January 22, 2015 at 1:31 pm by Alexander Stoklosa | Photography by Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Pictures, Chris Doane Automotive
Cadillac’s complete-size, rear-drive CT6 luxury sedan is coming—soon—which means the PR onslaught has only just begun. Case in point: a separate announcement right now about the sedan’s manufacturing processes, which include the use of LASERS (but no sharks). In the run-up to the big 4-door’s debut, Cadillac is also indicating that the CT6 will use a lot of aluminum to save pounds, as nicely as plans to upgrade its dealer ne2rk to assistance the brand’s march forward.
The 1st Cadillac that could be considered a competitor to the Mercedes-Benz S-class and BMW 7-series, the CT6 will be noticeably bigger than the mid-size CTS sedan. (The CTS, as properly as every single other Cadillac save for perhaps the Escalade will soon transition to a new naming convention like that of the CT6: CT(number) for cars and XT(number) for SUVs.) But this we already knew, thanks to announcements made soon after Johan de Nysschen (pictured above) was plucked from Infiniti to run the brand.
The heavy use of aluminum gives credence to Cadillac advertising director Uwe Ellinghaus’s claim in an interview with us late last year that the CT6 would weigh about the same as the smaller, 3700-to-4000-pound CTS. The CTS and ATS already sit on the lighter sides of their classes, and it’s looking as if the CT6 will do the exact same in the full-size realm. That bodes well for the CT6’s dynamics, which Ellinghaus also boasted would rival that of a BMW 5-series (hopefully he was referring to older models—the new one is kinda . . . doughy) in spite of its 7-series-esque dimensions. Moreover, we now know a precise on-sale date for the large Caddy: the 4th quarter of this year.
To prepare its dealers for the most upscale Cadillac sedan supplied in decades, the firm is mandating that its 700 non-standalone dealers become a lot more boutique-like, with a extremely trained and pampering employees. Cadillac will continue to leverage these stores’ geographic blanketing of the U.S. for readily obtainable service areas, although the 200 Cadillac-only dealers will turn out to be the brand’s flagship locations. Each and every dealer will be necessary to make some sort of upgrades, and Cadillac swears it has “no plans” to reduce the all round number of stores. If you drink Cadillac’s Kool-Help, the brand is standing at the precipice of strong sales push—if you don’t, wait until the CT6 arrives and keep an eye on its sales numbers. You can bet we will be.
It is a bird, it really is a plane . . . it is the boulder-decimating new Raptor!
In one particular of his final shows as the cocky, right-wing-mocking speaking head on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert made a gleeful, deliciously prescient point about Americans’ short interest spans for inexpensive gas: “Fuel is inexpensive this week? Give me a 5-year lease on a rolling cargo ship with the aerodynamics of a cinder block!” The statement might have been sarcastic, but there couldn’t be a better climate into which Ford could introduce its second-generation F-150 Raptor.
Hulking on its off-road suspension, widened fenders, and meaty 35-inch tires, the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor is just as outrageously polar bear–mocking and lane-deflowering as its groundbreaking forebear, only now it swills cheap hooch. Not that such a detail matters considering that getting introduced in 2010, the roughly $ 50,000 Raptor has had buyers lining up even through the late stages of financial recession and 4-buck-per-gallon gas. Naturally, we enjoy the point. Who wouldn’t, offered its large power, ability to bomb across craggy terrain at 100 mph, and bad-ass visuals?
Constructed Eco Tough
Happily, Ford stuck to the script for the new model—almost. There has been some paraphrasing in the engine bay, where, rather of the old truck’s 411-hp 6.2-liter V-8, sits a new twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 engine with direct fuel injection. While it shares a displacement figure with the larger of the 2 EcoBoost V-6s obtainable in the typical F-150, the Raptor’s mill attributes a new aluminum block and upgraded internals, revised heads, and tweaked fuel-delivery equipment. Final output figures weren’t offered at the time of this writing, but we’re told to count on 450 to 500 horsepower and far more torque than the current V-8’s 434 lb-ft. As for fuel-economy estimates, Ford is likely to trumpet efficiency gains on account of the turbocharged engine, but horrible, ignorable fuel economy is element of the Raptor’s charm. We’ll file preliminary EPA estimates under “we do not care.”
Of course, 4-wheel drive will be regular, and the Raptor’s setup now contains a terrain-response function that optimizes the truck for varied surfaces such as snow, rocks, and far more. Feeding the transfer case is Ford’s first application of its all-new 10-speed automatic transmission.
