2015 Ford F-150: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2015 Ford F-150 as our editors live with this truck for a year.
New year. New truck.
Fresh from our New Year's Day off we bought this $52,000 2015 Ford F-150. Then we hit it with a sledgehammer and had it repaired.
It was at the body shop for seven days.
When it wasn't we managed to drive the aluminum-bodied pickup, which is powered by a 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6, about 1,000 miles before the calendar clicked over to February.
So far the Ford's fuel economy hasn't lived up to the EPA's combined rating of 20 mpg, but that's to be expected this early in its life.
We are impressed with the F-150's range, however. Over 500 miles per tank should be easy once the turbocharged V6 is broken in.
Stay tuned.
Worst Fill MPG: 14.0 mpg
Best Fill MPG: 16.6 mpg
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.1 mpg
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 435.5 miles
Current Odometer: 1,015 miles
The average fuel economy of our 2015 Ford F-150 is improving, but still not enough for us to be impressed.
In February, the aluminum-bodied pickup, which is powered by a 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6, averaged 16.3 mpg over about 1,700 miles of mixed driving. And our best single tank average is now up to 17.3 mpg.
That's enough to bring the Ford's overall average up to 16.0 mpg.
So it's getting better, but it remains far below the Ford's EPA combined rating of 20 mpg and its city rating of 18 mpg.
After all that math there was just one thing to do: Go out for barbeque. And the big blue pickup was the perfect ride.
Worst Fill MPG: 14.0 mpg
Best Fill MPG: 17.3 mpg
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.0 mpg
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 557.3 miles
Current Odometer: 2,991 miles
There are many clever design elements in our 2015 Ford F-150. The interior door handles are not one of them.
I say this as a current owner of a 1975 F-250 (equally crappy interior door handles) and the previous owner of a 1986 Ford F-250 (great door handles).
As you can see, opening the door requires you to stick your hand inside this pocket and squeeze the lever toward you. Two problems here.
One, if you have big hands with big gloves over them, shoving them into this pocket might not be that easy. The design was already in use in the Super Duty pickups, so apparently this issue hasn't been a problem.
Second, squeezing the lever toward you while at the same time pushing the door open is not a natural movement. The whole squeezing of the lever thing is just plain dumb.
Contrast this with the setup in my old '86 Ford. It has a lever located about midway down the door panel with nothing around it. To open the door, you just reached down and yanked it up. It worked if I pulled it lightly, and equally well if I was in a hurry and gave a quick rip.
At the time I thought it seemed like a perfect design for a truck and still seems very user-friendly. I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons why Ford went with the current design. I'd be curious what they were.
This is what can happen when you're not paying close attention while exiting a parking garage in our 2015 Ford F-150. It wasn't that I wasn't paying attention at all, I just didn't realize that our extendable trailer tow mirrors were in their most extended position. That only leaves a few inches of clearance on either side when exiting a certain section of our office garage.
So go ahead, heap insults on my lack of driving skill. Tell me that I don't care because it's not mine. Whatever, I can take it.
We'll get it fixed soon enough and I'm sure it won't be nearly as much as the quarter panel repair. The mirror housing is good old plastic and as far as I can tell the turn signal lens looks replaceable on its own. And everything still works by the way, it just looks bad.
The photo above would not have been possible with the previous-generation Ford F-150. You see, there were only two door detents, meaning you either had to squeeze through a narrow opening or prevent the door from flying into your parking-lot neighbor while climbing aboard.
As you might imagine given the colossal door, this was not ideal. The 2015 Ford F-150 has a new middle detent that makes life in parking lots much easier (and insurance claims less likely). It's an excellent advancement to be sure.
I was packed up and ready for a 1,000-mile road trip when I saw it: a chip/crack in the windshield of our long-term 2015 Ford F-150.
It's another minor injury to our new truck to accompany an earlier cracked mirror-integrated turn signal indicator. The likely culprit is a rock or some bit of highway debris (no, I didn't hit it with a mini-sledgehammer) and hopefully we caught it early enough to avoid replacing the entire windshield.
Time to call around for some quotes and let you know what we find.
March was a busy month for our long-term 2015 Ford F-150. We racked up 2,700 miles over the last four weeks, 2,000 of which were spent towing various trailers. Engineering Editor Jay Kavanagh towed something that vaguely resembles a Miata to and from Sonoma Raceway. I took a similar 2,000-mile trip to purchase a car and lug it home (more on that soon).
Basically, we used this truck as it was intended: to haul stuff. As you'd expect, those towing trips brought the average lifetime MPG down (from 16 to 15.6) but the F-150 still has plenty of time in our fleet to right that ship.
Worst Fill MPG: 14.0 mpg
Best Fill MPG: 17.3 mpg
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.6 mpg
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 557.3 miles
Current Odometer: 5,774 miles
In the ever escalating power wars, the 2015 Ford F-150 has the Ram 1500 beat. Well, at least in terms of wattage.
As you can see, our F-150 features an AC outlet that delivers up to 400 watts of total power at 110 volts. Not bad for a pickup.
Compare that with the 150-watt outlet in our Ram 1500 and it's no contest.
So will it blend frozen concoctions in the parking lot before kickoff? Yes, in the F-150, it will. Not happening in the Ram.
Can't say that I was surprised when I popped the hood on our 2015 Ford F-150. It's ugly under there, all plastic pipes and flimsy covers. Pretty standard stuff on modern engines of any type.
