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Ford’;s big aluminum gamble pays off.
Examples of true courage in the auto market are uncommon, as the astronomical stakes involved with any new automobile program tend to produce conservative, play-it-secure considering. Ford, which has a extended history of developing automobiles and trucks to the penny, has regularly proved the rule with handful of exceptions, the most notable of which is the original Taurus.
Now comes the aluminum 2015 F-150, a gamble so large, so daring, that it swamps the Taurus and even the flathead V-8 in Ford’s restricted pantheon of massive risk-taking. The F-series pickup, with far more than 600,000 sold in a great year, is Ford’s bank, its golden goose. Ford’s F-series organization alone could qualify as a Fortune 25 company—just that one item line. Executives tamper with it at their excellent peril.
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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 guidelines in the truck enterprise to set a new benchmark curb weight in the half-ton pickup class, we anticipated singing angels and a heavenly golden spotlight. Rather, the truck just sat there all shiny from a fresh wash, its 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 idling quietly.
Brasher than Ever
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 3-bar grille is a vertical and much greater 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 huge, square face that looks unabashedly like industrial gear to go for the vibe that the F-150’s placing 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 absolutely everyone else’s boxes, was detailed to this truck to separate it from everyone else’s 4-door pickup. As just before, the F-150’s bed walls are high, but mechanical pop-out steps just aft of the cab permit any individual to scramble more than the side. They deploy by way of a mechanical plunger on heavy, stamped-steel arms capable of withstanding a rock blow, and it requires some work to push them back into the locked position with your foot.
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More bed access is constructed into the tailgate, with a hideaway stair step packed into the panel. Pull it and the accompanying folding handrail out to (extremely) safely climb up into the bed. It appears nifty and clever, like one thing Q Branch would devise, till you understand that Chevrolet accomplishes pretty a lot the same thing with basic cutouts for feet and hands in the corners of the rear bumper and bedsides. Do cowboys need handrails?
Tech Out the Wazoo
We opened the F-150’s huge door, watched the faired-in running board glide down on electric arms—watch your shins!—and stepped in. Compared with the much more carlike Chevrolet Silverado, you sit higher in the F-150, with a commanding view more than the dash and all you survey. And in the Platinum 4×4, there’s a lot to survey. For the $ 55,980 base price tag, you get complete Sync with MyFord Touch which includes an 8.-inch high-def center-console screen plus a second 4.2-inch “productivity screen” among the gauges operated by thumb controls on the steering wheel. There are leather energy-adjusted mega-thrones, a power tilt and telescoping wheel that is also heated, voice-activated dual-zone climate control, remote tailgate release from the important fob, a power sliding rear window, and other factors that variety riders didn’t know they necessary. A $ 905 Technology pack adds a 360-degree camera program, lane-keeping assist, and dynamic hitch help that helps guide you backward to a waiting trailer. A twin-panel moonroof is the most expensive choice, at $ 1295. If there’s something else this truck wants, it possibly requires a separate license and a federal background check.
Continued…
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