Instrumented Test
Examples of real courage in the auto industry are rare, as the astronomical stakes involved with any new vehicle program tend to produce conservative, play-it-safe thinking. Ford, which has a long history of building cars and trucks to the penny, has consistently proved the rule with few exceptions, the most notable of which is the original Taurus.
Now comes the aluminum 2015 F-150, a gamble so big, so daring, that it swamps the Taurus and even the flathead V-8 in Ford’s limited pantheon of huge risk-taking. The F-series pickup, with more than 600,000 sold in a good year, is Ford’s bank, its golden goose. Ford’s F-series business alone could qualify as a Fortune 100 company—just that one product line. Executives tamper with it at their great peril.
So when this loaded, $61,520 Platinum SuperCrew rolled up, a 19.3-foot-long monument in steel and twice-as-expensive aluminum that rewrites all the rules in the truck business to set a new benchmark curb weight in the half-ton pickup class, we expected singing angels and a heavenly golden spotlight. Instead, the truck just sat there all shiny from a fresh wash, its 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 idling quietly.
The new F-150’s styling takes the Tonka Truck theme that Ford has been playing with for several years to even greater heights, literally. The Platinum’s three-bar grille is a vertical and much higher wall of chrome and mesh that reminds us of an industrial air conditioner or Goliath’s electric razor. You gotta want a truck with a big, square face that looks unabashedly like industrial equipment to go for the vibe that the F-150’s putting out.
Walking around this full-boat Platinum, you get the sense that a minivan team, which racks its collective brain to come up with new doodads for separating their box from everyone else’s boxes, was detailed to this truck to separate it from everybody else’s four-door pickup. As before, the F-150’s bed walls are high, but mechanical pop-out steps just aft of the cab allow anyone to scramble over the side. They deploy via a mechanical plunger on heavy, stamped-steel arms capable of withstanding a rock blow, and it takes some effort to push them back into the locked position with your foot.
More bed access is built into the tailgate, with a hideaway stair step packed into the panel. Pull it and the accompanying folding handrail out to (very) safely climb up into the bed. It looks nifty and clever, like something Q Branch would devise, until you realize that Chevrolet accomplishes pretty much the same thing with simple cutouts for feet and hands in the corners of the rear bumper and bedsides. Do cowboys need handrails?
We opened the F-150’s massive door, watched the faired-in running board glide down on electric arms—watch your shins!—and stepped in. Compared with the more carlike Chevrolet Silverado, you sit higher in the F-150, with a commanding view over the dash and all you survey. And in the Platinum 4x4, there’s a lot to survey. For the $55,980 base price, you get full Sync with MyFord Touch including an 8.0-inch high-def center-console screen plus a second 4.2-inch “productivity screen” between the gauges operated by thumb controls on the steering wheel. There are leather power-adjusted mega-thrones, a power tilt and telescoping wheel that is also heated, voice-activated dual-zone climate control, remote tailgate release from the key fob, a power sliding rear window, and other things that range riders didn’t know they needed. A $905 Technology pack adds a 360-degree camera system, lane-keeping assist, and dynamic hitch assist that helps guide you backward to a waiting trailer. A twin-panel moonroof is the most expensive option, at $1295. If there’s anything else this truck needs, it probably requires a separate license and a federal background check.
