Heart Transplant: The 2018 Ford F-150 4X4 SuperCrew Power Stroke Diesel

The 2018 Ford F-150 4X4 SuperCrew Power Stroke Diesel.

It's been forty or more years since they used the slogan in their advertising, but...Ford has a better idea.  Diesels are terrific for towing, because of their serious torque, and for offsetting the often-dismal fuel economy of the truly big 3/4-ton and larger trucks they're used in.

So, why not put a smaller diesel in a half-ton pickup, put some serious towing capacity in the hands of buyers who don't really need the monster F-250 Super Duty,  and offer some significant fuel economy to buyers of the F-150?

Trucking Royalty: The 2017 Ford F-150 4x4 SuperCrew King Ranch

The 2017 Ford F-150 4X4 SuperCrew King Ranch.

Ford hit a home run when it whipped up the deal at the turn of the millennium with the folks at King Ranch.  The number one truck in America got a model named after the largest ranch in Texas.  Back in 2000, when manufacturers were truly beginning to grasp that size mattered when it came to pickup trucks, and that nothing succeeded like excess, introducing a King Ranch edition was a stroke of genius.

Fast-forward nearly two decades and the only thing that has changed is that the taste of the American pickup-buying public has grown more voracious.  The King Ranch is now in the middle of the F-150 lineup (if you remove the off-road Raptor and the work-truck XL), with the XLT and Lariat below and the Platinum and Limited above.

A Little Bit Extra: The 2017 Ford F-150 4x4 SuperCrew Platinum

2017 Ford F-150 4X4 SuperCrew Platinum

Pickup trucks have become all about the extras.  Humble two-door standard cabs do not cut it anymore, except as work trucks for public utilities.  No, a privately-owned pickup truck today has to be a pickup truck, a performance vehicle, a luxury vehicle and, ideally, bigger, glitzier and more expensive than the neighbor's pickup truck.

Boyhood Dream Come True: The 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor

The 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor.

When I was a kid in the 1960s, the coolest thing on God's green earth to me was a late 40s-early 50s Dodge Power Wagon.  It was the ultimate expression of a pickup truck.  Go anywhere, do anything.  And growing up in the Eastern High Sierra from 1965 on, there were actually a few of them doing just that for this young man to admire.

Dodge has tried to recapture that magic on occasion (but not very hard) by applying the Power Wagon name to its trucks.  But the folks at Ford, they get it...and when it comes to a modern-day Power Wagon, they've got it.

4x4 Status Symbol: The 2016 Ford F-150 4x4 SuperCrew Lariat

The 2016 Ford F-150 4x4 SuperCrew Lariat.

Those of us old enough to remember when a Lincoln in the driveway was the sign you had arrived are rapidly becoming a minority.  It has been a while.  And the new expression of that status, especially here in the Desert Southwest, is a truck.  An expensive truck.

Full Lux Truck: The 2015 Ford F-150 4X4 Supercrew Platinum

The 2015 Ford F-150.

Year in, year out, there is one constant in the automotive business, and that is that the best-selling car is a truck.  Specifically, the Ford F-150.  They replaced the family sedan long ago, and now, people with the means to buy luxury cars are putting the money down on Ford pickups instead.

Ford F-150 Supercrew Lariat Review

If you were wondering why Lincoln chose to discontinue building the Mark LT pickup this year, meet the reason:

The Ford F-150 4X4 Supercrew Lariat.

A fact fewer and fewer people seem to know: Full-size pickup trucks can be fairly cheap. A base Ford F-150 XL standard cab starts at $20,815.

But not this one. Base price: $37,990. And the Ford PR folks slathered on more than eight grand worth of options (special color metallic paint, limited slip axle, navigation, a chrome step bar, moonroof, the Lariat Plus package, 20 inch aluminum wheels, a trailer brake controller and heated and cooled leather captain's chairs) for a bottom line before discounts of $46,195.

Thank goodness for the $1,000 Lariat premium discount...it's really only $45,195.

Incredibly, the Lariat isn't the top of the line...meaning $45,195 isn't all the money you can spend for a Ford truck. The King Ranch edition starts about six grand higher than the Lariat base price...and the Platinum goes $1600 above the King Ranch.

Meaning you can break $50,000 here.

Mileage? Well, rent a car to go to the Sierra Club meetings. The EPA says 14 city/18 highway.

So...given all that, how is it?

If you want a full-size, four-door truck loaded like only Lincoln Town Cars used to be (and more tasefully at that)...and it appears that's exactly how truck buyers like them these days, then this is the one.

At least, I think. It's definitely one-upped the Chevy Silverado. There's also a new Dodge Ram pickup for 2009, but Chrysler pulled it out of the Phoenix press fleet a few weeks before my scheduled week in it. Will we see one again? If you know the answer, a courtesy call to the UAW workers biting their nails over Mopar's future would be nice.

                                                           

Keep your gear dry with a Ford F150 tonneau cover from AmericanTrucks.

Ford F-150 Harley Davidson Review

Upside to the current downturn in car (and especially truck) sales: There are still vehicles on dealer lots that should have been gone a long time ago...and you can get screaming deals.

Case in point: The 2008 Ford F-150 Harley Davidson. It's the most powerful factory-built F-series truck ever. Just how powerful is that? 450 horsepower and 500 lbs/ft of torque from a 5.4 liter supercharged V8 engine. And all that's wrapped in some of the baddest-looking truck on the road. What do you get? Let's just quote liberally from the Ford press release:

Unique chrome billet grille and lower front valance.

Body color bumper, mirror caps, ground effects, door and tailgate handles.

Blacked-out headlamps with black bulb shield and dark tinted, smoked-out taillamps.

Windshield with Bar & Shield logo dot pattern and Alliance logo.

New 22-inch polished forged-aluminum wheels with the Bar & Shield logo on center caps.

Forged aluminum "105th Anniversary Harley-Davidson F-150" Medallions on the fenders and tailgate.

Chrome dual exhaust tips and tie-down hooks.

Rubber bed mat with HARLEY-DAVIDSON Bar & Shield logo.

The Vintage Copper and Black color scheme is carried onto the interior that features Black/Dusted Copper leather-trimmed front captain's chairs and rear bench seat with die-cast Bar & Shield logos embedded in the leather. Other interior features are:

Two-tone leather shifter, console lid and steering wheel.

High-gloss piano black floor console and center stack with the Bar & Shield logos, as well as chrome vent rings and unique instrument cluster.

Serialized nickel plate displaying the production VIN and number.

Brushed stainless steel pedals.

The center stack, matching door-trim panels and lower part of the windshield feature numerous miniature Bar & Shield logos. In fact, the center stack panel was inspired by similar panels found on certain Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

We'll stop quoting the press release here and tell you that the week-long test of this truck was one long giggle. More fun than I usually have with cars and that's saying something. This one was a loaded 2-wheel drive model...$13,000 worth of options (pretty much everything available) running the final total up to a whopping $50,035.

Now remember, this is an '08. The all-new '09 F-150s are arriving at dealerships as you read this. The limited run of '08 Harley-Davidson editions should have been in happy owners' garages months ago. But you know what happened to truck sales. A quick search online as this is written shows a few examples languishing on dealer lots with price tags as much as $10,000 cheaper than MSRP. Now's your chance.