Doesn't really matter much, though, as this new 2.7-liter twin-turbocharged V6 delivers impressive performance where it counts. My fellow editors have already noted that it has plenty of punch for towing, but I'm just as impressed by how refined this engine feels during day-to-day driving.
It has instant throttle response and an incredibly smooth torque curve. In other words, you get immediate power that doesn't trail off. And even if you jump on and off the gas while dicing through traffic, the engine feels strong at almost any engine speed. It's only when you wind it out to redline that it starts to get noticeably winded, which is hardly an issue in a full-size pickup truck.
At this point, I think the only shortcoming of this engine is its lack of efficiency. The EPA says it should deliver 20 mpg in combined driving, but we've been solidly in the 16s up to this point. That's sure to increase as the miles pile up, but I wouldn't bet on it topping 18 mpg anytime soon.
It's seemingly a feast of recalls around here. First our A3 and Golf GTI, now our F-150. But in the best fashion of an inexplicable traffic jam, there's nothing to see here. We didn't expect our 2015 Ford F-150 to be one of the 91 trucks affected by Ford's recall for improperly installed or missing underbody heat shields. But our luck with trucks has been suspect lately, so we followed up just to be sure.
The affected trucks were built on January 30 and January 31 at Ford's Dearborn plant. We bought our long-termer in December. That's one trip to the dealer we won't have to make.
The fix includes a dealer visit to install the missing components or fasteners. Owners can call Ford customer service at 1-800-392-3673 to learn more. So far, so lucky for us.
April was a relatively slow month for our 2015 Ford F-150. It spent most of its time locally and accumulated only a modest 530 miles. Accordingly, our best and worst fills remain the same as they did in March at 14.0 and 17.3, respectively. Best range also remains unchanged at 557.3 miles. After almost 7,000 miles, we're still falling short of the EPA combined estimate.
I did tow with the truck last weekend and I'll have updates on that experience with comparisons to the Ram coming soon.
Worst Fill MPG: 14.0
Best Fill MPG: 17.3
Average Lifetime MPG: 15.6
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 557.3 miles
Current Odometer: 6,908
This is an instance of things that look good, but don't feel good. I'm referring to those lovely "metallic" radio knobs with the beautifully ridged edges.
At first glance they look great, like adjustment knobs on a lathe in a machine shop or dials on a safe. But then you give one a twist to bump the volume or change the station and all that admiration disappears.
Not surprisingly, these knobs are plastic, not metal. Real metal costs real money and it weighs considerably more, too. Stills seems like a missed opportunity, though. I've used dials made of plastic with mechanisms that made them feel heavy and substantial. Not so here. These feel like you could yank them off with one sharp tug.
I noted the same lack of heft in the shift knob in our Ram 1500. It too looks metallic, yet feels fragile. I realize you have to cut corners somewhere, but a little extra money on things you touch each time you get behind the wheel go a long way toward creating an aura of quality.
When I needed a truck, I didn't have one. When I had a truck, I didn't need one. That was my story before I bought a Ford F-150 years ago and remains my story now that I've sold it. Lucky for me, I had access to our long-term 2015 Ford F-150 last weekend, because I needed a truck.
It was a simple job. Pick up three tables and sixteen chairs. The only challenge was the 6-foot rectangular table, which was just inches too long to lay flat with a closed tailgate. So I rested it on top. Sounds easy, but it required one arm propping up the table while the other lifted and shut the tailgate.
Bed accessories were useful. The tie-downs are well-positioned and easy to access. The ability to lower the tailgate with a button on the key fob is somewhat helpful. Being able to raise it back up with the touch of a button would be even more helpful, especially in this instance.
Driving this truck made me miss owning one. I wonder what's for sale on eBay today.
With all the towing I've done lately, I've had ample opportunity to hear the engine in our 2015 Ford F-150. Or rather hear what Ford wants me to think is the engine, because this V6-powered truck rumbles with the unmistakable sound of a V8 when its throttle is open.
This is a good fake, so it's not initially clear where the trumped-up noise comes from, only that it's not genuine. Ford's PR materials aren't quick to admit the counterfeit, either. A thorough search under the hood reveals no telltale, sound-symposing snorkus routing the chosen sounds through the firewall, a piece that's as obvious as the "5.0" logo under the hood of our V8-powered long-term Mustang.
Ultimately though, I'm less concerned with where the noises come from than I am that they exist. Despite V8s making far more pleasant noises than V6s, there's something disingenuous about faking engine sound. Though it might not sound wrong, it feels contrived and deceptive in practice.
After all, wasn't it the V8's functionality, and not just its sound, that made people appreciate it in the first place? If we were to rewind time, reverse technology, and make large displacement V8s the more efficient, equally-powerful engines, might we now be pumping the hisses and whooshes of a turbo V6 into our cabins?
OK, maybe not. But I still don't love the idea.
I recently carried a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood in the bed of our 2015 Ford F-150. That's a standard size for construction materials so we wanted to see how cleanly it fit, even in a 5.5-foot short bed.
The F-150's bed is 67 inches from tip to tailgate. Drop the gate and you get another 25 inches or so of horizontal space. That leaves about four inches hanging past the end of the lowered gate. Or course, hauling only a few sheets gives you the option of leaving the gate latched and dropping them in at an angle. But with a load of these, you'll need to go fully horizontal like this.
