Owner Discovers New 2023 Ford Super Duty Pickup Has Mismatched Headlights
One of these things is not like the other. In fact, it’s brighter.
If the last three years have taught the auto industry anything, it's that making cars and trucks is hard. We see proof of that when orders take a year or more to fill, as well as when manufacturers cancel entire trims for the sake of streamlining production. I have to say, though, shipping units with mismatched headlights is a new one but that's what we see here with this 2023 Ford Super Duty.
Photos of the Lariat Tremor started making their rounds on social media, gaining thousands of likes on the SD Truck Guys and AlumiDuty pages. They helped put me in touch with the owner, Alex Weason, who was as surprised with the mistake as you'd expect.
"It’s frightening that if they could screw something as simple as this up, what other underlying issues there may be," Weason told me. "But nowadays, that’s [with] anything you purchase."
There's no indication that anything else is wrong with the truck, for what it's worth. But as you can see in the pictures, the driver's side features a projector-style headlight while the passenger's side is a more traditional reflector type. You may not notice it in passing during the day, but at night, the difference is obvious.
Because the Super Duty features auto-leveling headlights, it's unclear what effect this has on their operation. Several commenters mentioned they were surprised it didn't throw a fault code of some sort.
Weason is obviously disappointed that this slipped past quality control at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant. They're building as many Super Duty pickups as they can there, but that hasn't come without hiccups as this apparently isn't the only one with mismatched headlights. A Ford dealer in Humble, Texas, listed an F-250 King Ranch for sale in October and the photos attached show one projector headlight and one reflector.
Weason tells me his dealer has a second reflector headlight on order so the truck's equipment will match what's on the window sticker. It's not a critical problem to have but people spending $80,000 or more on a truck just want it to be right the first time. Of course, the same can probably be said for the 2024 Mustang GT owner whose car was delivered with two different seats.
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