From Transport Evolved.
UPDATE 05/29/2026: 11th hour reprieve! Ford Motor Company’s Senior Engineer of Paint and Body Repair contacted the shop directly today with an approved repair procedure. Ortegas is being repaired. 🎉
In February, a minor rear-end collision on our way to film at Aptera left Nikki’s personal (and therefore Transport Evolved’s) 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning — Ortegas — with a small hairline crack in the rear bumper bracket. The truck drove fine, and while we sustained some soft tissue damage (mainly whiplash) we were able to drive Ortegas back to Oregon.
When we got back, we took Ortegas to a local repair place attached to our local Ford dealership. They spent 60 seconds under the truck and claimed it was fine.
Three months later, we discovered a crack just where we’d been told by cops at the scene they thought might be a hairline fracture. It had got larger.
And the roller coaster to get it repaired? Oi vey…
⏱️ Chapter Breakdown:
0:00 — A ball, a dog, and a missing truck
1:41 — From Adira Tal to Ortegas: our Lightning history
4:25 — Half paid off. Then this happened.
5:29 — "No damage." (They were wrong.)
6:57 — One month. No truck. No answers.
8:13 — The part that "doesn’t fit"
9:39 — Fighting back (while exhausted)
12:50 — What comes next?
17:40 — "Economical with the truth"
20:48 — Thank you and goodbye!
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🌱 Electric Vehicle Association – https://www.myeva.org
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*🎙️ Credits:*
Host, Script, Editor: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
Color: Vi Horton
Art & Animation : Erin Carlie
Producer: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
Music: via Artlist.io
