The Detroit show starts in a few hours with the reveal of Ford's latest and best special Mustang, the Bullitt, which commemorates the famous film made 50 (yes, 50) years ago. They'll sell versions in Europe, I'm told.
Tuned in to the Ford way of doing things with drives on rough but dry roads around the Blue Oval's Dearborn HQ, first in a double-cab F-150 pick-up, then in the mighty, just updated Expedition SUV. Both were instructive for one thing above all - for showing how well such vast vehicles work in the the US. You pass someone in an Volvo XC90 or a VW Touareg and are sincerely shocked how small and low to the ground they look. It's because freeway lanes and parking slots are all F-150 sized, so life's easy.
Though my F150 'only' had the cheapest 2.7 Ecoboost (325bhp at 5000rpm) it also had Ford's new electronic 10-speed auto, which is a real revelation. The big beast still had all the mechanical refinement you could want - always an amazing trait for a machine as apparently crude as this big pick-up, with its cart-sprung live rear axle, but it worked brilliantly. Hard to see why you wouldn't own one of these if living around here
The Expedition had similar traits - hugeness, a seamless and silent power train, this time the 375bhp, 3.5-litre V6 Ecoboost - to which you could now add a surprisingly stylish exterior and interior.
US designers manage to cope brilliantly with size when they create a new car. Only stumbling block for me was the $63,000 fully equipped price - £46,000 in the old money - which didn't represent the US market bargain I've been used to. But in US you never pay the price anyway. Just the rental.
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not a bad assumption
fuel economy is mid-20s mpg (UK gallons)
Well said Steve
something missing
"Hard to see why you wouldn't own one of these if living around here". Well Steve, the fact that you didn't even mention the vehicle's fuel economy makes me assume it gulps fuel. So perhaps one reason why one wouldn't own it (even if one lived in the US) is because it's a gas-guzzling throwback to a time when we didn't need to care one jot about the impact of motoring on our environment. Honestly...
It's about the utility
If that’s your concern you probably won’t have to wait too long for the all electric truck. The point here is that, assuming you are not into Lotus type subtleties or AMG type histrionics, the big truck does it all and, in the US, as SC says, the road and parking architecture is designed to accommodate it. Plenty of room for 5 in the cabin plus further room for everything you need in terms of shopping, luggage, camping, small businesses and towing in a hose-out deck with all sorts of options from open to covered to add-on lock boxes and living quarters. People buy them because they are super useful. I concede that you are less likely to avoid a given accident.
Actually the F150's 2.7L
Actually the F150's 2.7L Ecoboost is rated at 26 mpg highway, or 31 mpg UK.
That's better than some sedans.
Also, to correct Steve, the 2.7L isn't the lowest motor, that would be the NA V6. The 2.7L is the next option up, and besides 325 hp, it makes 400 ft-lbs of torque.
Along with getting 31 mpg on the UK cycle, it will do 0-60 mph in less than 6 seconds!
Pretty impressive.
Bad assumpiton.
Bad assumpiton.