Buying a Used Lightning with High Mileage - Need Some Input

[sunnydazed]

thanks, the input is appreciated. @Yellow Buddy understood mileage is not a good indicator of battery health. I'm using it more as a gauge of warranty time since i can approximate miles per year and map to a timeline.

After multiple searches i've found 2022s that are 90K+ miles and, while discounted, i'm just not comfortable buying a truck that has a few months left (a few thousand miles) on the factory warranty.

And also i think it is mandatory for a dealer, especially if the Lightning is being sold as "certified, etc" be able to show some basic metrics around battery health. We know it won't be 100% but want to make sure it's not at 80% as other have pointed out due to carelessness on the charge cycle.

Good stuff, really appreciate the responses.

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[Adventureboy]

Invest in a decent ODB2 connector and CarScanner. Look at the HVB SOH (State of Health). This will give you an indicator if the HVB has been abused or not. While SOH doesn't tell the whole story, it can be a good checkpoint. On a 2022 with about 80k, I'd expect the SOH to be 95% or above. Anything lower than 90% and I'd probably walk away.

 

[sunnydazed]

Invest in a decent ODB2 connector and CarScanner. Look at the HVB SOH (State of Health). This will give you an indicator if the HVB has been abused or not. While SOH doesn't tell the whole story, it can be a good checkpoint. On a 2022 with about 80k, I'd expect the SOH to be 95% or above. Anything lower than 90% and I'd probably walk away.

thanks, yup already have CarScanner app and an ODB2 reader exactly my mindset also. It's about the best we can do on the consumer side.

 

[Theredshift]

Hi folks, appreciate all the good stuff on these forums and hoping you can provide some input. I've been looking at used Lightnings for a while and finally it seems like prices are starting to enter in my affordability range.

Looking at mostly 2022 Lariats ERs in high $30K-low $40k. The downside of this is that most, if not all, are well over 50k miles, some approaching highs 80s and beyond. With my ICE trucks high mileage never bothered me if I could validate that it has been taken care of. Heck my daily driver is 350k currently. But it's a different deal with EVs, obviously.

Given the factory warranty is capped at 100k miles on the batteries and it seems near impossible to find an extended warranty that is affordable and covers beyond the factory warranty.

So curious as to how others feel about getting close to the 100k cutoff for the factory battery warranty? My current thought is to find a Lightning that balances price and miles, so pay a little more and have more time to get to 100k miles.

Thanks--would love to hear if and how others approa

Well, i.just bought a loaded lariat with 38k miles. Couple.warraniy items left until next year, and of course battery has 8 years or 100k so i felt pretty safe. I ended up paying right at 46k for it.which i didn't think was that bad due to it.being a commuter daily
So.i guess.it.really boils down to.fitting the neeed and.with ev's, its alot to think about

 

[Rayden]

Hi folks, appreciate all the good stuff on these forums and hoping you can provide some input. I've been looking at used Lightnings for a while and finally it seems like prices are starting to enter in my affordability range.

Looking at mostly 2022 Lariats ERs in high $30K-low $40k. The downside of this is that most, if not all, are well over 50k miles, some approaching highs 80s and beyond. With my ICE trucks high mileage never bothered me if I could validate that it has been taken care of. Heck my daily driver is 350k currently. But it's a different deal with EVs, obviously.

Given the factory warranty is capped at 100k miles on the batteries and it seems near impossible to find an extended warranty that is affordable and covers beyond the factory warranty.

So curious as to how others feel about getting close to the 100k cutoff for the factory battery warranty? My current thought is to find a Lightning that balances price and miles, so pay a little more and have more time to get to 100k miles.

Thanks--would love to hear if and how others approa

I found a '23 Lariat ER a couple of weeks ago, 29K miles, for $47K. It was the first ER I'd been able to find. Everything else has been a SR. I live in NW Florida and ended up making a 6hr drive up to N Georgia to pick it up. I'd say to keep your eyes open and you might find something with lower miles like I did. Good luck on your hunt!

 

[Yellow Buddy]

thanks, the input is appreciated. @Yellow Buddy understood mileage is not a good indicator of battery health. I'm using it more as a gauge of warranty time since i can approximate miles per year and map to a timeline.