Some people will tell you there's no such thing as luck, good or bad. But I don't know what else to call it when the car ahead kicks up a rock and hurls it at your windshield.
That's exactly what happened to our 2015 Ford F-150 SuperCrew 4x4 pickup.
Unluckily, the result was a nickel-size star that spread into a full-fledged crack before we could arrange for a repair attempt. The windshield is a goner.
I hate when that happens.
Thing is, the factory windshield is engineered to be quieter than most. Ford's so-called SoundScreen windshield glass is one of many NVH improvements that make the 2015 F-150 as quiet as it is.
But it remains to be seen how much it costs to replace compared to the inevitably cheaper, but presumably less-quiet alternatives. We'll let you know how much the various options cost and which way we decided to go after the glass guy pays a visit.
There's been some grumbling about our 2015 Ford F-150 not meeting its EPA fuel economy estimates. Less apparent are this powertrain's benefits, namely abundant power and good response. When put in proper perspective, its fuel economy is downright impressive, too.
Step on the throttle in the F-150 and there's immediate and abundant acceleration. Drive this engine without looking at the truck's badges and it's a reasonable facsimile of a V8 in terms of grunt, go and, of course, sound.
In fact, the 325-horsepower and 375 pound-feet of torque produced by this six-cylinder makes the old three-valve, 5.4-liter Triton V8's output seem laughable, especially at twice the displacement. That admittedly old engine produced 300 hp and 360 lb-feet of torque in 2008. The four-wheel drive version of that truck came with a four-speed automatic and was rated at 14 mpg combined.
Our truck is rated at 20 mpg combined. I'll say that again: 20 mpg. Those are numbers worth considering when you remember that we're talking about a truck that's only seven years old. I've got children that are older.
After a whole lot of miles behind the wheel — towing and otherwise — I've found the 2.7-liter a pleasant engine to drive. It does what I need a truck to do and then some. How it does it concerns me less.
I don't expect a full-size truck like our 2015 Ford F-150 to ride like a sedan. It's a truck. It's built to work first and do everything else second. That's probably why I'm so impressed by our F-150. It's shockingly supple over rough roads and almost luxury-car like on smooth surfaces.
Supple seems like an odd word to describe a truck, but that's exactly what comes to mind. It soaks cracks and ruts with a faint rumble that barely intrudes into the cabin. There's a little bit of body shake over big potholes, but nothing objectionable.
On the highway, the F-150 floats a little over slow rises, but it's nothing problematic. Steering is surprisingly precise and the suspension feels tight, so the truck doesn't require constant steering corrections. If I were going on a long road trip, I would it in a second.
Is it better than our Ram? I wouldn't say better, but it's close, closer than I was expecting actually. I would probably still give the Ram a slight edge for overall comfort. That said, you can't go wrong with either for ride quality. They're both comfortable daily drivers that can eat up miles in perfect comfort.
When you opt for the popular crew cab version of the 2015 Ford F-150 there are two available bed sizes: 5.5 feet and 6.5 feet. We got the shorter of the two to keep overall length down to a more manageable size. Most buyers do the same, as these "shorty" beds have become the defacto standard for crew cab trucks.
It's not a bad way go, but as you can see here, sometimes that extra foot of length would be nice to have. This box I loaded into our F-150 would only fit diagonally. Not a huge deal, but given that it had a mirror inside, I would have felt better if I could have laid it flat on some moving blankets.
It's a similar issue when you're hauling a motorcycle. It can be done with the short bed, but it would be much less nerve-wracking with the slightly longer version. If I were buying a truck like this, I would opt for the 6.5-foot bed and deal with the parking issues.
If I was from Boston, which I most certainly am not, I would describe our 2015 Ford F-150 as having some wicked lumbar. Of course, I'd neglect to pronounce the "r" and throw in an extra "a" or two. I say this because it's generally how I describe cars that have very aggressive lumbar support. It's weird, I know.
No matter how much I press the lumbar button, the seat back just doesn't deflate enough. As in the last-generation Honda Accord, I feel like I'm sitting in some sort of corrective posture chair.
It's puzzling since I can't think of another Ford that has such an issue/situation. In fact, I often find Ford to produce some of the most comfortable seats outside of luxury brands. Either way, it tends to take me quite a while to find the right seat position to mitigate the wicked lumbar.
Having said all that, I have not heard the same sort of complaints from my fellow editors, whereas those about the Accord were echoed by most. Perhaps my body type simply doesn't match well with the F-150. That's a wicked shame. Harvard Yard.
The 2015 Ford F-150 is big. That goes without saying, but there are a great many elements that are commensurately big as well. Take the clothes hooks in the back seat, which are positively enormous. I managed to easily secure 10 wire hangers on one (apologies Joan Crawford) and could probably fit a few more.
Funny, Denis Leary doesn't boast about this capability in the F-150 commercials. It's all towing through docks, hauling gravel in quarries and driving through holes filled with mud. No dry cleaning to be found anywhere.
Since our 2015 Ford F-150 was used in the Great Yugoslav Expedition of 2015, the majority of the 3,200 miles we added in June came from driving round-trip from Los Angeles to Boise. And whaddya know? That number of miles driven on rural highways at a steady speed increased its lifetime fuel economy. Was it enough to get the F-150 up to its EPA estimated 20 mpg combined?
