I am not a pickup person, at least not modern, super sized pickup sense. I do like classic trucks as well as the more tidy sized mini trucks of old from the Seventies to Nineties. But this purchase was not for me but rather for my wife who enjoys modern vehicles and Ford trucks. Her family has a bit of Ford truck history. But it also meant we could have a vehicle capable of towing.
For her it had to be a Ford which left the question of what engine to go with? We settled on the 5.0L V8 but why pick it over the Ecoboost V6? Well, my wife claimed at the time that she would like to hang onto this vehicle for the long term so I figured the greater cost of extra fuel burned by the V8 would be more than offset by the more expensive maintenance and repair of the blown V6. Did I have any numbers to back this up? No, but that was my gut feeling at the time. As a bonus the V8 sounds better. The 5.0-liter V8 of 2012 produces 360 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque which means it has plenty of power and easy enough to spin the tires with the traction control off.
The thing that struck me the most about this generation of F150 with the SuperCrew cab was the space in the back seat. It is practically a limousine like with more leg room than anyone outside of the tallest basketball star could ever need. It was quite the step up for our boys from the Mazda 2 which was getting rather tight when the whole family piled in.
The front seats were quite comfortable as well making it a rather decent road trip vehicle if you discount the cost of fuel. I can see why these have become the go-to family haulers in various places like Alberta and Texas.
Fuel consumption was not the truck’s strong suit. The tank was rather large with an impressive range but filling from empty could lighten one’s wallet considerably.
We had a hybrid camping trailer for a couple years that we hauled with the Ford. Overkill really but I had/have no interest in owning a giant camping trailer. It defeats the point of getting away for me. I searched our archives but apparently I took no photos it with the truck connected. I did manage to put the Ford to use a few other times towing a rented car hauler trailer which it excelled at. It barely even felt the big Pontiac back there.
Sadly one night on the way to buy some used winter tires for the truck I managed to smash into a deer that leapt across the road.
This is what happens when you hit a deer at 110km/h. Not my finest moment and I sure was not popular at home. Insurance fixed the F150 back to good as new. I think my wife never trusted it to be fully fixed as about a year later she traded it in for her current vehicle which does not have nearly the towing capacity. I still see the Ford around town from time to time so hopefully it is giving the new owners good service. I guess I will need to buy vehicles that can actually make it home under their own power for a while.
I do *occasionally* have a need for an open bed truck; but not THAT often.
My ’66 Ford Ranchero car/truck combo serves me well.
Interesting that you chose the eight over the six, because (per my recollection) that’s exactly what Ford expected would happen, and everyone was blindsided when the six proved more popular than the eight.
“This is what happens when you hit a deer at 110km/h. Not my finest moment “
I’d lay the blame squarely at the feet (hooves?) of the deer, and point out that until someone equips them with reflectors or marker lights, there’s no real way to factor them into your driving.
Years ago, a wolf cut across my lane on I-70 about 10 yards out (but we missed, thank god). I was doing 70 MPH in pitch dark conditions, and I must have been 50 yards past the crossing point before my reflexes kicked in.
I think I managed to move my foot onto the brake before he jumped in front but that was about it. Dusk can be a dangerous time as deer seem to have no will to live.
A secretary in my office once hit a buck with her Honda Accord at 40 MPH. It crushed the radiator, flew over the hood, landed on the roof near the windshield, then rolled off the trunk. She wanted the car totaled, but insurance resisted.
Upon return of the Accord, she hear the worst wind noise around the A and B pillars at speed. She eventually sold the car.
Id go with the 5.0 over the 6 anyday. Same reason I got a used accord v6 instead of the new 2.0T..turbos cant be trusted for long term reliability compared to a naturally aspirated alternative.
In the 70’s, 80s, or 90s, I would have agreed with you. I haven’t heard/read of a lot of turbo failures in the past 20 years.
Exactly. And people think replacing a turbo is some kind of voodoo. It’s a mechanical part that sits between the exhaust manifold and the downpipe with a couple of hoses and perhaps a sensor attached to it. Not exactly rocket science. It contains exactly one moving part. More people would be concerned about a Honda transmission behind a V6 if we are going to be all worried about things that likely won’t be an issue.
Oh i know exactly how turbos work. Its just common sense that the complexity they add to a drivetrain will lead to more issues over the long term. Its a safer bet to go naturally aspirated. Thats why toyota has stuck with naturally aspirated engines.
It turns out that the issue that seems to plague the turbo V6 isn’t the turbo, but the fuel injection…or rather, the lack of port injection, leading to carbon buildup on the intake valves. Ford – and others – are now fitting these with both direct AND port injection.
