The Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) have named the 2012 F-150 as the Truck of Texas.
Except for last year, the Ford F-Series trucks were named the Truck of Texas for the previous 8 years, so it was nice for the F-150 to take the title back. Ford’s lineup of trucks has also been named the Truck Line of Texas for the 12th consecutive year.
Texas is a HUGE market for Ford trucks, it is the country’s largest truck market.
“These honors show Ford trucks still reign supreme in Texas, and it is rewarding to see that the truck-savvy Texas auto writers appreciate just how innovative our F-Series pickups are,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas. “These awards validate what our customers have been telling us about our ‘Built Ford Tough’ F-150, and we are honored by their recognition of the strength of our truck lineup as well as our crossovers and EcoBoost engines.”
In addition to the F-150 being named the Truck of Texas, Ford was named the Truck Line of Texas. The 2012 Edge was named the Best Midsize CUV of Texas and the Crossover of Texas. Other Ford products receiving top honours in their categories in the Texas TAWA Truck Rodeo include the 2012 Super Duty F-250 King Ranch, 2012 SVT Raptor F-150, and 2012 F150 Platinum EcoBoost.
Our friends over @ PUTC have posted some good information on the all-new Global Ranger. And by Global, we mean it’s available in over 180 countries, but not US and Canada.
Ford says it’s too close to the size of the F-150 and it wouldn’t sell well in North America. If you actually look at the specs… well we’re not so sure. It’s just a few inches bigger than the current Ranger.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve asked a few owners I know, and they don’t consider the F150 as a replacement for their beloved Rangers! They consider the F150 too big for their needs.
For more info on the truck Ford doesn’t want you to own, see this link, and this one.
Ford has told us that the current Ranger plant (for North America) will be shutting down at the end of 2011 and the Ranger production will end. They haven’t said a word about what will replace the truck, if anything.
If you think you’d like to own one of these, by all means, let Ford know. We think there’s more demand for this truck than Ford realizes. Especially with the torquey and fuel efficient 4-cylinder turbo diesel!
* by “you can’t buy”, we mean “you can’t buy if you live in North America”.
That recall affected about 144,000 trucks. The NHTSA had wanted Ford to recall 1.2+ million trucks back then, but Ford was avoiding such a wide-spread recall saying that they had made production changes that minimized the number of affected trucks.
NHTSA sent a letter warning Ford that if they didn’t agree to a recall, the agency could convene a formal public hearing to compel a recall – a rarely used step that hasn’t happened in decades. Well, this week Ford has agreed to recall 2004 through 2006 F-150 vehicles, approximately 1.2 million more trucks.
The problem being fixed is unexpected airbag deployment, even if the truck is not involved in a collision. It seems that the only early indication of the problem is the illumination of the airbag warning light.
The fix takes less than half a day to fix which involves installing a new air bag clockspring jumper wire that has a special mesh cover.
If you own a 2004-2006 F-150 and your air bag light is on, be sure to contact Ford ASAP. The recall notice is not in Ford’s system today for some trucks, Ford says they’ll send out customer notification letters in May. In the mean time, you can check for all recalls on your truck (have your VIN handy), and go here – http://corporate.ford.com/news-center/news/recall-information
If you have any questions about the recall, please check with your local dealer or call Ford @ 1-800-382-3673 (US) or 1-800-565-3673 (Canada). Of course you’re always welcome to ask questions or share your experiences regarding this in our F150 Forum.
SoundMan Car Audio is the first to install an iPad 2 into a Ford F-150. Watch the video for details, this looks pretty sweet. I wonder if they’ll sell a kit for owners to do the install themselves
We reported to you in September 2010 that you could get a chance to get behind the wheel of the new EcoBoost 2011 F150 before it hit dealerships (if you live in the US) [LINK].
Well although you can buy an EcoBoost truck already, and test drive one likely at your local dealership, Ford has decided to extend this special F150 test drive event to Canadians. There’s no explanation why Ford waited 6 months to offer this to Canadians, but we suspect it may have something to do with cold winter weather. The dates and cities are as follows:
Ford is recalling approximately 144,000 F-150′s from the model years 2005 & 2006 for a problem where in some rare cases the air bags can deploy without warning and even possibly when driving (not involved in a collision).
This affects about 135,000 trucks in the US and 9,000 in Canada. In most cases vehicle owners should be alerted to a potential problem when the air bag light comes on a stays on.
The Detroit News reports:
NHTSA found that the F-150 driver-side air bag wires can be chafed by a sharp metal edge of the horn plate during normal vehicle operations or due to road vibrations. Once the wire insulation is cut, a short can cause the air bag to deploy.
In response to reports of inadvertent air bag deployments, Ford in January 2006 made a stop-gap change to the 2006 F-150 by adding a protective tape over the sharp metal edges of the horn plate.
