Raptor Lemonade

[Rocks2Sand]

Hello All, Been scouring the inter webs for a truck upgrade for quite some time (6+ months) and have finally settled on my new rig. Throughout my vast searches far and wide, I have come across several excellent condition lower mileage 21 & 22 Raptors that were priced too good to be true. They are lemons. Many are for sale by Ford dealers, no lemon mention on their listing, however the VIN shows a branded title with a lemon buyback.

Disclaimer: Every manufacturer has lemons, I get it, not pointing a finger at Ford. They are inevitable. I am also going through a non Ford lemon buyback myself at the moment.

Do we collectively know what is causing the majority of the lemon issues on these trucks? Anyone here had to lemon a Gen 3? What was the cause?

Picking up a 2024 801A, already produced pending shipment, cant wait!!!

 

[Antho]

Hard to say without a VIN

 

[BoostCreep]

It was the deadly kung flu.

 

[smurfslayer]

There’s a very valid reason for a ‘scarlet letter’ title, and that is to keep a consumer from getting bilked. Even if the truck is fully warranted by Ford and the selling dealer, the warranty is not worth much if the truck spends most of its time getting repairs.

TBF, it is very easy to lose a lemon lawsuit for a simple broken hard part that is “on national back order”. The lemon law model legislation varies a bit by state but in general terms, 1 or more failures of a safety component or a few repairs to other components that ‘significantly impair the use and/or fair market value’ of the vehicle, generally incurring 30+ days of down time for repairs, excepting repairs where a loaner is provided.

If you were to break, say, a transfer case housing, you could easily incur a downtime of 45 days or more. OR, you could luck out and have it in 4 days, plus a day to swap it. Alternatively, the vehicle could have had a defective drive train component, for example resulting in something very hard to correctly diagnose like a rotational vibration. Or electrical gremlins.

These issues could show on an Oasis report, and possibly Carfax.

Note, that there is a very big difference between a truck that is voluntarily bought back by the manufacturer - Ford, in which they are not under any obligation to mark the title, and a lemon lawsuit loss or settlement which requires branding the title. The latter is pretty serious, even after filing suit, Ford would usually offer to settle out first, so to get the marked title, they had to EARN IT.

You would have to get reports and service records to make a sound judgment.

 

[GaoKS]

I work for an OEM and have, unfortuantely, handled lemon law cases. As mentioned by others above, there are vehicles that were lemon law'd due to a part being on backorder or in a state where it is extremely easy to get a vehicle bought back i.e.. California for nonsense (Think unresolved minor NVH you may not notice that the dealer didn't code correctly on an RO).

Then, there are vehicles that are truly fugged up. Only way to well is to check all the records, understand why the vehicle was bought back - and even then - cross your fingers.

Personally, I wouldn't touch it without knowing every single detail.

 

[NinjaRaptor]

If you Car Fax the VIN does it show up the as Lemon or some other jargon that will tell you?

 

[paperhunter2000]

Seems like build date contributes to quality control unfortunately. Purchased a new 22 with July build, picked up in August 22.. Been trouble free although only 12k miles at this point. Only issues include wiper motor recall and front seat leather replacement due to defective seat clips. Updated Fox shocks a couple of months before the build date. Ford has had their share of QC issues across their models and know it. But at least they have admitted it's a problem and addressing it with a QC czar, will see.. Proof is in the pudding. Do the homework but I'll tell you coming from a chevy to the raptor it's all smiles.. awesome truck from road manners to some off road fun.

 

[So-Cal-Al-52]

I agree, my 2022 is a July build date, picked up in Sep. It has been very trouble free for the 16 months I have had it. It does seem to depend somewhat on build date. We all know the COVID years hurt quality control and part availability. But beyond that certain trucks seem to leave the factory cursed, and others don't.

 

[Raptorbert]

I firmly believe (my vehicle is part of this) that vehicles built during the covid hysteria were slapped together and more problematic than before it all started.

That and a lot of people pushed their lemon law cases over very stupid stuff to get out of their ridiculously marked up vehicles they bought to get out of their underwater loans with a buyback, also due to covid nonsense. some like mentioned above for delay in parts, but other for really silly stuff like rain sensor wipers not working right (I saw a listing like that).

 

[Littlefx4]

That and a lot of people pushed their lemon law cases over very stupid stuff to get out of their ridiculously marked up vehicles they bought to get out of their underwater loans with a buyback...

Shots fired...