You Can not Crush This Beer Can
The new powertrain is bolted to an equally new frame that, although derived from the 2015 F-150’s steel unit, is substantially upgraded to greater deal with the abuse doled out by full-throttle (sweet) jumps, massive rocks, and whatever else a Raptor can subjugate to its will. 2 wheelbases and cab configurations will be supplied: a 133-inch-wheelbase, extended-cab SuperCab and a 145-inch, 4-door SuperCrew. Following in the F-150’s footsteps, the higher-overall performance truck also switches to aluminum bodywork, shedding a claimed 500 or so pounds in the procedure. A composite hood and front fenders additional decrease mass.
Ford’s stylists somehow managed to massage these fancy new materials in such a way as to imbue the Raptor’s rippling physique with even a lot more muscle. The slight upkick to the rear quarter-panels lends the tail a bad-ass stadium-truck appear, and the grille when once more boasts giant “Ford” lettering and federally mandated marker lights on account of the truck’s width. Colossal Ford lettering also tends to make it onto the Raptor’s tailgate, and there are vents on every front fender and one more 1 on the hood, in addition to LED accent lighting everywhere.
The most critical components of all, nevertheless, are sheltered by the Raptor’s blistered fenders. Those would be the Fox Racing shocks, coil-sprung aluminum front control arms, and the leaf-sprung strong rear axle. To increase on the old Raptor’s impressive suspension travel—11.2 inches in front and 12.1 inches in the rear—Ford upped the Fox shocks’ diameters from 2.5 inches to 3.. The units still feature internal bypasses that take the edge off of quick, difficult impacts. Skid plates in front help safeguard against meet-and-greets with desert rubble, and shallower front and rear bumpers increase the truck’s strategy and departure angles. New 17-inch aluminum wheels are wrapped in BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K02 tires that practically scream out for raised white lettering.
It Believes Knows It Can Fly
Amazingly, yet another carry-more than function of the 2017 F-150 Raptor is its close to comprehensive lack of competitors. Dodge delivers the 1500-primarily based Ram Runner, but it is offered only in kit type by way of the Mopar catalog. General Motors in no way picked up the telephone when Ford came calling in 2010, and it hasn’t considering that. Some credit is due to the Ford SVT engineers—who now toil below the Ford Performance banner, hence the absence of “SVT” in the new Raptor’s name—that created such a solution that worked almost as properly on the street as it did in the Baja.
Obtaining sampled many iterations of the new F-150, we can report that the weight loss afforded by the switch to aluminum building is palpable from behind the wheel. Yet for all that, this Raptor version is the one particular we’ve been waiting for. With the base value anticipated to keep about the $ 50,000 mark, it will continue to be within attain of anybody with desert-runner fantasies. So, yeah, Mr. Colbert? You can sign us up for one of these babies.
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.
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.
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.
The last F-150 has left the creating. According to the Detroit Free of charge Press, the final steel-bodied F-150 rolled off the line at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant around 1:30 a.m. final Saturday. Whilst Ford’s Kansas City facility will continue to manufacture steel-bodied F-150s till the finish of the year, the line in Dearborn is becoming dismantled to make space for the new tooling and equipment required to produce aluminum-bodied trucks for the 2015 model year.
The Dearborn plant will be closed till mid-September, placing about 3000 workers on temporary layoff. Employees will be referred to as back in tiers, with 2 crews returning on September 21 and a third on October 20. Beginning initially with preproduction models, the plant is scheduled to return to full speed prior to January.
As Ford’s F-150 is a veritable profit center on wheels, the company’s selection to switch its venerated pickup truck to aluminum is not with no danger. Ford sold 63,240 F-150s in the U.S. in July, the final complete month of production ahead of the $ 359-million switchover began. In order to preserve the money flowing, Ford demands to expedite the switch but with out sacrificing top quality.
Despite the fact that Ford’s 3000 or so U.S. dealers are slated to commence receiving 2015 F-150s by the finish of the year, Automotive News is citing a letter to Ford dealers signed by distribution preparing manager Kevin Giacomini as well as allocation and commodity manager John Bradley that indicates fleet customers and special orders may possibly have to wait until February of 2015 to take delivery: “We recognize the desire to get the customer units as rapidly as achievable, but do not want to compromise our commitment to quality for the sake of a handful of extra weeks of delivery.” Clearly, Ford is hedging its bets and erring on the side of caution as far as the delivery timetable is concerned. Tempting the hand of fate, Bruce Hettle, Ford’s head of North American manufacturing, has gone on the record stating, “There is nothing we see on the horizon to preclude us from launching on time.” Words to bear in mind.
Aluminum-compliant repair shops such as this one, Autometric in metro Detroit, are sure to proliferate.
