While the new aluminum body Ford F-150 was bound to be a success, with gasoline prices collapsing to levels not seen for 20 years, sales of this and other “gas hogs” are setting records. The average F-150 sits on the the lot for 5 days before it’s sold…It’s party time in Deerborn…
Good for Ford. It’s great to see innovation is rewarded. Gas hogs is a relative term. These are the most efficient trucks ever built.
Ford is in the right place at the right time…
This oil price collapse is like a big tax cut for everyone…It will give our economy a BIG boost. I don’t know what Wall Street is worried about…Let the good times roll!
I’m not convinced about the Ford’s real world mpgs. Car and Driver got the same mpg (16) with both the Ford and Chevy pickups in their test.
Wow. I’m glad for Ford, they bet the farm on the aluminum body F150 and I wasn’t sure they would win. The aluminum body was supposed to be more attractive vs. steel at higher gas prices, not lower gas prices…but I guess when gas goes down, people will buy more of anything with wheels regardless of mpg…
When the party ends there’ll be one heck of a mess to clean up. There’ll be used behemoths all over the used car/truck market. It’ll be Deja vu all over again.
I am not sure the collapsed gas prices would help the economy in the long run. A big part of the recovery was industries related to or in locations where drilling was going on and now they are all going away.
As far as truck and big car sales go, I see another cash for clunkers in our future.
And again, if you drive a decent amount, the difference between a regular SUV vs a family sedan is still over $100 per month in gas money. Am I just too cheap to think that is significant, that is if you don’t NEED an SUV or truck.
I expect the boost in efficiency is really going to come with a boost in aerodynamics methodology.I hear the naysayers all the time-but everybody around here I’ve enquired to,about the diminitive Ecoboost,report zero troubles and 20 mpg,the Gas powered silverados avg about 16 mpg(carrying a good load and driven normally) so dont look for great mileage,just look for tolerable mileage,it just takes an x-amount of gas to push a shoebox through the air,most of the low hanging fruit is gone,unless you go to a diesel or hybrid(both pretty expensive) so as long as gas is relatively cheap and people keep getting good paychecks,you will see the behomeths move
When the party ends there'll be one heck of a mess to clean up. There'll be used behemoths all over the used car/truck market. It'll be Deja vu all over again.
Every time gas prices rose quickly you could buy a big SUV or pickup for THOUSANDS less then it was before the rise. People couldn’t sell them fast enough. Dealers were having fire sales. That’s why gas-mileage is always part of the equation when I buy a new vehicle. If gas prices rise suddenly I’m running out to sell my vehicle.
One thing is for sure; with aluminum bods on Fords, there will be fewer rusted out hulks to deal with later on. With our experience in recycling aluminum cans, we should be pretty good by then with “old” aluminum Fords. I hope the disadvantages of cost and repair don’t make Ford and others do a back step and go back to lead, I mean steel.
I bet as we speak, the first aluminum Ford may have been in an accident. Just wonder how that will be handled.
Ford made a huge commitment with this aluminum body. They likely had a serious sit-down with Alcoa to insure there would be a large and steady supply of sheet aluminum going forward. This doesn’t seem like a big deal but it is. They save some money on corrosion protection, maybe on welding, too.
The bottom line is consumers like trucks and will continue buying them. While I might not agree that a turbo motor is the best solution for a truck that tows, at least they still offer a 5.0 V8 for like minded buyers.
Are they are already “reintroducing” some of their even larger regular gas non turbo motors later this year and next ? …hmmmmm.
Regardless of the price of gas, the fuel efficiency targets into the future are severe. There may be a situation in the future where the car makers will have to LIMIT the sale of high output engines and large vehicles and subsidize the small economy cars in order to meet the future CAFE standards.
The feds have a penalty system for not meeting the CAFE standards for any particular year.
As said before one of the mags a few months ago (Pop Science, Motor Trend, Auto, etc.) don’t remember which, had an article on the whole aluminum truck conversion project. There was quite a bit of work with the supplier to provide enough, and in setting up for recycling of their scrap. Different scrap needed to be collected separately etc. Also there was mucho training provided for dealer body shops which were required to spend $20,000 plus for new equipment to deal with the new bodies. It was really a total conversion process from beginning to end.
Again though, the weight difference between an aluminum Ford and a standard Chevy was like 400 pounds, not 700. It would just seem to me that with falling oil prices, the difference would diminish even more not less. So I’m not sure the timing of the aluminum body and fuel prices is helpful. Maybe, I don’t know but it makes no sense. It makes more sense that the rising tide of lower fuel prices is raising sales for all the boats including Ford and Chevy.
Have no axe to grind either way and don’t own a truck but Motor Trend picked the Colorado as the truck of the year over the F-150, all things considered. With a load, without a load, handling, etc.
There’s a big caveat to the increased demand for pickups.
We, as a dealer, according to Ford, can NOT just order up all the pickups we think we want…period !
This is a change in business model that happened a while back and a huge bunch of our local customers are petty bent about that ( GM , Dodge too by the way. )
IF we order X number of pickups we MUST order X number of cars as well.
To youall that might not sound so bad but this is the four corners Navajo reservation area and back in the 70’s & 80’s we sold thirty pickups to one car. cars would sit on the lots gathering dust and we couldn’t order pickups fast enough. Plain jane, straight six, vinyl seats, manual transmission, 4x2 and every body had one.
…how many bales of hay can you fit in a Focus ?
AND…
The major car dealers are getting stuck with numbers of trucks that they would never have wanted to order in the old way.
The reason for rationing trucks is that the manufacturers must meet CAFE goals with their real world fleet, not just provide cars and trucks that get better mileage against a hypothetical fleet. About all a dealer can do is try to work a deal with a dealer that wants mor cars than trucks and trade with him. Of course, the dealer without enough trucks will have to pay the freight, so to speak, because the one that wants cars can easily order enough.
The “free ride” may already be over. Gas prices in my area jumped up a full ten cents overnight.
Sounds like a full employment plan for the car transport drivers. Drop some cars off and pick up a load of trucks. Seems kinda silly.
I think I paid under $2.00 a gallon today so its still stable and down. Kerosene went down about a dollar though so I had the garage cranked up to about 65 degrees compared to 10 outside. Actually worked in the garage a little.
The people who use LPG, Propane, are REALLY getting ripped…The wholesale price is $0.45 / gallon. Retail price can be 3 or 4 times that number or even more, as with those 20# exchange tanks for $20…That’s $5 / gallon! Ouch!
The 700 lbs appears to be the weight of a 2015 F150 saved over a comparable 2014 F150
Compared to a Chevy, Toyota or Dodge who are also attempting to shed weight, it can vary from Make and model of one to another. It’s near impossible to make generalizations