Man, what a truck. I was pretty excited about this truck to begin with, and it did not let me down. It was the configuration I would buy (SuperCrew,4x4,6.5 bed,3.73 rear end) so it was a good demo for me. Of course it was the Platinum which didn't hurt either.

I don't have an F150, so I was comparing it to my '02 7.3 Power Stroke (real close comparison right?) The main reason I love my diesel is the torque and the fact that it pretty much never needs to down shift. The torque is just always there. When I started up the on ramp to get on the the freeway, I was blown away. It pulled hard and strong the whole way and I decided that getting onto the freeway at 80 was probably fast enough so I backed off . What was nice was that even though the revs were pretty high (this is a V6, not surprising) it never felt like it was straining or sounded bad at all. Very smooth all the way to 6000 when I backed off. I always hate downshifting to find more power and feeling like the engine is going to blow up when it is in the higher RPM's. This truck just seemed to ask for more.

Surprisingly, I loved the sound of the engine and even the exhaust note. I'm used to a 4" turbo back V8 exhaust that shakes the living daylights out of ya and was worried that the EcoBoost would sound... neutered. I thought it sounded great. A lot lower than I thought it would be. The one thing I do wish is that it had some turbo whistle. Not a lot, just some to tell me what's under the hood.

The fuel economy on the lie-o-meter was showing 16.6 avg. Not bad for a truck that has a new driver in it every hour that wants to prove they are Mario Andretti. I reset it and showed upwards of 20 on the freeway when easy on the go pedal. The Ford guy told me he was able to eek out 23 on a flat stretch of highway with all the stars aligned. That's awesome in my opinion. This is a heavy 4x4 crew cab long bed pick up truck we're talking about.

All in all, it is a great truck. Just need to wrap my head around the price tag on it. Why won't Ford's website let me build an XL Super Crew 6.5 bed with an Ecoboost?!!! I don't need all the Platinum model stuff. Looks like you have to go to the XLT to get the stuff I want. Oh well.

So... who wants to buy a clean, one owner F350 7.3? I'll take offers.

 

Great write-up and review. Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for taking the time share sir. Excellent write-up. I have my drive in a couple of days and I can't wait like a kid looking for ice cream.