You
know that feeling you get when you see a supercar sitting in the
parking lot of the local six-buck-a-cup coffee shop? The ache in your
stomach, knowing that toddling back and forth from the gated community
to the strip mall is all the driving that poor car will ever do? We get
that same feeling when we see an
F-150
that doesn't have at least 1000 pounds in the bed or 5000 pounds
hanging off the hitch. Just like that supercar, the F-150 is a tool
built for a purpose. It has a goal in life, and the people who never use
it as it was intended are squandering the
truck's ability and a heritage that goes back to 1948.
We had a pair of
Ford F-150s for our 2012 Truck of the Year testing that represent two of the more popular trim levels: a
Platinum Edition EcoBoost and an
XLT 5.0-liter V-8. New for this year, but not on hand, are
Ford's
entry-level 302-horsepower, 3.7-liter V-6 and the range-topping
411-horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8 from the Raptor now available in the
Lariat, Platinum, and Harley Davidson Editions.
We extensively
tested all four engine options early this year, including strapping each
one down to a chassis dyno, so we're very familiar with power levels
and delivery of the entire lineup.
The EcoBoost is the obvious
orange in the apple crate here. Ford's throwing a gasoline
direct-injection, twin-turbo-fed V-6 under the hood of a full-size truck
is almost enough to knock the earth off its axis. What's even more
shocking is that an engine that looks like it would be at home
mid-mounted in a sports car is actually better than any of the
eight-piston offerings in maybe any company's lineup. It clearly checks
the box for Engineering Excellence, one of the key criteria for any Of
The Year competitor. Truck Trend editor Allyson Harwood noted, "On the
road, the EcoBoost makes the 5.0-liter look like obsolete technology.
The twin-turbo V-6 is incredibly quick and eager, power is abundant
throughout the rpm range, and I didn't really notice any lag."
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