It's basic marketing, find a competitor's flaw, (doesn't matter if it's real or perceived), and exploit it.

 

As marketing goes, yes, you find a flaw or weakness, exploit it. I get that.

I own a 02' f-150 fx4 and am very happy with it and it continues to serve me well, with nearly 180k on the ticker. It definitely has held up better then my brothers 01' Silverado, which is in the scrape heep with a cracked frame with about 30k less miles then mine and swiss cheese rust on the rockers and box . In either case ( mine or my brothers), these are not counrty Cadillacs, garage queens or glorified grocery getters. We use, and at time abuse, our trucks as trucks. We expect them to take some abuse and keep on rolling.

As a consumer, the average blue collar Joe who works hard for what they have. Who springs $40-60 grand for a new pickup to help do his/her job and put food on the table & clothes on their kids. After a day where they are using a truck for a truck and happens to puncture a hole in His/Her fairly new truck bed, after some typical use. I'd be pretty up set too, not to mention disappointed. Yes this is what GM is pointing out and playing on.

 

But if you add a bed liner....

 

This commercial does illustrate that truck buyers who use their trucks for serious truck tasks like construction, might not want the F-150. But, there are millions of light trucks that are only used for family driving, commuting and very lightly loaded trips to Home Depot. These truck owners are less likely to care about dropping blocks into the bed. The increased fuel mileage from the use of aluminum is certainly important to many drivers.

For many years, the definition of a truck has been changing, the new F-150 is just another example of this trend.
Larry

 

No it doesn't. No one who uses their truck would opt out of getting a bed liner for the job. As I said before, not protecting your bed (with a factory available bed liner) and blaming the truck is the same thing as complaining that the base 3.5 motor won't tow 12k.

 

Who pays 40-60k for a new truck and does dumb stuff like dropping square blocks into it without a bed liner?

I agree with Frantz about getting a bed liner if you use an F150 for real work like construction, but with it's low payload, most people I know who really use trucks for construction work will choose a 250/350. (I am curious to see if Ford uses a full aluminum bed in those.) Hell, you could afford to lay a sheet of cheap plywood in the bed if you are dumping blocks into it, couldn't you? Not a big expense if you spend 40k on a truck...

And that said, in Michigan, body rust will destroy the body (and resale value) of a steel truck LONG before the unlikely possibility of holes in the bed so I'll take the aluminum for that reason alone. Of course, with Ford's spotty history of paint sticking to hoods and tailgates on Expeditions, the jury is still out on the finish longevity on the F150. I sure hope it hangs in there.

(My first brand new vehicle was a '78 F100 which both rusted AND had the silver/gray paint peel off the hood and roof within about 8 years...sigh. Still served me well but my standards for auto finishes are much higher now than they were then.)

George

 

This


I agree with Tim also, I just don't pay a bunch of attention from ANY of the manufacturers adverts when making a decision on a purchase this large, I'd rather go see for myself.....that being said, it's doubtful that I'll buy anything other than a Ford for sometime to come, not a fanboy, just really prefer their products and have had better luck with Ford trucks.

 

Kudos Frantz, couldn't agree more....


Rep gun empty...

 

The SD truck is also all aluminum, but because of the higher payloads/work expectations it is thicker than the F150 bed floor.

 

The F250 IIRC, will only be 70 lbs lighter than the previous generation, due to a beefed up frame, axles, etc....Not sure if that is 100% correct though. I would imagine it will be a beast, I think Ford will put a thicker bed in the SD's also.

 

Of course it's gonna vary with configuration, but the numbers I've seen suggest around 350 lbs lighter.

New Ford Super Duty Chassis & Engine get Bump for 2017 [News] ? The Fast Lane Truck

Less weight up top and more weight down low will make for a much lower center of gravity though. I'd expect them to drive significantly better, much like the '15 F150s do compared to the previous gen.

 

I was just going by an advertisement (yep, one of them) that stated, and they may have said certain configurations, would only be 70 lbs lighter, but I have developed a bad case of CRS and could be wrong! LOL

 

Center of gravity is a bigger factor than weight reduction on the new ones. I had also heard the 350# number from Ford, but I would bet that is on the F250 gas with lighter transmission (remember the F150 700# figure was not exactly apples to oranges to get). Just about any weight saved did go to beefing up the bottom half of the truck. I like that!

 

Me too....

 

Free advertising for Ford f-series, marketing 101, Chevy is comparing theirs to Ford.