Oh, hell no. It squeaked up to 16.0 mpg lifetime from 15.7 mpg. As a reminder, the EPA city rating is 18 mpg. So the 2.7-liter V6 remains far more Boost than Eco, I'm afraid.
On the upside, we did manage to achieve the best range thus far of 591.1 miles, so there's that. Well done, Team Yugo.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 19.1
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.0
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 591.1 miles
Current Odometer: 12,227 miles
In between the 2015 Ford F-150's return from Boise and my own trip to retrieve our 2015 Audi A3, I brought the truck to Santa Monica Ford for its first service. The first service calls for a tire change and oil rotation at 10,000 miles. We also needed to fix the rear seat release and order a new lens cover for the side mirror.
A few times in the last month, we've also seen the parking brake light in the instrument panel trigger while the truck was in motion. That was on our fix-it list, too. I pulled into the dealer at noon on a Thursday to drop it off.
I met with a service advisor and walked him through the problem areas. He told me the oil change and tire rotation would be finished that day, but that replacement parts, if needed, would take longer. I hitched a ride back to the office and waited for the advisor's report.
He called back four hours later with the verdict. Normal service was completed, but the necessary parts to fix the other problems weren't in stock. The falsely-illuminating parking brake light was a known problem, so the dealer special-ordered a new parking brake module. Our advisor also ordered a new handle for the rear seat. Both parts are covered under warranty.
We had to buy the turn signal cover, which would ship sooner than the other items, but we decided to wait two weeks and get everything fixed at once.
Oil filter: $6.99
5W20 oil (7 quarts): $28.77
Oil disposal: $3.11
Labor: $24.20
Tax: $3.40
Mirror cover + tax: $148.20
Total: $214.59
This is getting exasperating. Our 2015 Ford F-150 is on the doorstep of 15,000 miles and its 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 engine is showing zero signs of Eco. Sure, our truck's lifetime average ticked up from 15.9 to 16.2 mpg this month, but its EPA combined rating is 20 mpg.
The picture doesn't get much better when I ignore the miles it has spent towing. Its lifetime average rises to 16.6 mpg, but EPA combined still seems impossibly far off.
It's not for lack of trying. On more than one occasion I tried to eke out a good performance on an all-highway tank, aiming to see if I could nip at the heels of its 23-mpg highway rating. In late May, my efforts were rewarded with an overall best tank of 19.1 mpg. No one has beat it since.
From where I stand, the 2.7-liter EcoBoost fuel economy ratings are bunk.
Meanwhile, the same driver pool is matching and even exceeding the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel's EPA ratings. Regularly, I might add, and with relative ease.
I'm heading out on a road trip to Oregon in the next few days. Maybe I can break 20 mpg on at least one tank. Wish me luck. I may even break down and try filling up with premium, even though the EPA rating are supposed to be achievable on regular 87-octane fuel.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 19.1
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.2 (6.2 gallons per 100 miles)
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City / 23 Highway)
Best Range: 557.3 miles
Current Odometer: 14,957 miles
These built-in bed lamps in our 2015 Ford F-150 are nice additions to the usual cab-mounted bed lamp found on every truck. I needed to haul this transmission, differential and other parts home a few nights ago and when I flipped on the bed lamp to unload, I was impressed with the sheer volume of light in the bed.
Details like this make a difference in usability and give the F-150 a win for function. And for me, a truck is all about utility and function.
It's not obvious at first sight, but the shifter in our 2015 Ford F-150 is huge. Even with my large-ish size hands, I can barely get my fingers around it. Good design? Or a poor attempt to make it feel like a burly truck?
I don't know the reasoning, but it feels like grabbing a softball when you're shifting gears. I suppose that would give some drivers the impression that the shifter is sturdy, except that the action of the shifter itself doesn't match its outsized dimensions. Instead of a heavy, mechanical throw, this shifter feels light and hollow.
Usually this is the kind of thing that grows on you over time. In my case, it hasn't. Every time I get in this truck, the shifter feels weird to me. And that's not good for something that you have to use every time you drive the truck.
MyFord Touch Finally Decent, Does Sync 3 Promise Better?
Here's something I wouldn't have expected: We've had our 2015 Ford F-150 for about 10 months now and nobody has complained about the truck's MyFord Touch touchscreen interface. In actuality, the towing mirrors have raised more ire than this newfangled gadgetry. It's a similar story over on Channel 2015 Mustang GT. Its MyFord Touch has also stayed under the radar.
That said, nobody has praised the F-150's interface, either.
A lot of the ire directed at early iterations of MFT regarded the lack of physical buttons or knobs. Our F-150 doesn't have that problem, as there's a volume knob, a tuner knob, preset buttons and a slew of climate control buttons. The touchscreen itself is useable too, and hasn't had any notable crashes or hiccups. Sync voice recognition still rocks.
And while there are still some minor annoyances, such as small virtual buttons and annoyingly long waits for music catalog syncing, it's a fairly useable setup that doesn't get in the way.
You could argue that's a low bar to clear and perhaps you'd be right. The UConnect touchscreen in our Ram 1500 is still superior. So hopes are higher for the 2016 F-150 and its replacement Sync 3 system. We still haven't fully tested the system, but early impressions are that it's easier and quicker to use.
Then again, it's going to be brand new and there's always the possibility of software bugs to work out. But if you're shopping for 2015 or 2016 F-150, it's something to consider.