After multiple searches i've found 2022s that are 90K+ miles and, while discounted, i'm just not comfortable buying a truck that has a few months left (a few thousand miles) on the factory warranty.

And also i think it is mandatory for a dealer, especially if the Lightning is being sold as "certified, etc" be able to show some basic metrics around battery health. We know it won't be 100% but want to make sure it's not at 80% as other have pointed out due to carelessness on the charge cycle.

Good stuff, really appreciate the responses.

Different make, but hopefully this helps as well. I own a couple of early Teslas approaching 200,000 miles. The battery and motors are original. Big ticket items that weren’t regular maintenance were actually the onboard charger, the onboard computer, control arms. Otherwise everything else wasn’t any different than a gas car.

I understand the hesitation to owning something out of warranty, especially a newer tech. If it’s the right price though, I wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on a high mileage one

For me, anything that’s $20-$25k IMO for a long range won’t depreciate much more. I figure at that price it’s worth more in parts than a whole.

 

[Rayden]

I wouldn't worry about the hvb, it'll outlast the rest of the truck. It's also repairable so one bad cell doesn't kill the entire battery, just the bad cell pack can be replaced at a discount compared to an entire new pack.

Speaking of that, what IS the cost to replace a bad cell?

 

[RLXXI]

Speaking of that, what IS the cost to replace a bad cell?

No clue, I don't know of anyone having to pay for a repair as they carry an 8yr, 100k mile warranty.

 

[Tfarrell73]

They don't replace individual cells. They replace whatever module contains a bad cell. There are 9 modules in the lightning

 

[RLXXI]

They don't replace individual cells. They replace whatever module contains a bad cell. There are 9 modules in the lightning

Exactly.

 

[CerebralPrimate]

All of us have different risk tolerances.

As others have said, odds are very high the battery will outlive the vehicle. It's the expensive other things, which aren't typically covered after 3 years that are more likely to bite ya. But even then, from what I've seen, the fail rates are low... doesn't feel low when you're the one it's happening to, but yeah, statistically speaking.

I had to make a choice a month ago when I pulled the trigger. A black 2022 Lariat with 60K miles, owned by the dealership, nearly always slow charged (lvl 2) at the dealer, battery health was 99%, serviced/recalls done at that same dealership. Original sticker was $81.2K, then the dealer added the $1300 for tonneau cover- so call it $82.5K all in. The price to me was phenomenal (imo) at $37K before taxes. The cheapest I could find online at the time was $41K for something similar, and whenever you see the advertised price you have to know they arent including the dealer fees (typically $1500-$2000), and you'd still have taxes. The downside with this option was the higher mileage, being just out of warranty, and no tax incentive.

I also looked at a 2024 Lariat with 18K miles. Battery also tested at 99%. This one was in antimatter blue, which is the nicest color imo. The upsides here were less miles, great color, full warranty and getting the $7500 tax credit. Downside? They wanted $54K for it. So, I had to ask myself, was it worth $17,000 more to me? Ok, knock off the tax credit and it's $10K more. It was a difficult decision, honestly.

In the end, I went with the cheaper one. I've always avoided huge vehicle payments. I put a big chunk down, so my payments are only $465. I have repairs on the house I want to do. I have some traveling I also want to do. I just couldn't bring myself to spend the extra money, knowing that I have way less moving parts to go wrong, way less maintenance, etc. And yeah, to me that was a screamin deal at $37K.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

I wouldn't mind buying a high mileage EV. I wouldn't even care too much on the history. With ICE I do want to see a lot of history data for high mileage.

 

[WXman]

Speaking of that, what IS the cost to replace a bad cell?

From what I've seen the modules are around $4,000 each and labor is $700ish.

Just last night there was a guy on the Lightning owners group on FB talking about how his truck has been in the shop "for a while" waiting on a new module. I think he only had 33,000 miles.

What will be interesting in the future is seeing how insurance companies handle it. If something were to damage the entire pack, or a large part of it, would they consider the truck a total loss? Probably.

 

[Rayden]

Yeah, at $4K a module X 9 modules, I could see where the insurance companies would write that off quickly. Hopefully the tech gets cheaper as we go.

 

[Rayden]

To the OP, did you already see this listing in the Member Marketplace here?
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...g-flash-fs-1st-owner-low-miles-no-mods.29582/

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