You may have read about 2015 Ford F-150, which will have an aluminum rather than steel body. It will be significantly lighter than the same truck made of steel, aluminum weighing a lot less than steel. Even better, while aluminum isn’t forever, it usually lasts really long time. Rusted out floorpans (and beds) are about to become as uncommon as skid marks (all but eliminated be widespread application of anti-lock brakes).
But, all is not pixie dust and unicorn farts – because in the word we live in, there is no free lunch. Steel has its downsides, but so does aluminum. Let’s talk about what they’re not telling you.
First, while the new F-truck is lighter by several hundred pounds (depending on the configuration) it also – surprise – costs more. Base price for the 2015 is $25,420 vs. $24,735 for the 2014. That’s about $700 – which will buy you about 300 gallons of regular unleaded at current almost-reasonable prices (about $2.50-$2.65 in my area as of early November).
Ah, but what about gas mileage? Surely the new – and lighter – truck goes farther on a gallon than the old truck? No doubt. But, how much farther? Enough to make the effort worth the expense?
Ford/EPA have not officially released any stats yet for the ’15 F-truck, but informal testing by journalists (using the truck’s built-in mileage computer) indicates around 23.7 MPG with the new super high-pressure (30-plus PSI at full boost) twin turbo 2.7 liter V-6 engine. This is very good for a full-sized truck. But how does it stack up against the previous (all-steel) F-truck?
We know the stats for that one: 17 city, 23 highway. So, about 20 MPG, average. Which means – if the preliminary data are accurate – the new truck (with the new engine) squeezes out about 4 MPG more.
Color me not so impressed.
Especially given the appx. $700 price uptick in context of the recent drop by about a buck per gallon of the cost of fueling up. Ford wants me (well, you – because I’m not buying anything new) to spend $700 more to save 4 MPG per tankful. But $700 will buy the aforesaid roughly 300 gallons of gas, which at say 20 MPG (the ’14 F-truck’s average, with the larger 3.7 liter V-6) works out to about 6,000 miles of “free” driving” in the ’14 F-truck before the ’15 F-truck would begin to save money at the pump.
Meanwhile, I am skeeved out by the ’15 F-truck’s new 2.7 liter twin turbo engine. Yes, yes. Ford has gone to great lengths to assure long-haul reliability. Teflon connecting rods, and a system that keeps oil flowing to the turbos after shutdown, to keep them from self-cremating.
Still, those turbos spin at more than 50,000 RPM at idle – the rotational speedquadrupling to nearly 200,000 RPM at full boost. Which – to repeat – is in excess of 30 PSI.
I’ll let you be the first to see what happens to this twice-turbo’d wunderkind after the warranty runs out. Me? I’ll stick with a non-turbo’d, under-stressed V-8 that gets 18 MPG. Gas is a lot cheaper than turbos.
Especially two of them.
Meanwhile, you can buy a 28 MPG diesel engine in the Dodge Ram 1500.
But, back to the aluminum vs. steel thing.