At a recent automotive event I attended, an automaker rep told me that approximately half of his brand's heavy-duty truck sales come from the luxury trim levels. It would seem the humble pickup truck has gotten pretty ritzy this past decade. This got me to wondering: given the rise of the luxury truck, would you consider buying a fully-loaded pickup truck instead of a luxury sedan?
Let's use our long-term 2015 Ford F-150 as an example.
Our F-150 Lariat rang up with an MSRP of $51,800. It's a lot for a truck, but we got a nice collection of luxury features for the money. Highlights include an 8-inch touchscreen with navigation, heated and ventilated front seats, keyless ignition and entry, leather upholstery, dual-zone automatic climate control and a 10-speaker sound system.
We could have spent even more to get LED headlights, premium interior upholstery, a 360-degree top-down camera system, an automated parking system, a heated steering wheel and adaptive cruise control. Now take a look at your typical luxury sedan, like a BMW 3 Series. The available high-end options are quite similar.
Granted, our F-150 can't match the compliant ride quality, stable handling or performance of your typical luxury sedan. But it's still pretty nice in regards to what most luxury sedan shoppers expect. Our F-150 rides comfortably (most of the time), the front seats are very comfortable for long drives, it's quiet on the highway, it goes from zero to 60 mph in 6.4 seconds, it looks classy and upscale, and it has a comparatively palatial backseat with way more headroom and legroom.
Plus, it's a truck! There's no way a luxury sedan can give you massive towing, hauling and off-road capabilities.
In a way, spending $50,000 on a truck makes a lot of sense.
No Surprises, But 20,000-Mile Goal Comes Months Early
Compared to the 4,307-mile extravaganza of August, September's mere total of 1,891 miles seems like slacking off. But that's a good haul nonetheless, a monthly average that would comfortably push any long-term test vehicle over our 20,000-mile annual target.
Our 2015 Ford F-150 was so far ahead on miles at the end of August that this somewhat average month was more than sufficient to push it past its annual goal just eight months after it entered service. We closed the book on September with the truck's odometer showing 21,156 miles.
The F-150 4x4 has proven itself to be a very popular truck around these parts. But it's also proven quite thirsty compared to its official EPA rating.
September's performance didn't do anything to alter that reality. Those 1,891 miles were added at an average of 16.6 mpg, a near-exact match of the 19,265 miles that came before them. The difference was so insignificant that the Ford ended the month with the same 16.7-mpg lifetime average it had coming in.
No single tank stood out this month, either. There were no unexpected highs or lows, no insanely long-range tanks. It was all pretty routine and predictable. Nothing on the summary chart changed except the current odometer reading.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3 (towing); 14.0 not towing
Best Fill MPG: 23.1
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.7 (6.0 gallons per 100 miles)
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 706.6 miles
Current Odometer: 21,156 miles
The overriding theme remains unchanged: We like driving the F-150 quite a bit, but the 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 delivers nothing close to its promised fuel economy. It's more than a little disappointing, quite frankly.
Our 2015 Ford F-150 doesn't sit around much. The truck's odometer showed 21,156 miles at the end of September. Three weeks later we popped it past the 25,000-mile mark.
We've only owned the Ford for 10 months.
So far this month, the F-150 has towed a racecar, tackled the daily commute, Home Depot'd, Ikea'd and Costco'd, and hauled an engine and transmission, a stack of bikes to the beach, random boxes of random junk, and of course the kids to school. Like I said, it doesn't sit around much.
Meanwhile, we have no problems, issues or complaints. Not even a nit to pick. The Ford has been so reliable and durable we didn't even take it to the dealer for its recent oil change, choosing to do the job ourselves instead. And it's a good thing we did. If you missed it earlier this week, read about that scary discovery here.
But it's also the F-150's extreme levels of comfort and performance that have made it a staff favorite. Some even prefer it to our long-term Ram 1500, despite the Ram's undeniably smoother ride and better mileage. Editors in the Ford camp cite the lighter truck's seat comfort, quick steering, and responsive Ecoboost powertrain as the F-150's advantages.
We've got a few months to go in this 12-month test. We should have no problem getting the 4x4 Ford over the 30,000-mile mark. Stay tuned.
Big Month for Miles Moves Fuel Economy Up a Hair
October was a busy month for our long-term 2015 Ford F-150. It covered 5,255 miles — its largest monthly mile total to date — and received an, ah, enlightening oil change along the way.
In October our F-150 achieved 18.0 mpg. This is its second-highest monthly mpg we've observed since it was new in January. Despite October being a freeway-heavy month, we're still seeing fuel economy far short of the F-150's EPA combined rating of 20 mpg. Nevertheless, it was a strong enough month to move our truck's lifetime average up by 0.2 mpg to 16.9 mpg.
There are some ruminations that our truck's overfilled crankcase could have been eating into its fuel economy. That's certainly possible and it's the first thing that crossed our minds when we discovered that four extra quarts of oil had been poured in at its last oil change.
Early indications suggest that correcting the oil mishap still may not bring our truck's as-tested fuel economy in line with its window sticker, though it's still early. Stay tuned.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 23.1
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.9
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/ 23 Highway)
Best Range: 706.6 miles
Current Odometer: 26,412 miles
Note: Cars are sometimes refueled before their fuel tanks are nearly empty. As such, "best" and "worst" fuel economy entries above are not necessarily the result of an entire tank's worth of driving.
