I have been thinking of buying an L for a while now. I have just started reading your posts in this section of the board for the past couple of weeks and am now extremely interested. I was just curious how much the L costs new? I saw one at my local Ford dealer the last time that I was in there and I think that it was like 33 grand. Is that about what I should expect to pay? Please let me know, give me something to chew on.

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'98 4.6 5sp. 4x4 ORP (Fully loaded, Power everything).

Mods.
- Modified Air Box
- K&N
- Borla Stainless Steel Exhaust

Future Mods.
- BBK High Performance Throttle body
- Superchip

 

For a new 2001, yes, that's what you will most likely pay.
But I bought a 2000 with 10,199 miles on it for 26,877. But, I was pretty lucky to find one with those miles on it, and in the color I wanted: silver.
Probably the best thing to do is to scour the internet and your local dealerships and try to find a 2000, if you don't mind the older looks: rims, headlights, grill. (I personally like the 2000 better than the 2001.)



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2000 Silver Lightning
#2798
Born on date: May 9, 2000

Mod's (in order of purchase):
1. Black Ford slush mats
2. 20% window tinting
3. K&N air filter

Soon to come: hard silver toneau cover, superchip, new speakers, bug deflector, brushed alluminum dash --- now i just need money

 

I got really lucky and bought my 00' with 235 miles on it for $26,500. Had to ship it for $800 tho-

I'm selling my 99' if you're interested for $25K

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00' Lightning/ Black
99' Lightning/ Red
94' Lightning/ Red
96' Cobra Convert/ Red

 

I am not quite ready to buy right this minute but probably within the year. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of monthly payments are we looking at here? I want one so bad. I want another light to light racer and I am tired of seeing F-bodies, I want to be different and the Lightning is just my ticket.

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'98 4.6 5sp. 4x4 ORP (Fully loaded, Power everything).

Mods.
- Modified Air Box
- K&N
- Borla Stainless Steel Exhaust

Future Mods.
- BBK High Performance Throttle body
- Superchip

 

Got news for ya, the Lightning is great for a truck but it's no sportscar. The LS1 F-bodies aren't the king of streets either but stock for stock I'd put money on the LS1 everytime. Look, our very own MM&FF magazine took a brand new Z28 6-speed and ran a 12.9 with it. Granted, the magazine test driver is better than 50% of the drivers you'll meet on the street but that leaves another 50% that can drive their cars. With just mindless mods like a cat-back and a K&N it looks even more bleek for the L. The L is a sweet truck but $33,000 seems rather expensive for a light to light toy. The F-body guys only need to spend low 20's for theirs.

 

A quick rule of thumb is on a 60 month loan you pay about $20 a month for every $1000 you borrow...i.e. $15,000 = around $300 a month.

------------------
Red '00 Lightning,
Power Surge Performance enhanced,
Sound effects provided by Flowmaster,
375 RWHP,
445 RWTQ,
12.974@104.818
Track Videos

 

Well, none of the LS1s, f-body or '00 corvette seem to run anything near 12.9, where my Lightning roams. And I have raced enough to know that stop light to stop light, its al in the launch. There is one fellow (00Camaro SS) that I can stay ahead to 60-70 then he pulls away. He has cutouts, and Nittos. I just unbolted my muffler and put 3 sandbags in the bed. Any mistake on either part, and the other fellow is looking at tail lights. Check out my site, Stump-Jumper, thats what you can expect, stoplight to stoplight.

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99 Black Lightning
factory tonneau cover, 100k mile warrantee, Line-Xed
F150online.com R hp sticker mod in the mail. Where's it at?
2.145 60' 8.789@82.71 (1/8) 13.603@101.05 1/4 same run
straight pipes, 'Major' rear lights, no chip
Lightning!
Kills! More kills!

[This message has been edited by Tundra (edited 02-12-2001).]

 

Tundra, I totally agree with you. Not all of the F-bodies are running 12.9's but it's not all that uncommon either. And in a street race the launch is certainly where the race will more than likely be won or lost. A 13.6 for a full size truck is awesome but anyone with an LS1 and who can drive will hit that time with ease. That 12.9 driven by MM&FF was hard to believe even for the F-body crowd. We wondered if they got a special "tester" car but then other F-body drivers started to put up timeslips to back up those times. I do realize that not all factory vehicles run identical times. Some are factory freaks and others are factory duds. Nevertheless, given equal drivers I still would put money on a Z.

 

gearjamr89,

I'm not being rude here, but that's money you would lose. Most of the Lightnings I have seen with even basic mods will take a Z28, or an SS. WS6's and Corvettes fall to my truck on a regular basis (mine is not lightly modded).

Again, not being rude or talking smack, just some basic facts.

------------------
The

wyldman@houston.rr.com
Black 99.5 Lightning Build # 1273, DOB 5-14-99, NLOC #315

 

Well, Charles, I think the key words are "basic mods". You can't compare magazine times because you don't know what the conditions were. There might have been a 20 mph tail wind the day that LS1 ran 12.9. There's a lot of variance from car to car and truck to truck, too. But bone stock, LS1 vs. stock '99 or '00 Lightning, with equally competent drivers, I'd give the edge to the LS1 every time. The best comparison was the one that Popular Mechanics did, head to head on the same day. All of the cars seemed to run quick times, conditions must have been very good. The '99 Lightning ran a 13.62. There were two LS1s, a Chevy and a Pontiac. The Camaro ran 13.42, the Firebird ran 13.15. So you can see there is a lot of variance among F-bodies, but they were two tenths and 5 tenths quicker than the L. in stock trim. Now when you add your so called "basic mods" (chip and filter, I assume), the race becomes so even that I think it boils down to driver skill. A few more mods and the L. is ahead. But then the F-body can be modded, too, so it becomes an issue of who has what. Now, with the '01s, it becomes a different ball game. I would expect that with more power and better gears the '01s would be just about even with the F-bodies, stock. And then add your "basic mods" and I'd guess the edge would go to the L. But I wouldn't try to pursuade anyone that they could take a stock Lightning right off the showroom floor and go out and wax a bunch of LS1s.
Now, as far as the money issue, how the heck can you propagate a rule of thumb without knowing what the interest rate is? Interest is one of the big ways that dealers go out and fleece the gullible. Dealers don't lend money, they are in the car business, not the bank business. Essentially they go out and broker the loan, and typically add a couple per cent onto it to sweeten the deal for them. Hell, how do you think they make any money on the vehicles they sell at close to their cost? Always negotiate your own loan, preferably with your credit union or some other low interest source, unless by chance the dealer is offering one of those real low rate incentives - but they usually only offer those on last year's stock they're trying to clear out, pretty unlikely on a Lightning. Dealer hold backs are something you should know about, too, but again they are unlikely on an L. I recommend that you read "Don't Get Taken Every Time" by Remar Sutton, and you will be a lot better prepared for your next car purchase.


------------------
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

'84 Alan Record Carbonio, Aerospoke wheels, Campy brakes.
'00 SVT Lightning, silver, built 2/9/00, #133 of 4966, G-tech Pro, JBA headers, 4.10 gears, Swanson chip, Pro-M, NGK plugs, carbon drive shaft, Roadmaster suspension kit
13.39 @ 102.5
2001 Kevlacat 2400, twin 115 Evinrude FICHT, Raytheon VHF, radar, autopilot and GPS chartplotter/fishfinder.

gmvye@pacbell.net

[This message has been edited by alphadoggy (edited 02-12-2001).]