New F-150 Motor Lineup

[JD755]

Ford as a company might not have, but at least around here one or two of the larger Ford dealers mention that Ford didn't receive any government bail out funding in their commercials. I do agree though that I prefer someone to talk about the merits of their product when they want to sell me something as opposed to putting down the competition. Strangely it was some of the tractor salesman's attitudes about doing nothing but belittling the competition that kept me from patronizing them. I don't think that GM has gotten to the level that I experienced tractor shopping, but I do agree that I'd prefer that they took their marketing in a different direction.

One of the dumbest ads I have seen lately was the GM one making fun of Ford's pullout step for the tailgate, calling it a "man step". If you have spent time in and out of the bed of a one ton truck you can appreciate the usefulness of it. Not the first time I have seen this from car/truck manufacturers. If the competition comes out with a popular feature, they downgrade it in their ads until they can come up with their own version.

 

[BillP603]

Depending on where you live you might be able to try one before they hit the dealers next spring, it looks like they have a few pre-production models on tour for individual test drives:
F-150 EcoBoost Test Drive Registration
If you are near LA you might still be able to sign up for this next weekend:
Ford Drive F-150

 

[Diamondpilot]

I just saw a report that said a 3.5L twin turbo F-150 Crew Cab Short Bed got 23mpg mixed driving on a test by a major magazine. Can not remember who it was.

Anyway if that is true you could plan on 25mpg plus on pure highway. I wonder if they are knocking on the 30mpg door????

If that's the case I may be buying sooner than I thought. I love my Titan for pulling and it abilities off road and in the snow but now that Ford offers a real Electronic Locker I would be very interested. The Titan gets awful MPG. It has averaged just about 13 for its life and only get 14.6mpg on the highway. It does shine pulling its typical 7,000# load about 1/2 the miles I drive getting around 12mpg.

Chris

 

[crashz]

Chris - was that a 4x4 Supercrew? Thats very impressive. Almost 10 mpg better than my mixed driving now.

If thats true, and highway mileage is in the mid - high 20's, I'm going to scrap ithe idea of getting a small SUV (Honda CRV) and look into a new F150. Gonna wait till 2012 anyway, so by then maybe the bugs will be worked out.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Chris - was that a 4x4 Supercrew? Thats very impressive. Almost 10 mpg better than my mixed driving now.

If thats true, and highway mileage is in the mid - high 20's, I'm going to scrap ithe idea of getting a small SUV (Honda CRV) and look into a new F150. Gonna wait till 2012 anyway, so by then maybe the bugs will be worked out.

I believe it was 4x4 but I am not making any conclusoins yet. They offer a 3.15, 3.31, 3.55, and a 3.73. Worst tow capacity is 8,000# on a Super Crew 4x4 with the 3.5L 4x4 with 3.15 gears and the best is 11,300# with the 3.73 gears.

I need to see more reports and do more reading. I told myself I would never buy anything from anyone the first year out but I think I have enough confidence in Ford and the warranty is so good I would give it a go if the MPG is there. I have had some vehicles that were the second year that never gave me a day of issues while others that were in the 5th year gave me nothing but troubles so I guess its just a gamble????

Chris

 

[dodge man]

I've seen a lot of people talk about low end torque on this forum. As I recall Chris has complained about the low end torque of the Hemi. I've got to believe this twin turbo V6 is going to be a high strung engine. I would think the peak power is going to be way up in the RPM band. Is this going to make truck people happy?

 

[crashz]

I think we'll need to see a few real world results first, but congrats to Ford for being the first to step up and bring a more fuel efficient design to the fullsize truck segment. To get the same mileage as smaller cross-over SUV or large car is very impressive.

D-man,

It is my understanding that the 3.5L V6 is direct injected, meaning the fuel is injected right before the power stroke of the engine within the combustion chamber (like a DI diesel). In doing this, the compression can be raised. Power and efficiency is increased and availible low end torque is better than what you'd expect.

 

[Ford850]

I've seen a lot of people talk about low end torque on this forum. As I recall Chris has complained about the low end torque of the Hemi. I've got to believe this twin turbo V6 is going to be a high strung engine. I would think the peak power is going to be way up in the RPM band. Is this going to make truck people happy?

In the first post from Chris: "A beast 3.5L V6 Twin Turbo: 365HP/420 FT TQ at 2500 rpm and 90% of that below 1,700 rpm."
The low end torque is the reason this engine is getting such good reviews so far. We'll have to wait for the official estimated MPG to see if that will help or hurt the reviews.
The 5.0 will be a more high strung engine though, as it does need the RPM for power.

 

[Reg]

As a diesel fan I don't know why manufacturers don't offer more diesel selections.

Jeep had a diesel but in the wrong vehicle in my opinion. GMC should have done a diesel in their baby Hummer line because the gas models sucked gas.

More and more Euro manufacturers are going diesel, but still not here in the USA.

Could you imagine a F150 with a small diesel. I purchased a VW Bug a few years back with a diesel and that thing passed everything on the road and got over 35Mpg. if I drove sanely.

I'm driving a Dodge Sprinter now that I traded a GMC 350 dually Duramax for, and the diesel in the Dodge purrs. I took a heavy load over the mountain roads near Denver and you couldn't feel the load.

The Duramax was fine but never got past 11mpg. With the Sprinter I'm hitting 22 all day long and better if don't race around.

Something WRONG with that d-Max.
My 1 ton has averaged 14.1 in 145+ Kmiles, a recent "towing only" span of some 22Kmiles has 14.8, without the trailer it gets 18.3 but that is for ONLY short around town trips, it is primarily a tow vehicle.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I've seen a lot of people talk about low end torque on this forum. As I recall Chris has complained about the low end torque of the Hemi. I've got to believe this twin turbo V6 is going to be a high strung engine. I would think the peak power is going to be way up in the RPM band. Is this going to make truck people happy?

Actually it makes about 420 FT tq at 2500 rpm and makes 90% of that at 1700 rpm. I will see if I can find the torque curve again.

Chris