During the last six or eight months of using our aluminum-bodied 2015 Ford F-150 I've had to close its doors a lot. More than usual, in fact. I often toss one closed only to realize that it's not fully sealed, like shown in this photo. The latch will catch, but the door needs either a shove or another slam to close completely.
It happens more frequently with the smaller, lighter rear doors. Here's the deal: Like the rest of the truck's body, the doors are aluminum. And like the rest of truck's body, they're light. And when it comes to doors, being light is both a blessing and a curse.
All of the F-150's competitors have heavier doors that don't suffer this same problem. Sure, it takes a little more effort to move a heavier door, but the heavier door's momentum is enough to compress the weather seal and fully engage the latch. That's not always the case with this truck.
Big deal? No. Worth mentioning? Yes.
It's always fun to find a hidden Easter egg in a new vehicle's styling.
Our 2015 Ford F-150 has a few fairly obvious gems. The F-150 logo tucked into the end of the dash is an easy find. The headlight reflector is less so, but still a fun discovery.
I'm sure there are more. Can't wait to find them.
Despite the fact that most of them live the same life as the average Camry, but with a worse ride, trucks like our 2015 Ford F-150 like to cast themselves as rugged, go-anywhere beasts that can turn the average cubicle-dweller into the Marlboro Man just by signing on the dotted line.
Only, there's a problem with our F-150 that doesn't have anything to do with what the truck can do, but what you can do once you're back in the truck.
The pedals are annoyingly slippery.
Especially with the drought, Californians might not understand, but growing up in the Northeast I frequently encountered moisture. It was everywhere. And when there was a lot of it, it would gather into pools mixed with dirt (we called that "mud") or if it was cold enough, a disgusting mud/ice/slush combo we called "screw this, I'm going back into the Dunkin' Donuts."
Here's the point: After an encounter with some sort of wet goo, the bottoms of whatever footwear you are wearing get slick and make it hard to have any real control over the pedals. People who just use the bottom-right corner of the brake pedal soon found themselves unintendedly accelerating.
Our Ford's pedals are like this when dry. Crouching down in the footwell to inspect, it turns out that these are cast plastic with no rubber insert or overlay, just a few grooves to give the impression of grip.
I'm sure the local dealership or any number of online shops has a set of rubber pedal pads that can't cost more than $10. Am I crazy for thinking this kind of thing should be standard, though?
Remote Start is Flawless and Easy to Use
I'm estimating here, but I've probably used the remote start on our long-term 2015 Ford F-150 at least 100 times. When it's cold outside, I like to warm up the truck before I get in. When the weather's hot, I like the A/C going before I get in. Many of these systems require holding a button for five or 10 seconds. Some of the systems even make you start the car twice, but the remote start in the Ford has never failed me, gone haywire or left me hanging.
The procedure is simple: To engage remote start, you press the lock button, double-tap the remote start and va-va-vroom. Couple the remote start with other items from the Equipment Group 501A (blind-spot monitor, power tailgate release, reverse parking sensors, side mirror LED lights, interior power outlets and a garage door opener) and for $1,500 it's definitely worth the bundled cost.
We're almost at the 30,000-mile mark with our long-term 2015 Ford F-150 and we've learned a lot about the all-aluminum pickup truck. But every time I drive the F-150, I still discover something new.
Maybe I forgot about this little quirk or maybe I never noticed it before (hard to believe after having driven the F-150 for several thousand miles myself), but on a recent windows-down drive in the F-150, I noticed a really loud whistle coming from the passenger-side mirror.
Pretty much whenever the F-150 is going more than 45 mph, the wind passing through the passenger mirror starts to whistle, and as you accelerate, it really begins to howl. It's especially loud and distracting with the passenger window down and the sliding rear window open.
With the window up and some music on, it's about 99 percent drowned out. But once I noticed the sound, I couldn't forget it. It may be time to break out the duct tape.
The last thing you expect when you press the button for a ventilated seat is that the seat will heat up. But that's exactly what happened to me in our long-term 2015 Ford F-150. Sure, the fans kick in at first and your butt gets a lovely little flow of fresh air, but after a while, things take a turn for the worse.
Small fans inside the seat generate the air flow, but those fans heat up after a while and that heat has to go somewhere. Specifically, it goes towards the back seat. After a few hours behind the driver's seat of our F-150, my rear passengers pointed out that the back of the seat was noticeably hot, almost too hot to touch. Up front, from my butt-dyno, I could also sense the vents becoming less effective.
Basically, I left the seat fans on for a long time and they got hot. They got so hot that it soaked through the thin insulation on the back of the driver's seat. It affected their utility and the comfort of my passenger. To me, this means that these ventilated seats should be on a timer. That's a shame, because having a cooled seat is really nice on a summer road trip to Vegas. And having one all the way there is even better. Luckily, it's winter now and we can switch back to the heated seats for a few weeks before it's 95 degrees in California again.
Fuel Economy Update for November - Lifetime Average Still Improving
We drove our 2015 Ford F-150 more than 2,300 miles in November, hauling engines and appreciating its easygoing nature on the highway. Average lifetime fuel economy continues to climb, ticking up another .1 mpg this month to 17.0 mpg.
