Ford's big aluminum gamble pays off. Car & Driver
By: Aaron Robinson
December 2014
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 important point here is how the Alloy F150 is received by people who are willing to buy one.
Sure the 5.3 Silverado may seem as good but, you're accepting 385 hp/385 lb ft and 16/22 mpg
where as the EB 3.5 F150 gets you 365 hp/460 lb ft and 17/23 mpg... the EB 2.7 will do even better.
It's all down to sustainability, the bulk of F150 sales will see 500-700 lbs weight savings, it's only
at the upper end where loaded examples are barely lighter than the comparable Silverado.
I'm actually looking forward to the response form GM and Ram, bring out those 8-speed autos
and let's get down to it. The next few years are going to see big changes in half ton trucks
and the real winners will be buyers.
Even if this is a GM-fan site, the people that were negative on the Silverado redo last year made a lot more noise than the ones that liked it, yet sales climbed on the new model. Same story here; the negative Nancys are always louder than the satisfied Sallys, so I am not at all worried about Ford and their new F-150.
I agree, several people painted the new Silverado as a failure, didn't go far enough, etc.. So now we have the super Ford, aluminum, turbo, etc. that after reading numerous articles tells me that it is only marginally better. And to me it even looks similar to the past generations - again, something GM took a beating for.
But in the end, even though the Ford made a lot of changes for marginal returns, they got what they needed - huge media attention and the perception of superiority. Probably be enough to get more customers.....
Ford's big aluminum gamble pays off.
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.
GM is the copycat run by bean counters. So many times I see GM let other car makers move the needle....with GM only dipping their toe in the water to steal some success earned by the competitor. Would you have a V series Cadillac without a BMW M? ATS without 3 series? Camaro without Mustang? Escalade without Navigator? Didn't think so.
C'mon GM! The other car companies take risks and innovate...why can't you?
I'm not knocking the truck but this isn't really true. Innovative? I'm not really sure, the truck does have big changes but it doesn't really do anything different. From this article it's merely competitive not dominating as many had thought it would be.
Edit,
Something I just noticed was that the weight of a 2014 Platinum 4x4 Ecoboost is 5,586 lbs.
did these guys actually weigh the new truck or did they look up and quote the wrong number...
Cars.com is quoting a weight of 4,871 lbs for 5.0 Platinum 4x4, around 700 lbs less than the '14.
I have a hard time believing the Ecoboost adds more than 200 lbs over the V8...
To sum up the C&D review, the F-150 is slightly better than the Silverado, but took moving mountains to make it so. This is where we are at in the truck market now. All the OEMs are on their game where all the low hanging fruit has been picked up off the ground already; we are at the point where there are diminishing returns on time and effort. It will take similar advancements on GM's part to jump back to the head of the pack, even though they are just behind the leaders. The ultimate winners? The consumers. There is not a bad truck on the market right now from an American company.
Nowadays a truck buyer can safely pick whatever Big 3 truck looks best to him and know that he's getting a fantastic vehicle. If the manufacturers put as much energy and effort into all of their vehicles as they put into their fullsize trucks, there would be no automotive duds.
Oops, forgot to add 'Big 3' to my statement; I don't put the Nissan or Toyota in the same sandbox as the big boys (even if I don't hate them as much as some do).
The full fuel economy figures for the 2015 Ford F150 pickup have been released on the EPA website and with figures of 19mpg city, 26mpg highway and 22mpg combined for the new 2.7L EcoBoost V6, the 2015 F150 is officially the most fuel efficient gas powered half ton pickup on the market. - See more at: http://www.torquenews.com/106/2015-...powered-competition-mpgs#sthash.wTGlw89o.dpuf
19/26 mpg is great, but that's the 2wd model. I believe the 4wd is 18/23, which is not very impressive for what it is and no where near what people were expecting.
First picture I've seen where I really liked the trucks looks. 61k is a LOT though.
presses the scales to the tune of 5577 pounds. While that makes the F-150 the lightest among the loaded luxury pickups we’ve recently tested, it only undercut an all-steel Silverado High Country 4x4 crew cab we tested last winter by a mere 95 pounds,
It's a nice looking truck that's for sure. However, my dad is going to replace his old Sierra Classic HD with another Sierra or Silverado. My parents have never been fan of the latest Ford designs; the current Ford HD's are atrocious to them (and to me).
Also, I'm still not convinced that the EcoBoost will actually hold up over the long run. Most truck owners keep them for many years and with all that stress on the components I am willing to bed we'll see more failures than a comparable GM truck over the course of many years.
Yep, a Sierra buyer will buy a Sierra or Silverado and the Ford Buyer will buy a Ford. Truck loyalty is the thing of legends.
There are 3.5L Ecoboosts out there with well over 200K miles. The engines are no different than any others. There is a small percentage that have problems, just like all others. About the only difference is, any failure of an EB engine is trumpeted all over the internet as proof that the fears about turbo engines are true !!!
Anyone trading in their old 5.4 F150 for a new 2.7 Ecoboost is going to be shocked at the change in fuel economy.
Ford those guys used to their old truck's economy, the new truck will seem like a diesel
This is where most will be truly happy. Those with the old generation V8s that werent competetive when they came out. A buddy has a 2005 F150 with the 5.4 and he averages, at best, 14 MPG. Going to 20 would really shock him but then again, he got his truck used and at a deep deep discount.
Once again, the worst part about the Ecoboost isnt the turbos but its the cooling system and DI. Ford is getting better at it but I'd still steer clear of it IMO.
Not sure what "Technology" you are referring to, the first aluminum bodies car appeared 100 years ago, and have getting more and more common over the last 10 years, as for Turbo, Again over a 100 years old, and VERY! common over the last 30 years.
Most of the technology Ford has been preaching has been the manufacturing process of the aluminum. At the end of the day the customer doesn't care what processes and investments in manufacturing a manufacturer had to perform to make the product. No one walks into a dealer and buys the latest manufacturing process.
It isn't hard to figure out who the class standout is when fans of the competition get this excited over two comments citing specific areas of the new Silverado as being 'almost as good' as the F150. The most interesting part of this for me is the seriously impressive performance numbers, these trucks are absolute beasts in terms of power to weight/torque curve. When this same basic chassis/body setup underpins the next gen Expedition and Navigator that is really going to be something to see.
And yet more proof of who the segment leader is. Funny, these same posters never have as much to say about ATS quality (using those two words together may actually constitute an oxymoron at this point), or piston slap issues in GM V-8's, or the cylinder lock issue, etc, etc. The reality? Put simply....the king is dead, long live the king.
I still think the Silvy is far better looking, but this is the first time I will even consider buying a Ford.
I've been considering replacing my '10 Dodge, and I've gotten too used to the room behind the back seat in the two door.
Seriously considered sweeping in and getting a RC 8ft Silvy or GMC, but the cab issue made me decide to wait and give Ford a chance.
The HP/lbs ratio in a V8 RC Ford looks pretty enticing.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
GM Inside News Forum
3.5M posts
83.7K members
Since 2003
A forum community dedicated to GM owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about General Motors news, concepts, releases, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!