As for V8 reliability, the Ford 5.4L Triton hasn’t helped their reputation. Ask me how I know. But the 5.0L Coyote seems to be a better unit.
The subject 5.0 was a good engine. The revised 2018+ version is not. Ford’s most reliable engine right now appears to be the 2.7 EcoBoost. It’s literally built like a diesel with offset connecting rods, compressed graphite iron block, water cooled exhaust manifolds, etc.
And yeah, as a former owner of a 5.4, I know all too well that you cannot assume an NA V8 will be reliable. None of these new engines are simple, and I don’t think I’d trust any of them past 10 years.
Interesting the concern with the Deer damage, but it sounds like the truck was a bit overkill anyway. My mother has hit (or has been hit) by three Deer in her 2005 Kia Sedona in Tompkins County with the last Deer totalling it and she bought the Kia back from the insurance company so she could keep driving it. One Deer hit the passenger side, one the driver side, and one Deer damaged the front end.
I’d be happy that I wasn’t driving the Mazda 2. You can always buy another vehicle but another DS is hard to come by.
I think with the lower Mazda the deer would have hit the hood, come up into the windshield.
This sounds like it was the ideal drivetrain in a nearly ideal vehicle. Deer seem to be rather suicidal creatures.
I don’t know about suicidal but deer are certainly not among the brightest of God’s creatures. I’ve never hit one but have had several near misses, one time I jumped on the brakes to miss a deer and spilled 40 dollars worth of Mexican food all over the car. An annual occurrence here, when the Ohio River floods the bottomland, is a mass deer migration across US41 as they move into Audubon State Park to escape the rising water. The state police have to come out and direct traffic while several hundred deer work their way across the highway. Even so several of them don’t make it and their carcasses have to be cleaned up by the highway department.
That’s deer. In 2008 I was involved with a flood along US 61 north of Hannibal, Missouri. A levee had broke and a woman in a Dodge Caravan had encountered an escaping deer running so hard it ran into the passenger side sliding door, nearly destroying the door.
I’ve hit one deer, at 40 mph, and it was not a fun experience. At the 120 kph Dave stated, I can’t image the extra fun in that.
Deer are idiots and a menace here in Arkansas at night on the rural highways. I put brighter bulbs in my last car just to get a jump on seeing them Hunting season with modern guns (as opposed to black powder muzzle loaders) started today and that will help the problem somewhat. Even on the interstate, you will see an occasional carcass and groups of deer lurking along the median at night.
“For her it had to be a Ford which left the question of what engine to go with? We settled on the 5.0L V8 but why pick it over the Ecoboost V6? Well, my wife claimed at the time that she would like to hang onto this vehicle for the long term so I figured the greater cost of extra fuel burned by the V8 would be more than offset by the more expensive maintenance and repair of the blown V6. Did I have any numbers to back this up? No, but that was my gut feeling at the time. As a bonus the V8 sounds better.”
I bought a 2013 with the Coyote V-8 for all the same reasons; predicted long ownership window, perhaps fewer long term issues, and as a bonus it sounds great!
I also recall thinking that with the aggressive moves on CAFE that the government was making at the time that the era of the V-8 might be dead within a few years. I wanted to get one while I still could. As it was, the Coyote was the lone wolf V-8 after 2014 when the 6.2 was dropped.
“This is what happens when you hit a deer at 110km/h. Not my finest moment and I sure was not popular at home.” TELL ME ABOUT IT! I had to go through this TWICE with my ’96 Aerostar–Dec. 2013 at night & Jan. 2018 early in the morning–and I wasn’t going NEAR that fast when it happened either. But BOTH times I managed to make it back home on my own. Second time around, however, the transmission was already abandoning ship & the water pump (unexpectedly) was going to be next. Then came along my 2011 Ranger (still have) and the Aerostar was sold to the junkyard. Let’s see ANY non-truck-based vehicle fare any better in this day & age.
Correction: the second hit was in FEBRUARY 2018.
Gas Purchase: This doesn’t say anything about mileage, but rough calculation yields about 32 US gallons at about $96, so about $3/US per gallon. Sound right, anyone?
Speaking of which, David Saunders, can you tell us anything about mileage around-town, cruising, towing?
I never did really calculate mileage. Cruising on the highway it was not too bad. Around the city was never going to be strong suit for it but much better than the Expedition.
Yes, those deer hits are nasty. One nice thing about something like this truck is that the deer will not come through the windshield and join you in the passenger area.
I would have chosen the V8 too. I keep being amazed at how inviting these big truck interiors are these days, though by now I shouldn’t be.
Agree, J P Cavanaugh!
If…IF…only Detroit could make a full sized car ( 2 or 4 door) with the interiors and technology they are putting into (one lowly, low class) pick up trucks.