When the new F-150 lands in Ford showrooms later this year, we’re betting it will be more expensive to buy, insure, and repair than its predecessor. That’s because the cab and bed are made from aluminum to trim weight and boost mileage. And replacing steel with aluminum always costs more. While F-150 prices are still secret and insurers are loath to quote premiums, large dollar signs are already hovering over repair shops. Aluminum bends and dents differently than steel does, so before Ford starts selling its nonferrous pickup, it has to train and equip its collision-repair army. We’ve done some digging to see what it will cost for shops to become aluminum compliant, and it won’t be cheap.
This is no trivial pursuit. Only 20 percent of Ford’s 3100 dealers fix crash damage in-house. The rest delegate repairs to the 35,000 independent body shops in the U.S., which run the gamut from Joe’s Heat-N-Beat Emporium to the craftsmen schooled in the fine art of straightening aluminum Audis, Ferraris, and Teslas. If he’s not already equipped to do aluminum work, Joe will need to invest almost $ 40,000 in training and upgrades. To encourage early adopters among its dealers, Ford is pitching in free training for one technician per dealership in courses covering both generic aluminum repair and techniques that are specific to the F-150. Tools, however, are the bigger cost. To avoid galvanic corrosion between dissimilar metals, tools previously used on steel cannot be used to beat aluminum. Ford is offering dealers a 20-percent discount against the first $ 50,000 spent on the new equipment.
The red tools can only be used on aluminum, per Porsche’s Certified Collision program.
Autometric Collision, a premier suburban-Detroit enterprise with 9 shops and 6 aluminum specialists, has been down this road. President Larry Smith says he invested $ 400,000 in tools, training, and facilities dedicated to aluminum work on Jaguars, Porsches, and the like. Asked to compare the cost of aluminum versus steel repairs, he explains: “There are cases where aluminum actually costs less [over time] because it’s stronger and less susceptible to distortion than steel.” To assure that aluminum stands up to abuse, especially in cargo beds, Ford will surely use much heavier-gauge material for the F-150’s sheetmetal. Also, the best aluminum has a higher yield strength than some steel. Smith adds: “But unlike steel structural members, which can be straightened, similar aluminum parts and castings always have to be replaced. A key difference between the 2 metals is that steel has a memory, but aluminum does not.”
While the upfront costs might be intimidating, prospects look good for the shops that can stomach them. Until now, aluminum has been used in relatively low-volume vehicles. With Ford expecting to sell more than half a million F-150s in 2015, repairing the lightweight metal is about to become a vastly more lucrative business.
Keep ’Em Separated For toolmakers, aluminum body work is the biggest payday since teens started driving. Here’s how much body shops should spend to get their operations up to snuff:
Ford has divulged that it delivered 6 F-150 pickups to 3 fleet clients beginning in 2011 with no telling them that the trucks’ beds were created from aluminum. The thought, of course, was to test the planned switch to the lightweight metal for the 2015 F-150
The 3 organizations knew they have been receiving prototype trucks, says Ford spokesman Mike Levine, but the automaker didn’t divulge how the trucks differed from those in showrooms. (Ford also hid the aluminum F-150 in plain view when it raced in the 2013 Baja 1000 you can read about that act of deception right here.)
“We wanted to test the truck outside, in the harshest conditions and in the hands of genuine customers, with no limits,” Ford stated in a release. “So when we gave them the prototype automobiles, we told them to use the trucks like their other . . . trucks, and we would be back to stick to their progress.”
The 2011 model F-150 trucks had been built with regular steel cabs and fitted with prototype aluminum cargo beds stamped to look identical to the steel 2011 units. The beds have been painted, but had been left unprotected otherwise. The trucks had been then loaned to Barrick Gold Corporation, a Nevada mining firm Walsh Construction, which put them to use at a hydroelectric dam in Pennsylvania and a freeway interchange project in Alabama and a North Carolina utility organization that assigned the trucks to crews that regularly ventured up mountain roads and off-road to replace and keep utility poles and study meters. Ford checked on the trucks each and every 3 months to see how they have been holding up and glean feedback from the customers.
The fleet operators noticed that the beds didn’t rust when the paint was scratched by way of. According to Levine, they also saw no cracking of the bed floors and observed that the bed mounts didn’t break, as often happened with the steel beds, especially at the gold mine. They also couldn’t stick magnets to the beds.
As a outcome of these tests, Ford says it made the floor thicker and it modified the tailgate design and style to make them a lot more sturdy for the 2015 F-150. The prototype trucks are nonetheless in use at the 3 firms, who had been lastly clued in to the secret at the 2015 F-150 reveal at January’s Detroit auto show. Sort of gives new which means to the term “embedded,” does not it?
