Ford lost my interest with the 04 restyle by needing a stepladder to get something out of the bed, now they keep on going with it by requiring a ladder to get in and out of the cab as well. Shoulda installed that Superduty tailgate cab/handle under the driver’s door instead, or perhaps one of those inflatable 747 emergency slides to get out. It’s also got enough buttons on the dash to land the space shuttle. (Where’s the ‘any’ key? aka Homer Simpson)

As far as styling goes, the Ram is the much better looking of the two inside and out. Kudos to Ford though for actually improving MPG with this monster.

Ah, the one main drawback of a manual transmission. Been there, done that. The drive on Unpleasant Hell…er…Pleasant Hill between Alpharetta and Lilburn would make even the staunchest stick driver into a slushboxer, and that was in 2000 & 2001!

I hope the get rid of the steering wheel 2 inch gap play, dash board not even etc etc and the most horrible is the freakin Ford Transmission.

It never will sell in other countries because who needs it. Towing oh please? Majority of Americans can’t even drive a Stick Shift do you think they can tow a boat or a camper? A lot of people nowadays prefer buying Winnebago or other recreational vehicle that They drive not tow them.

Who needs 2 gas guzzler at the same time I rather have one.

Yes it is a contstruction vehicle just remind those guys doing 100 mph on 95 that It’s not a sports car to drive fast especially in winter storms.

My father never like the F-150 he drives the Ford Ranger. He said it just a pain to drive because it is too big and he never haul heavy and bigger pay load.
He actually really hates it when he drives in a grocery store he has to look left,right rear and front just to avoid hitting a cart, a person or a car and not only in supermarket but also in parking in Hospitals,movie theater and making a U turn.

Why is it 4 star. are you reviewing the interior? It is still the old F-150 to me but different interior.

If Ford made a 4 cylinder with 350 pounds of torque. That would be great but a premature Horsepower not even close to 300 hp thing must be loud.

Believe me FORD RANGER is Better

Crank-down windows are just one less thing to break or get greased up. A dainty looking interior with all the fine cloths, dash, and all the techni gadgets will just get greased up and laughed at by most buyers looking at the F-150. It would be a joke to put all that crap inside a work truck.

If you don’t want a cheap looking truck interior, there is always the Caddilac.

Trucks are trucks. If they made them to the specs the average consumer is looking for in a vehicle, they would cease to be what they are- rugged work- horses that are hard to break and can take a beating.

I probably see a dozen 10-year-old GMs for every vintage Ford. I rarely see old Dodges. I don’t know if they’re all in truck heaven, or they just didn’t sell many of them.

1. Towing with a stick shift can be a real challenge. Clutches go fast when pulling anything unless the driver is a professional. Since most pick up owners are often seated in a boat seat when a friend pulls up the ramp, I have noticed most of my fishing companions are not professional truck drivers. I would rather my AT figure it out rather than the left foot of a driver who has not used a clutch since high school.

2. A work truck is often driven by different people. It seems that sticks are popular in Mexico but most Americans need lessons to drive one, especially if the load is heavy with bricks, sod and the like. The lesson can get real expensive.

3. Driving a stick shift of any vehicle in a major metro area can be a fatiguing experience. Several laps on laps on the Interstates and 400 in Atlanta during stop and go rush hour traffic will convert you, unless you are a glutton for punishment.

In uber-base trim level the interior is an improvement over the outgoing model, but it is still very utilitarian. The plastics are hard, but they are free of molding lines and blemishes and are of a good quality.

The interior shot above looks like an FX-4 with the colorscheme, in other trim levels there is less shiny-silver vs shiny-black.

I don’t agree with the ‘too many buttons’ thing though. People criticize BMW for iDrive and how you have to go through multiple menus to get to anything, and then criticize any other company if they put discrete buttons so everything is easily done at one touch? Yes, the same functionality could have been acheived with less buttons, but it wouldn’t have made things any easier, and the result would have been just more bare empty plastic.

