I'm in the market for a new car and have been test driving lots of vehicles lately. When one is a serious candidate, I also look around for one I can rent for a couple days to take on a business or family trip to get a better feel for how it works for me in a day-to-day situation.

Most of the vehicles I've been driving recently have been well-equipped 4-door sedans in the $25-35,000 range, but a lot of my friends and neighbors have been buying big trucks, and I've got to admit, there's a certain appeal to the truck. I've had small Toyota trucks before and I always liked having the open cargo area, which gave me the flexibility of buying big items on impulse or doing home improvement projects easily. No need for delivery, I can just load that topsoil into the back of my truck, thank you very much!

I'm a firm believer in considering as many options as possible in order to really know what's best and to really get the best deal. Comparing apples to oranges can be loads of fun when buying a car. A few days after driving the Ford F-150, I went into a Mercedes dealership to check out the C-230. The saleswoman asked what kinds of vehicles I was comparing to the Mercedes. I rattled off the de rigueur competitors, like the BMW 330 and Jaguar X-type, then threw in "and a Ford F150 crew cab". The look on the woman's face was priceless! "We don't compete with pickups," she informed me with a sneer. I had to struggle to keep a straight face!

Unfortunately for her, it is the customer who defines the competitive landscape, not the salesman, and definitely not any suit-wearing monkey from corporate marketing. She didn't understand that, and it's her loss because the C-230 was a good car and she could have gotten a sale if she was smart enough and quick enough to deal with a smart-a*s customer like me who happened to have been shopping with a checkbook in hand.

Smack! "We don't give a poop! Get back to talking about the Ford!"

Oh yeah, right! This is a Ford F-150 review. Sorry about that...

My impressions of this vehicle are based mostly on a 2-day weekend rental from Thrifty Car Rental (yes, some locations do rent pickups -- by the way, here in Houston, Budget seems to be a good place to rent Ford Rangers if you like driving small pickups). I also test-drove the King Ranch version at a local Ford dealer, but just as a 30-minute test drive -- can't tell as much from that, but it's kind of fun to check out the fully loaded deal.

Exterior Styling, Fit and Finish, and Etc. Too
I like the looks and styling of full-size Ford trucks. They aren't as boxy and square as they used to be, but they still look utilitarian enough to be taken seriously as trucks and not as glorified cars with a little cargo space tacked on, which is I how I view some new trucks (which I will identify only as Ford Explorer, Nissan Frontier, and Chevrolet Avalanche).

Ground clearance is excellent, even with the two wheel drive versions. Of course that means that short people are going to feel like they're forever climbing Mt. Everest just to get up into the thing, but that's the price you pay for driving one huge hulking chunk of Dearborn steel. If somebody complains, tell the girly-man to get a Volkswagen.

I really like the feel of the F-150. Everything feels thick, heavy, and substantial. One of the things I didn't care for when I drove a Toyota Tundra was the way things clicked when they should have clunked -- do you know what I mean? I expect doors on a full-size truck to feel heavy. A thin door feels okay on a little Tacoma truck, but not okay on Tundra. What I want on the Tundra is a door that feels like the door on a F-150. It feels like a man's door, not like a little kid's door. Ditto on the tailgate. Ditto on the front hood. Toyota makes a good, reliable truck, I'm sure of it, but they don't make a full-size truck that feels as good as a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy full-size truck.

Right Bed for You?
There's a bit of an on-going debate over the "right" bed-length for a full-size truck. The problem is that with trucks like Ford's F-150 Super Crew, the overall length isn't really increased over what you get with a standard or extended cab -- Ford's engineers simply stole the space for that back seat from the bed. The argument I always hear is "well, people don't carry stuff that requires a long bed."

They don't, eh?

Well, maybe a typical family doesn't often want to carry huge bulky things (nor do the firefighters depicted in Ford's oh-so-heartwarming commercials), but other people do. Yes, the short bed will do fine for carrying boxes, boots, maybe even some rolled up fire hoses. What it won't do fine at is carrying the kinds of things that most people in the construction trades want to carry.

Think about it and think about what people who work for living typically want to carry. What length are most boards? Sheet rock? PVC tubes? Fence posts? Conduit? Ladders? Right! 8 feet to 12 feet. Not 5 feet -- at least not at the Lowes I go to.

In my opinion, the bed is too short on the Super Crew -- especially for anyone considering this vehicle as a work truck. Yes, you can put the tailgate down. Yes, you can use one of those extender racks to give yourself a little extra occasional space (but don't those only give you about 7 feet max?).

In my opinion, the tailgate and extender strategy is not quite as good as having a genuine 8 foot bed, which you can also drop the tailgate down on giving yourself 10 feet. Some guys are going to want more space in the cargo area than you get on the typical Super Crew cab F-150.