For the 2007 model year, Ford changed the air bag wire routing, added a better wire protector sleeve and redesigned the horn plate tooling to eliminate the potential of a sharp edge.
If the airbag light is on and stays lit on your 2005/2006 F-150, definitely get that checked out ASAP! To check if your 2005 or 2006 F-150 is affected, have your VIN handy and go here: http://corporate.ford.com/news-center/news/recall-information
If you have any questions about the recall, please check with your local dealer or call Ford @ 1-800-382-3673 (US) or 1-800-565-3673 (Canada). Of course you’re always welcome to ask questions or share your experiences regarding this in our F150 Forum.
For more details on the background of this recall see Det News
Ford has finally released the EPA-certified fuel economy numbers for the 2011 F150 EcoBoost V6. In 4×2 configuration, the engine and truck combo gets 16 mpg city, and 22 mpg highway. 4WD models are rated at 15 mpg city, 21 mpg highway. The 2011 F-150 3.5L V6 EcoBoost engine runs on regular gas.
For comparison sake, the 2010 F-150 with 5.4L V8 is rated for 14 city / 20 highway with 2WD, and 14 city / 18 highway with 4WD. So you’re getting more power and more MPG with the new trucks.
This good fuel economy rating is due to the efficiency of the direct injection, electric power-steering, six-speed automatic transmission, and low gear ratio (as low as 3.15:1). Gas prices appear to be creeping back up, so these improvements are welcome news for pickup truck owners.
If you spend much time in our F150 forum, you’ll see that there are already a few 2011 F-150 owners, none yet with the EcoBoost engine. If you buy a 2011 F150, be sure to stop by our forum and tell us all about it!
Ford is doing things right, there is no doubt. Ford is the sales leader in Canada, they have surpassed GM as the top selling make in Canada for the first time.
The Ford F-Series trucks were the best-selling vehicle line ever in a single year in Canadian history. Thanks to big incentives truck sales are on track to outsell passenger cars in the Canadian auto industry.
Ford offered Employee Pricing during July, August, and September of 2010 which was a very successful program that was also around during 2009. One might expect to see it again in the future in Canada.
South of the border in the United States, the F-Series lineup was the country’s best-selling truck for the 34th consecutive year. The F-Series was also the best selling vehicle for the 29th year in a row. For the first time in 9 years, Ford trucks outsold GM full-size trucks. Ford sold 528,349 F-Series trucks in 2010
Yes, Ford is doing a lot of things right. Many people believe the fact that Ford was the only one of the “Big 3″ automakers to not be bailed out by the government means they deserve a lot more respect. Well, we agree!
Good job, Ford for a great year in 2010. All of us here at FordF150.net are looking forward to another great sales year in 2011!
Ford is recalling over 14,000 2011 F-150, F-250, F-350, F-450 trucks, the Edge, and LIncoln MKX vehicles that were built in October and November 2010 to fix a defective body control module.
The danger is that if the module shorts out electrically, it could overheat and cause a fire.
Two 2011 F-150‘s caught fire outside the Dearborn assembly plant. This must explain the delay in production/shipments we heard about not that long ago.
If you own a 2011 F-150 and are not sure if you are affected by this safety recall, please contact your local dealership or all Ford @ 1-800-436-7332.
If you are concerned about safety recalls in general, please contact your local dealer or the NHTSA if you live in the US.
A source for PickupTrucks.com is reporting that Ford is considering replacing the F-150′s conventional frame with some sort of “all-new platform featuring extensive use of an innovative magnesium-aluminum alloy” to reduce the truck’s overall weight. In addition, you could also see use of aluminum body panels (but not inside the box).
This potential change leaves a lot of questions like
- Will the F-150 turn into a unibody Honda Ridgeline-like vehicle?
- How does this affect towing capacity?
- Will they also put a 4 cylinder engine in the F-150?
- Will the changes make the F-150 wimpy!!??
Well time will tell what Ford will do to the F-150. Considering how they’ve continued to only improve on the truck we don’t anticipate that Ford would do anything to compromise the F-150′s capability.
The Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) have named the 2012 F-150 as the Truck of Texas.
Our friends over @ PUTC have posted some good information on the all-new Global Ranger. And by Global, we mean it’s available in over 180 countries, but not US and Canada.
We reported to you earlier about a 
We reported to you in September 2010 that you could get a chance to get behind the wheel of the new EcoBoost 
Ford has finally released the EPA-certified fuel economy numbers for the 
Ford is recalling over 14,000 2011 F-150, F-250, F-350, F-450 trucks, the Edge, and LIncoln MKX vehicles that were built in October and November 2010 to fix a defective body control module.