By Kamil Kaluski
The F-150 is the single, most important vehicle for Ford. They sell almost a million of them annually. Morgan Stanley says that the F-150 brand is worth more than all of Ford combined. It’s what keeps the lights on and what employs thousands of people – a pickup truck. When it comes to redesigning it, Ford must do it very carefully. The F-150 has to be the work truck it always was while pushing new limits of efficiency, comfort, safety, and utility.
Allow our own Jeff to take you through all the details of this carefully redesigned truck. Unlike the previous generation, which featured downsized turbocharged engine and aluminum body, this 14th generation truck is more evolutionary than revolutionary. But there is one big change – a hybrid version.
Wait, is this the first hybrid option, a swift 23 years after the Prius? That space between the front seats is absolutely massive; is there a bench or three front seat option?
Full-sized pickups are designed to fit a 48″ wide stack of plywood in the box, laying flat between the fenderwells. That dictates the width of the box, which, for the most part, dictates the width of the cab. The new F-series cab is likely about the same width as the one on Jeff’s old 1960’s F-series Hoon truck.
Yes, three adults will fit there. People usually prefer storage instead of a middle front seat, though. I have a truck with a fold-down middle seat that has a small console in the backrest. I think i have hade a front middle passenger there twice, and the backrest hasn’t been in the vertical position for about two years.
GM offered a hybrid Sierra/Silverado back around 2008, but didn’t last long, probably due to poor promotion, possibly lost in the bankruptcy shuffle.
GM also had the Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade hybrids. Most of the reviews compared the base price of the ICE Tahoe to the much higher price of the Hybrid, without pointing out that the hybrid included lots of standard features that were extra cost options (or only available on upper trim levels) on the ICE Tahoe to which they were comparing. They also didn’t factor in the tax credit that was still available at the time. Additionally, the reviews tended to focus on the hybrid full-size SUV getting 60% worse MPG than a Prius, rather than pointing out that your family of 7 could tow their 3-ton boat to the lake 30% more efficiently than they could in the gasoline-only version of the same SUV, or that the gasoline portion of the hybrid equation was still a moderately monstrous 6.0L “LS” engine.
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As I recall, much was made of the limited highway MPG gains, instead of ignoring that 20ish MPG city in something that enormous is miraculous.
I just can’t get over the fact how little pickup truck mileage has improved, versus passenger car mileage.
1954 chevy 3100 (1/2 ton) with the original Stove bolt 3.8L (235 ci) inline 6: just over 12mpg http://www.fuelly.com/car/chevrolet/truck/1954?engineconfig_id=145&bodytype_id=
Honda Ridgeline, which is basically an Accord El Camino, with the 3.5L V6: around 18mpg http://www.fuelly.com/car/honda/ridgeline?engineconfig_id=102&bodytype_id=&submodel_id=
Eh, that’s more a sad statement on the Ridgeline, as that’s in the ballpark of the domestic full-size trucks (the 2.7 F-150 is probably better, I know 5.3L Silverados will easily do low 20s on the highway). Plus, the jump in capability has been huge (C&D had an article this week about the growth in towing and payload on the F-150, where basically in 25 years, the 150 has bypassed the 250’s limits).
To my eye, something looks “off” with the headlight and grille treatment. Does not flow, do not like. It’s reminiscent of the very ugly Nissan Titan. Guess I’ll be looking at Ram now for my next pickup.