Before you buy this truck, think about whether the bed length is a problem for you. If you are a typical suburban mom who just wants a snazzy looking beefy vehicle to drive around town, then hey, no biggee. Go for it. But if you're working in the trades and thinking about using this vehicle as a truck, then think long and hard about whether that bed is adequate, otherwise you'll be regretting the purchase for a very long time.

Interior Comfort, Features, and More Etc. Too
The big draw on this big truck is the interior space. You get a real-live back seat, genuinely usable back doors, and enough space to seat 5 comfortably (6 if you have a bench style front seat), even on longer trips. No more scrunching or using the back seat of extended cab trucks as seating only for contortionists and short midgets.

This is really the perfect truck for families. I like the looks of the extended cab better than the super cab, but for practical value and overall utility and comfort, the super cab is tough to beat. Because I'm a dad, I always check out the back seat when I look at cars. I want easy access for moving car seats in and out and putting little people into their seats. I also prefer quite a bit of leg room, not so much to make things comfortable for adults, but so that little feet find it not so easy to kick the back of the drivers seat. Hey! We all have different perspectives on these things!

Most people are probably going to go for the XLT version of this truck because it offers everything that most people want today while at the same time, keeping the price somewhat reasonable. It's got a nicely appointed interior with automatic transmission, air conditioning, power windows and door locks, stereo with CD player, cruise control, captain style bucket seats with lumbar support and power adjustment on the driver side, and a console between the two front seats. As I said, a comfortable combination. Ford also offers a Lariat package (leather upholstery is the big plus there), and specialty versions called the King Ranch version and the Harley Davidson version.

King Ranch package
The King Ranch version that I drove at Central Ford had the Highland Green paint, which is a very deep forest green. Together with the brown leather interior with the independent captains chairs in front, it was a sharp-looking vehicle -- no doubt about it!

I wonder how well their "rugged" sales pitch is going to do. I sure didn't buy it. My opinion is that the King Ranch version is not a very practical vehicle for rugged use. I'd call this truck the "Waltham Soccer Mom" edition. It's plushy, power everything, and too overloaded to be a real practical work truck. I could never see it really being used on a ranch, a construction site, nor anywhere else where rugged conditions prevail. "Hey! Get your muddy boots off that plush pile carpet! You raised in a barn or sumpin'?"

I laughed out loud when I saw the heated seats in the King Ranch version. Last I heard, the King Ranch was about as far south as you can be and still be on U.S. soil. Do you know where the real King Ranch is? I do because I drive through it fairly often. It's in south Texas, only a couple dozen miles north of the Mexican border. It's an area where palms grow and coastal farmers raise grapefruits and ranchers raise as many cactuses as steers. Not exactly the kind of climate where heated seats might come in handy. Yep, on those icy cold 80 degree winter days when the nor'westers blow through you really wanna crank up the heated seats! Sure 'nuff, this is the truck for "real" Texas cowboys! Uh-huh.

Don't even get me started on Ford's "Harley Davidson" package...

Power, Performance, and Yet More Etc.
The truck I drove had the 260 horsepower 5.4 liter Triton V-8 engine. With that powerplant, the truck was very responsive. Ford also offers a smaller 4.6 liter V-8 in the F-150s, but with only 220 horses at its beck and call, that seems too little for a truck as big and heavy as the F-150 -- especially if you plan to pull a trailer. (220 horsepower is about what many family sedans have.)

According to Ford, this truck can tow up to 8,000 pounds and has a payload capacity of 1,765 pounds (Hmmm. I could even take my mother-in-law for a ride.)

I was impressed with the handling of this truck. The advantage of shortening the bed and keeping the overall vehicle length about the same as with the extended and regular cabs is that the vehicle doesn't handle like a tank. (The F-150 Super Cab has a 139 inch wheelbase.) Sure, it's not going to corner like a Z3 would, but it turns tightly for its size and is easy to get used to. I don't see anyone having a problem handling this truck in normal suburban traffic.

The truck is equipped with power anti-lock brakes and in normal driving conditions, the braking felt good. I don't recall trying a hard-brake situation with this truck -- sorry.

General Impressions, Conclusions, and Any Remaining Etc.
Official info on features, performance specs, pricing, etc. for these trucks is on the web at: www.fordvehicles.com/trucks/f-150/

Prices are a bit high on the F-150 -- the one I drove runs about $27,000 MSRP, however I have recently seen quite a few ads from Ford dealers in the local area offering these trucks with the XLT package at prices around $22K. I think $27K is too much for this truck, and I wouldn't pay that price, but at the $22K level, it becomes a a fair value and I might consider it seriously.

For my purposes, the Ford F-150 represents a pretty good package for use as a family car, and I might come back to it if I can't find a better deal elsewhere. Stay tuned for more info on the Great Car Purchasing Adventure of 2002. Til next time, see you in the showroom!




Amount Paid (US$): 24000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2002
Model and Options: LX, King Ranch