So I'm talking to the service guys at my Ford dealer about my new 2004 F150 fx4 and mention that one of the mods I'm planning is the superchip tuner. To a man they say don't do it, and give me all the usual reasons. But one thing sticks in my head..... if it was so good why wouldn't Ford do it themselves so it would have better hp and sell more trucks!? Didn't know the answer to that, so what IS the answer??


Thanks

 

Some people might not choose to buy a truck that requires premium gas, so Ford tuned it to run on regular to reduce fuel cost. Just a guess.

 

Ride quality is one factor. Ford programs shifts that offend few, but please few.

 

Fuel across the United States is not all he same. They have to tune the computer to be able to run on the crappiest fuel that might be encountered. Also, as mentioned, people won't want to be paying 25 cents extra for premium all the time. That explains the engine part of it, and as Ken stated for the transmission is exactly right. Same reason all transmissions don't have shift kits from the factory - not everybody wants their head to snap back. Younger folks generally would, but then you lose the people with the money.

The F-series isn't found to be "offensive" as Ken says. Very few people can truly HATE it. It has to appeal to everybody in some way to everybody - this is its key.

 

I have no idea who they are trying to appeal to with the 'rides like a floor jack' shocks and granola mush shifting. And why in the world is the overdrive engaging every time I take my foot off the gas and rolling over 20mph? The lag time when trying to accellerate and waiting for the overdrive to disengage is dangerous as well as wasting fuel and hard on the transmission.

With a Predator tuner, new Reflex shocks and soon-to-be-installed 3.73 gears with posi, I'll have a truck that drives and performs close to what I'd expect from a new truck. It would be nice if they could just make a real truck from the git-go. It isn't an econobox car and there is no reason for a work vehicle/ pickup to shift like my grandfather's slushomatic or have the overdrive locking up at 25 mph. There is also no reason to put 3.31 gears on a truck with 17" or 18" rims from the factory! It's stupid.

 

The simple answer would be cost. It is much cheaper to engineer, test and produce a generic program that works with the thousands of 2004 F150 fx4's that they build. With the loose tolerances in manufacturing, it would be too costly to make a custom fine tuned program for every vehicle of a given year/model.

Kinda like t-shirts... S, M, L, XL, XXL. That's it. Imagine the cost of making custom t-shirts for everybody?