If you’ve been on the fence about purchasing a Ford F-150 Lightning, you no longer need to be. That’s because you can’t buy one anymore. Ford has closed the order books for the first year’s worth of production. Make up your mind in time for next year’s production or you might have to wait even longer.

Some F-150 Lightning models were already sold out

We’ve been inching up to this point for weeks. Our own Allison Barfield wrote just a week ago that reservations had already closed for the Lightning Pro and XLT models. The only trims left were either the Lariat or Platinum models. But now, reservations for them have been closed today. So that’s it.

You have options if you have to have an F-150 Lightning. You can take your chances convincing a dealer you’ll pay way more than MSRP to have one. Way, way more. Or you can wait until the 2023 order books open up. Unless you steal one, those are about the only options we can suggest. 

Now, some of you without reservations, contemplating going through the humiliation of negotiating how many thousands of dollars over sticker you’ll pay the dealer, shouldn’t feel completely bad. Those with reservations are also paying more than MSRP. Oh, they thought they had a deal with Ford. But dealers are independent of Ford.

Early customers for the F-150 Lightning are paying more than sticker

Those who sent in their early reservation deposits on blind faith are now finding they are paying much more through dealer markups. It looks like if you’re lucky, you’ll only have to pony up an additional $5,000. But some Ford dealers have lost all sense of reality. For them, an additional $25,000 to $35,000 over sticker doesn’t seem too egregious. But it is. 

But this begs the question if buyers with deposits have to pay those kinds of markups, how far will dealers go for the dude who must have one of the two or three Lightning trucks on the lot? Would double the price seem ok for them? 

A Platinum Lightning with all of the goodies retails for a whisker over $97,000. So would $200,000 be a fair price for the customer coming in cold? In this crazy seller’s market, we suppose anything is possible. We bet there will be a few transactions in this ballpark, and nobody will be the wiser except the dealer, buyer, his or her spouse, and their accountant. 

Today Ford begins Lightning truck production

Back to the reservation situation, Ford’s F-150 Lightning order page says, “Due to high demand, the current model year is no longer available for retail order. Contact your dealer for more information.” Coincidentally, this all just happened the day that Ford began production of the EV truck.

As with the Bronco and Mustang Mach-E, Ford sure seems to be hitting the right product mix. Too bad some of its dealers feel they need to get theirs now rather than nurturing a customer to get his business for years to come. We wonder what will happen with the 2023 Mustang taking shape right now?