came out

            • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I think my friend said 40+ around town, highway he was able to push it.

              The maverick honestly feels more useful than an f150. Another friend has an f150 and its way harder to load shit into the tailgate at stock bed height.

              I honestly rather have a single cab maverick. I mostly drive alone or with max one passenger, and the additional space in the bed would make it an absolute work horse. It can already tow almost what a base f150 can.

              • JoeBrandonOfficial [none/use name]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                Yeah my first car (well, family car) was an older Toyota Tacoma and I gotta say the versatility of a pickup is pretty unmatched. It's definitely something I miss.

                Also that price tag - 20k? That's insane, idk how they got it to that price. Kinda mind blowing tbh, that's the price of most economy level sedans/coups

                • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  It can get up to almost 40, but thats where it tops out iirc. You can get a fairly capable little hauler with 4 seats for around 22k which is insane when you think about it in the context of the rest of the market.

                  From personal experience, its nice to be inside too. Back seats are roomy, the back seat flips up for decent storage, Its all hard plastic but ford took the time to give each piece a varied texture and color so its a nice place to be that doesn't feel like a uhaul. There's mount points that you can 3d print custom mounts for or buy one, and they're all around the interior. Even some factory 110v outlets inside and in the bed for powering tools. The bed's anchor points are really nice too. It was an honest to god pleasure throwing a motorcycle in the back and tying it up, between the low tailgate height and adjustable tie down hooks.

                  Under the hood, they didn't splurge on much in the way of engine covers or nonsense plastic, you can basically see everything and parts are easily accessible for repair.