Was the lightning even anywhere near as popular as the raptor? The market isn't there for street trucks like that IMO.
Raptors have sold 2-3 times more than Lightnings, and while the big truck craze hasn't gone away, the early 2000's were the PRIME of the Truck & SUV craze, and L's were a fraction of the market.
THen look at the s/c HD trucks, they were in 02-03, and the sales of those were TRIPLE that of Lightnings of those same very years, more buyers wanted bigger cabs than faster smaller cabs. And it wasn't just because it was a HD truck, when the HD went s/c the sales doubled from the previous year. The Raptors show the same trend, an ex cab raptor is more ideal for offroading, but when ford released the screw raptor they accounted for what around 80% of Raptor sales? Ford is no dummy, there is a small group of high interest in a small cab sport truck, and a large group of high interest in a large cab semi-sport truck, so they go with the bigger return on investment.
Why would they not just offer both the lightning and the raptor. I'm sure they would sell enough of both to make a profit.
There's a million combinations they could offer. SVT is only going to cover so many vehicles at once. When Raptors are doing 3 times the sales as Gen 2 L's, filling a bigger market, and carrying a higher profit margin, along with the head of SVT coming from a baja/offroading background instead of a drag racing type background, it's easy to see where the decisions come from.
we can answer that question easily...start a thread and ask people to post up if they were members of NLOC, NHTOC, L-Rodder or SVTOA (for trucks)... you will have your answer. And then ask them what year truck they owned.
1st, good to see ya here man!!!!! lol (Harley#356 from all those other sits
)
2nd, that kind of gives you a skewed perspective. You may find 75% of L owners are on forums, but maybe 5% of overall f150 owners are on forums. So posting that it may seem like everyone wants a Gen 3 L, but you're polling a group that is already interested in the segment of a sport truck, not a full population of truck owners.
DISCLAIMER: If Ford comes out with a Gen 3 L, I"d be the first in line to buy one.....I think my list of previous vehicles pretty much guarantees that lol
-2000 Harley F-150 (789 rwhp race truck w/ 02 HD/Lightning drivetrain)
-2000 Harley F-150 (03 Lightning top end s/c conversion, my street truck) - SOLD
-2004 Lightning (red) - SOLD
-2003 Lightning (dsg) - SOLD
-2001 Lightning (blk) - SOLD
-2000 Lightning (blk) - PARTED
-1999 Lightning (blk) - SOLD
-1985 F-150 (94 Lightning drivetrain swap)
). Fast forward to today and let's see what's going on. Ford has a Raptor(insane). Ram has a concept Ramrunner supposedly coming out of the factory within the next 2 years(ok). Obama Motors has a....whoops I guess they can't handle the truth about what everyone else is doing so let's make another street queen