During the 2,340 miles of driving last month, the F-150 averaged 17.9 mpg - marginally less than its 18.0 mpg performance in October, but still good enough to move overall fuel economy in the right direction. Even so, we're still well below the EPA's 20 mpg combined estimate.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 23.1
Average Lifetime MPG: 17.0
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/ 23 Highway)
Best Range: 706.6 miles
My home renovation saga last left off when I loaded a bunch of bricks, backing board and a shower door into the bed of our 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel and dropped the payload at the landfill in nearby Brea. I'd hoped to get a chance to do the same in the 2015 Ford F-150 to see how it handled a bed full of junk. A couple of weeks later, my patio was full of decades-old green shag carpeting and the F-150 became available.
Time for another run to the dump.
I threw a few hundred pounds of carpet into the bed and set off. I realized immediately that it would be difficult to compare how the two trucks perform while carrying a hefty payload. The Ram had also carried four adults and was weighed down by heavier debris. This time, I was flying solo with less junk in the bed.
On the way to the trash heap, the F-150 felt exactly the same as it does when empty. The transmission never felt like it was hunting between gears and the engine was characteristically responsive, even below 2,000 rpm. I drove to the consumer pile and crowned it with the ancient carpet.
On the way home, I declared the Ram the winner, at least for me. The Ford's sheetmetal and interior trimmings feel newer and more attractive, and I love the awesome twin-turbo 2.7-liter V6. But the Ram's ride quality is much better than the Ford's, and that's what tips the scale in its favor for me. The Ram doesn't shimmy and shake like the Ford does when cruising over rough pavement, and the Ram's seats fit me a little more comfortably.
The 2015 Dump Truck Rubbish Rally trophy goes to the Ram, but wait a minute. Seems like there's a new entry in our fleet to consider. And I have more carpet and water-damaged hardwood to dispose of.
The Rally returns for 2016!
This is simple. The key fob in our 2015 Ford F-150 isn't designed very well.
On a daily basis, when the fob is in my pocket, I accidentally activate the truck's panic alarm. Lean again something? It activates the alarm. Pick up a kid? There goes the alarm. Bend over? Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
You get the idea.
Had this only happened to me, I might have avoided this post, but I'm not alone. I've watched it happen to others. Well, OK, one other. Dan Edmunds has had this happen as well. The problem is the prominence of the panic button on the fob. It's large, it's at the bottom, and it's not at all recessed.
Big deal? Not usually. Unless it happens at 6:00 a.m. and wakes up my kids and the neighbors. A deal breaker? Probably not. But if you're going to own an F-150 with this key fob, you should be aware of the hassle.
Several weeks ago I hauled this load of mulch and top soil in our 2015 Ford F-150. Couldn't even tell it was back there. Any difference it created in the truck's ride quality was so insignificant that I couldn't discern any meaningful difference.
I'm regularly impressed with the ride/handling compromise of the current crop of half-ton pickups. The F-150 is no exception. It rides well without hundreds of pounds in the bed. Rides well with it back there, too.
As I attempted to make a U-turn in our 2015 Ford F-150, I was struck by how close it came to not making it in one shot. And this was from a center turn lane onto a two-lane wide street. Was I not remembering how tight full-size trucks turn?
After consulting a few spec sheets, I found out that I wasn't completely off my rocker.
The turning radius of an F-150 crew cab short bed is listed at 47.8 feet. Compare that to our former short bed, crew cab Ram 1500's turning radius of 39.8 feet and it's clear that the F-150 does not cut a tight circle by any means.
Just for reference, I looked up the numbers on a crew cab Chevy Silverado with the short bed. It's listed at 47.2 feet, so it's obviously closer to the Ford. A Toyota Tundra Crewmax has a turning radius of 44.0 feet, so it's somewhere in the middle.
This minimal amount of number crunching reinforced my original observation. The F-150 is not your friend when it comes to maneuvering in tight spaces, or in very large spaces for that matter. If you want a tight-turning, full-size pickup, the Ram is the better choice.
In most situations, the short bed on our 2015 Ford F-150 isn't an issue. For this particular home improvement run, however, it was just a little too short.
It mainly comes down to the fact that windows need to stay vertical when you're moving them around like this. They might have fit if I put them in upright and diagonally, but then I wouldn't have had anything to lean them against.
Luckily I was only going a few blocks, so a few moving blankets and some ratchet straps were enough to keep them safely in place. With the tailgate down, I drove real slow and prayed no one felt the need to rear-end me.
I wouldn't consider this kind of situation a dealbreaker when it comes to choosing which bed to get on an F-150. It's just an example of a situation where another foot of space would have made it that much easier.
Last week required a few hundred miles of highway driving through boring desert. While any number of vehicles in our fleet would do, I opted for our long-term 2015 Ford F-150 because I hadn't spent much time with it. What better way to get acclimated to a vehicle than by spending hours in it? Here's a collection of notes on what I learned.
The ride is great. A "car-like" driving experience may sound like a complaint to some, but I sure appreciate how smoothly the F-150 handles the road. Sure, there's some minor shuddering over impacts, but the truck soldiers down the road calmly. You'll make it your destination free of fatigue.
The 2.7-liter twin-turbo V6 rocks. Yes, we've criticized this engine for falling short of its EPA fuel economy numbers. The engine deserves these criticisms, but that's not to say it's without merit. It's a strong motor, providing responsive and powerful acceleration even at light gas pedal application. It's quiet too, unless you really dig into the pedal. Instead of the typical V6 sounds, you get this low rumble closer to that of a V8. The growl is certainly fake, but it sounds cool.
