Owning a Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum in 2025 is a bit “annoying”. It’s flashy, powerful, and incredibly expensive to keep. One owner recently discovered the sting of this reality after trying to sell his truck, affectionately named “Big Red,” just one year after paying a staggering $87,040 to take it home in December 2024.
With only 5,400 miles on the odometer, you’d think “Big Red” would be a hot commodity, especially since Ford announced it is pulling the plug on Lightning production by the end of this year due to abysmal demand. Instead of a bidding war, the owner was met with a lukewarm $51,500 high bid. That is a $33,000 loss in twelve months. A depreciation rate so aggressive it makes burning cash look like a viable savings plan.
On paper, the truck is a masterpiece of electric vehicle luxury. It’s finished in Rapid Red Metallic with a Nirvana premium leather interior and rolls on 22-inch Bright Machined wheels. It features a 14-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system, BlueCruise hands-free driving, and even Active Motion heated and ventilated seats to massage away the pain of your dwindling bank account. Performance is equally absurd. 580 HP and 1,050 Nm of torque, allowing this 131 kWh beast to hit 60 mph in under four seconds.
The owner even threw in “pre-delivery” goodies like Bilstein shocks, a 3-inch leveling kit, and a Gator bed cover. Despite the clean Carfax report and a few minor chips on the windshield, the market simply wasn’t impressed. The brutal truth is that even with 300 miles of range and a cabin nicer than most Manhattan apartments, buyers aren’t biting.
The owner ultimately rejected the $51,500 offer, choosing to hold onto his “Big Red” rather than accept a payout that effectively cost him nearly four dollars per kilometer driven. It turns out that while lightning may strike once, it doesn’t seem to leave much of a resale value behind.
