I'm looking to buy my first truck after a lifetime of small cars, and have decided on an F150. I tend to keep cars for a long time (my previous one finally died at 280k while both of our family's current commuter cars have 180k+ and are still going strong), so I'm looking for the "right" truck and not willing to compromise on my desired specs. I've been searching for a few months now to get a sense of the market (and lurking on the forum to educate myself), and while I was initially looking for a 2016-17 (as I like the look and most of the guys I know had that vintage), most have more miles than what I'm after, so I've gradually been moving my search years forward.

I definitely want a Limited, and really like the look of the rear-facing exhaust, so ruled out the '18. I don't plan on towing anything, and any newer truck is going to have more wizzbang features than I'll ever use, so from my perspective there doesn't seem to be much difference between the '19 and the '20. I want as "new" a truck as possible, so have ruled out anything with mileage over 20k, which as time goes on means fewer '19s and more '20s meet my criteria.

I've been on car forums since the beginning of the internet, so I know problem posts tend to get more airtime than "my truck is perfect" threads, but I have been reading that the '20 seems to be having more electronic issues than the earlier ones, particularly with the cameras. Is this another instance of problems being blow out of proportion, or is there a real trend here? The last thing I want is to spend $50-$60k and have problems start creeping up. A clean carfax (not that that is the be-all, end-all, but better than nothing) is a must, and a Ford "blue" or "gold" certified truck would be nice, as it would give me a little more comfort that I'm getting a "good" one that's at least been looked over. I did find a '20 with ~5k miles but out of state and not from a Ford dealer, but am wondering whether I should instead focus on finding a '19. A paranoid part of me even started wondering why such an expensive truck had so few miles (was it in the shop a lot, or was the owner dissatisfied?).

I'm in no great hurry as I've been working from home the past two years because of all that has been going on, and until my oldest son decides to start driving I still have my current car, so it's not like I need another vehicle right now. But as time goes on it's only natural that the available cars on the market will tend to have more miles on them, which could push me into the '21 and '22. I'd rather not consider those for to main reasons - one of my criteria is the Ruby Red or Rapid Red, and I don't believe the '21 Limited comes in this color, and the first thing I'm going to do is buy the gadget to eliminate the start/stop feature (I know others have no problem with it, but I absolutely hate it), and it looks like that's an unavoidable feature with the '21+ with the PowerBoost.

So this is a long winded way of asking whether I shouldn't worry about whether it's a '19 or '20 and just focus on the criteria that are important to me (color, mileage), and then thoroughly (to the extent possible) check it out once I find a likely candidate. In the case of the aforementioned '20 for sale, in this case I have family close by that could probably check it out for me and then I could fly in and drive home. While buying one local would be best, a road trip with one or more of my sons would be a fun thing to consider as well.

Any thoughts and opinions would be most appreciated. Thank you.