Eric's Autos: Reviewing the 2015 Ford F-150
They sure went to a lot of trouble - and expense. You've probably read about the new Ford F-150. That it has an aluminum body and is now much lighter (by some 700 pounds) than its steel-bodied predecessor. It also has much smaller engines - for the most part - than its rivals, including the tiniest (but strongest) V6 available in a full-size pick-up. Just 2.7 liters - not much larger than most current fours - but making 325 hp and 375 ft.-lbs.of torque (within range of the Chevy Silverado's 5.3 liter V8, which makes 355 hp and 383 ft.-lbs. of torque). Neat, certainly. But why go to all this trouble?
Buyers weren't clamoring for aluminum bodywork - or really little engines made temporarily big on-demand via multiple turbos. It was the government's fuel efficiency edicts (CAFE) that are responsible for all this.
They are set to ratchet up to 35.5 MPG on average next year (2016). That is a high bar - and every little bit matters. Because the mileage returned by an individual vehicle is not what's relevant for CAFE purposes. It's the overall mileage of an automaker's fleet - all the vehicles it sells each year, averaged out. When you're dealing with that kind of volume, a 2-3 MPG difference (and that's all we're talking about here) times several hundred thousand vehicles - which is how many F-150s Ford sells each year - matters a whole lot. But does a 2-3 MPG difference - either way - matter that much to the individual buyer?
As opposed to the prospect of potentially much higher repair (and so, insurance) costs due to the aluminum bodywork? Which will require special (separate) facilities and higher-order skills to repair? As opposed to the potential down-the-road repair/maintenance - possibly, replacement - costs for a high-strung little engine with a pair of turbos hanging off each cylinder bank? Ford has taken a bold as hell risk here. Whether it pays off remains to be seen.
WHAT IT IS
The F-150 is Ford's full-size (1500) pick-up truck, the best-selling such truck on the market and the best-selling vehicle in the United States.
One of the reasons for that being the almost-unlimited combinations Ford offers. There are about 40 different configurations of the F-150, ranging from the base XL regular cab with 2WD and 6.6 foot bed (MSRP $26,030) all the way up to a Platinum Super Crew 4x4 (MSRP $55,305).
The F-150 competes most directly with the Chevy Silverado 1500 ($26,105 to start for a base "work truck" - $51,150 for a High Country Crew Cab 4x4) and the Dodge Ram ($25,660 for the base Tradesman - $50,990 for a 4x4 Longhorn).
These two are also offered in dozens of possible cab/bed combos - and the Ram is available with a powerful turbo-diesel engine, something neither the Ford nor the Chevy currently offer in their 1500 trucks.
WHAT'S NEW
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