The stop-start is excellent. We've already reported this, but it deserves more attention. One of the first things I do when I hop in a car is turn off stop-start. While the fuel economy benefits are real, the delay and shuddering that typically accompanies the system are frustrating. This isn't the case with the F-150. While you still notice when the engine turns off and on, it's quick and quiet enough that I never felt the need to even hunt for the button that turns stop-start off.
The Bluetooth isn't that great. It can't all be roses and sunshine, right? I took quite a few phone calls during my drive and each one experienced the same issues. People on the line complained that they heard an echo. On my end, something about the speaker quality made it difficult to understand what people were saying, and sometimes the audio would get garbled beyond recognition.
It's been a few months since I drove our long-term 2015 Ford F-150 but the last time I was in it, it seemed much more comfortable. Maybe it was a relative comparison to some hardcore sports car I'd been driving or maybe my butt-dyno needed to be recalibrated, but this truck is much less cushy than I remember it.
The EcoBoost 4-cylinder V6 engine rumbles quite a bit at a stoplight, even more than our diesel-powered Ram 1500. The F-150's rumble makes it through the steering wheel, the seat, the center console, everything. Watch your water bottle while you wait for the light to turn green and it's like a scene from Jurassic Park.
When you're moving, the suspension becomes an issue too. It's smooth and well tuned for towing and for long highway journeys (where I'd expect it to excel) but any time it's unladen in the city, it bounces, shimmies and skips over potholes, especially in the rear. This is a capable truck and I like it when it's doing heavy-lifting, but for the day-to-day stuff, it's not my favorite.
Fuel Economy Update for March - We're Not Alone
Last month, Dan Edmunds' thorough mpg analysis of our 2015 Ford F-150 only further confounded our efforts to pin down a reason for its poor fuel economy. Four extra quarts of oil in the sump? Boy Blue here, didn't even flinch. We're also convinced at this point that our experience is far from being an outlier. In fact, Wards Auto left the 2.7-liter Ecoboost V6 off its engine award list last year because it experienced similar real-world test results.
During the month of March we managed a tank best of 16.3 mpg with a low tank averaging 14.8 mpg.
The lifetime numbers from last month's post haven't changed, but here they are again if you missed them.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3 (towing); 14.0 not towing
Best Fill MPG: 23.1
Average Lifetime MPG: 16.9 (5.9 gallons per 100 miles); 17.2 with towing excluded
EPA MPG Rating: 20 Combined (18 City/23 Highway)
Best Range: 706.6 miles
Current Odometer: 33,030 miles
After running through 10 miles of mud, water and dirt, my buddy Albert and I were ready to go home. It was a hot, extremely windy morning in San Bernardino and the long-term 2015 Ford F-150 was waiting for us in the parking lot. We were both pretty sore, with scrapes and sunburns, so we needed coddling. This is my litmus test for trucks.
I've put almost all of our long-term vehicles through similar testing: I get up at some ungodly hour, pay someone a bunch of money to run until my feet hurt, then eat a bunch of glorious junk food and drive home. Specifically, I've driven our long-term Ram 1500 to two Mudders and our long-term Silverado 1500 to one as well.
Was the F-150 serviceable for a short 150-mile weekend trip? Of course. I've taken this truck thousands of miles and it's done just what I needed it to do. But would it be my first choice in this class, or even for this type of weekend again? Nah.
Of all these trucks, the F-150 is my least favorite. The seat coolers don't work well (at least they didn't on this trip), the ride is stiff compared to the aforementioned full-size rivals and the seats just weren't as cushy as they are in the Ram 1500. The F-150 was passable, even enjoyable, but for me it doesn't put itself in "must-have" territory. Every time I look at our signout sheet of cars, I'm sad that the Ram isn't on it anymore and I just don't think I'll feel that way about the Ford.
At last our road test of the 2015 Ford F-150 reached its end. The only thing left to do was sell it. Our first step was to take it to Carmax for an initial appraisal. This turned out to be our last step also. Here's why...
Edmunds TMV Calculator valued our F-150 Lariat at $32,506 as a trade-in. That figure accounted for 35,105 miles and the multitude of options on our custom-order truck. We kept the number in mind as we walked into our local Carmax store. Without an appointment we waited just 10 minutes for somebody to see us. Another 10-15 minutes passed and the appraisal was complete.
The Carmax offer was $37,000. It was even better than the TMV private party value of $35,249. According to the appraiser, he had not seen an F-150 with the Ecoboost engine yet. Perhaps its rarity played to our advantage. But regardless it was a promising place to start.
Before accepting we checked around. Autotrader had a handful of similarly equipped trucks with fewer miles and lower asking prices. None of which was close to the dollar amount of the offer in our hand. That was really all we needed to see. We returned to Carmax and sold the truck the next day.
After 16 months and roughly 35,000 miles our F-150 depreciated 29 percent.
It is difficult to draw a direct comparison based on the mileage disparity, but for reference our most recent full-size trucks retained their value as follows:
2014 Chevrolet Silverado with 25,000 miles depreciated 24 percent.
2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel with 50,000 miles depreciated 37 percent.
With the sale of the Ford our long-term fleet is without a full-size pick-up truck. It's time to start considering its replacement. If only there was a notable competitor in this segment for us to test next.