Having driven multiple vehicles with the new corporate center stack (this is basically the same setup as the Flex and Lincoln MKS) it is very ergonomic in use, the only issue being that I have occasionally confused the climate and audio knobs when not looking, of course, once someone has had the vehicle more than a week they will remember which is which and problem solved.

Also, for anyone going for the Luxo-truck version with Nav, it has the new travelink and hard disk powered sync system that allows every function to be controlled by (quite accurate) voice control (from ’set climate 65′ to ‘tune sirius elvis’).

You’re right, the cargo rails being factory installed is not class exclusive. I knew that too – just some over-ambitious copy/pasting.

As for the rest of your comments, well, you’re entitled to your opinion. I can’t write all my reviews to be negative.

jgholt: “For once the focus groups paid off…”

Focus groups work – if the company actually listens to them. The best examples of why Detroit consistantly bungles new models by ignoring the conclusions of focus groups are the 2001 PT Cruiser and Pontiac Aztek.

Focus groups said the PT Cruiser would be a hit, yet Daimler tepidly kept initial production objectives low. The result were lost sales due to lack of product when it quickly became apparent the PT Cruiser was a runaway success, exactly as the focus groups said it would be.

OTOH, focus groups for the Aztek indicated exactly the opposite, that the market wouldn’t support high-volume numbers for the way GM wanted to build and market the vehicle. GM ignored the advice, ramped-up production with lofty sales goals and ended up with lots of unsold Azteks on dealer lots (or had to dump them off to the rental fleets).

BTW, where are the de rigueur chrome fender vents that seem to be a Ford trademark these days?

Nobody makes a half-ton stickshift pickup anymore.

\end rant

I think the interior is TOO luxurious. I want some hard plastics, a bench seat, and cupholders that are aftermarket accessories.

Or you could, y’know, wear your seatbelt.

Re: the hard plastics, though, I don’t see it as a bad thing, as long as they’re good bad plastics. Old Toyotas have that plastic that feels like shit, but you couldn’t break it with a sledgehammer. That’s the kind of stuff a truck needs. Most of the cheap plastics I’ve seen in newer cars don’t really feel up to the same standard.

They really don’t need soft vinyl up there anymore because all cars nowadays have airbags. The only thing soft vinyl was good for in pre-airbag days was for getting your dental impression off of it after you smashed the top of your head into the windshield, and your face into the dash.

Besides hard plastic is better for the auto manufacturers as far as overall cost goes. If the airbags fail to deploy the manufacturer is better off with you killing yourself on the hard plastic dashboard than they would be if you survived and sued the company.

This truck is great because it has that and a great deal of civility. I think the driving dynamics are awesome compared to F-150’s of old and my expectations for a truck, although I have never driven the competition.

My major gripe is the interior styling. They use so many different colors, textures, and shapes it just looks bizarre. Also, I agree that the silver, rock hard plastic on the dash is ugly and looks and feels cheap.

When the dust settles, the truck market will still be huge. I think this truck will keep them on top and keep the company on life support.

Please elaborate about the junket.

In the interests of fair disclosure…

Flight was economy class on Northwest. Hotel was one night at the 4-star “Royal Park Hotel” in Rochester, Michigan.

Food was all catered. Pretty standard wedding/sweet 16/bar mitzvah catering fare. Dinner Tuesday and breakfast on Wednesday were both standard hotel buffet. Lunch both days was catered at Ford facilities. Sandwiches, some hot items. Good but nothing terribly fancy. This is normal for most junkets for mainstream cars.

What else? They provided transportation to and from the airport in one of those tourist buses, along with the rest of the journalists.

That’s what we plebians want to know!

A bit of a nit pick, but this is hardly class exclusive. The Nissan Titan introduced this concept when it came out in late 2003. For that matter, everyone else has since partially copied this great idea, but so far, no one else has mounted them to the floor of the bed and only one or two of the others have one across the back of the cab (can’t recall which though, sorry!) like Nissan has with the Titan. Did you possibly mean class-leading weight capacity of the rails? Otherwise, great review for a great truck, wish my Titan had some of the F-150’s features (except the engine/tranny, I’m quite happy with my Titan’s ability to smoke Tundras;)