There will be no 'boutique' versions of the new F-150 for the '04 model year. No Lightning, King Ranch or Harley. Because of the 5 year marketing agreement Ford has with H-D, the Harley will move to the F-250 Super Duty platform!

Read it all here,

Autoweek Article

 

The guys at the SVT booth at WFC this weekend said that there was going to be an '04, but it was just going to be a rollover of the '03. Who knows.

-Kimball

 

Funny thing! That SVT rep told me the same thing!

 

Hey, I heard that too. All very confusing.

 

Last week called SVT and talked to my local dealer...
BOTH said there will be an 04 Lightning...production to start
sometime late 03...hit the lots probably feb to mar 04.

 

The article says no boutique versions of the new F-150. I guess that doesn't eliminate the possiblity of a Lightning based off the current body style.

 

Some more info..... to add to the confusion.

 

fuka Roush engineer, what would he know

 

There is suppose to be an 04 Lightning WITH the current body
style...no cosmetic or power changes...just a fresher face.

 

Is the 05' going to be anything like the concept?

I saw it at the NY auto show, it didn't really do anything for me.

 

My source informed me that the new "L" will be out as a 06, released late in 05. Due to re-tooling they will be unable to support the current platform for 04 or 05...Makes sense to me, but then again all of our sources could be wrong....

 

We all know SVT does not give out information unless they are sure of it.They specifically told me yesterday there will be an 04 lightning basically same as 03 lightning.weird but true.

 

I could imagine the 04 L to be the same body style as 03 L. Remember when the new style F150 came out in 97 there were both the old style and new style in available. It even took some people time to accept the new rounder look. This could very well be the case for F150's as a whole. Seems to me more likely Gen III L would hit in 05.

 

So now there are what 5 theories about what might happen next year and the year after ....


Funny thing is every week someone new talks to the sales guy at thier dealer hears the rumor of the week and screams it as gospel here....
We'll just have to wait and see....
Doug

 

Sorry Doug, all I was doing was putting up a link to an article from a well respected automotive publication. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information. Just something I thought might be of interest to the community.