It may not shake anyones feelings, most are stuck on the government safety ratings. I've been in the fire and ems business for 17 years, and in all that time, i've seen more people walk away with minor or non life threating injuries when driving a ford in a serious accident than any other make. I even experianced a high speed impact with a telephone pole in my 99 f150, destroying the truck, and all i got was a scratch on my arm. After seeing this over these years, that is why I will only drive a ford, as most of the safety test don't reflect real world accidents.

 

I think most Fords 'crash' pretty well these days, but there is a lot of controversy and lawsuits over the Super Duty's roof collapsing in rollover accidents these days. There is also the issue of the Crown Vic's gas tank failing in rear end accidents, but that seems only to happen to law enforcement vehicles parked on highways (high speed collisions).

 

haven't seen any super dutys on thier top, but lots of frontal and side impact they do well, as for the rear end collisions never seen on burn, seen a lot of fuel tank damage, but in the same hand, most for cars had thier fuel tank in the rear, it only takes a few to make people call them bad. Some ford do have inherient problems, but for the most part, i've been impressed with them, they only problem i'm seeing now is the new 6.0 electronic package is strugling in the emergency vehicle dept, and ford is not responding to the problem, which is fast losing market ground here, for years ford carried 98% of the light fast attack fire truck and ambulance chassis market, but if they don't so something to fix the problem they are gonna lose a lot of ground. I'm a die hard ford man, but almost everyone of out new fords have constant problems, u can't have that when ur responding to a fire or ems call. they just shut down for no reason. We sent a brand new truck back to a local dealer near our part of florida, and the fire truck manufacture sent it back to a chicago dealer, each time i came back doing the same thing, just shutting down, they finally gave us a new one to replace it, but it's got problems too. Like i said i'm a die hard ford man, but this 6.0 problem bothers me.

 

The E-350 cutaway chassis with the 7.3L Powerstroke was THE ambulance. No one else offered anything similar. Now, with the 6.0L Powerstroke's problems and the new G.M. 4500 cutaway's, Ford is fast loosing this market. Hopefully, the new 6.4L Powerstroke will help them get some of it back. They also ought to re-introduce the E-550, a truck that was around for less that 1 year. I thought they would make a great ambulance.

 

we had a couple of the E series cutaway for a couple of years, but like most we went back to the f-350's and 450's, just a safer and better truck more comfortable on the crews too. we do long transports here where i'm at from a small town hospital to a larger one in pensacola. our fire trucks have to run a good stretch too in between stations. our old 7.3's are still kicking well, but the 6.0's are killing us. love the cabs on the 05's and 06's. just a side note, the county is taking over and manning some of our volunter depts here with paid guys, the other day we found an old 48-49 ford f-5 factory fire truck that the county is going to let us restore for ceremonies and parades, it's still got it's original flat head in it.

 

I'm no expert in this field by any extent of the mind, but in my town we have some 1995(ish) superdutys (basically an f450 or f550 before they were called that) with a 7.3L still running every day in all temps. They must have over 200,000 on the odo, and well over 10,000 hours, since they idle at every call. The E-series (which are owned by an independent company- the superdutys are town-owned) are mostly 2000+ beacuse the old ones wore out, with many 6.0L's judging by the turbo whistle as they pass you. I would agree with the F-series being a better chassis for many reasons:

1. Dual rear wheels- better stability/ride-
2. Dual Alternators/batteries/PTO's- that's a no-brainer for an ambulance, nuff said.
3. MORE POWER- no air flow restrictions here, and also better cooling for long idleing, especally at high idle (for running equipment)
4. 4X4- not sure if ours have this (actually, almost certain they don't because in the blizzard of '96 they had civilans in 4X4's transporting people b/c the ambulances got stuck). This is unacceptable!! If you need help, you don't want to hear that the ambulance got stuck in snow or mud, and 4X4 would make it hard to do this, even with about 10,000# on it.
5. Just a historically longer-lasting vehicle, with more room in the cabin and a better dash.

 

Most all the services in our area uses the f series ambulance package trucks for thier ambulances. only rural metro uses the e series, most services have toyed with the e series, but found them difficult for the mechs to work on, and uncomfortable for the crews. they also found that when sold at auction by the local government, as most services here are local government run or fire dept based, that they could easily resale the f series trucks but not the e series. after working in this business for all these years, I have driven chevy ambulance chassis and ford chassis, the fords just out perform the chevy's. not a knock at chevy, just an observation. the ford chassis in this area are also cheaper to buy for work trucks. I hope ford can straighten out the problem they are having with the 6.0 when the build the 6.4. I have unfortunately seen a few ambulance wrecks here as well, the f series everyone walked away, the e series resulted in the death of the crews that were in the cab. We have some of the volunteer depts around us that are using mid 80's to mid 90's retired ambulance chassis that are still going strong, the old international diesels are a strong reliable engine, i hated to see ford move from them. I understand thier wish to build a better engine. I just hate to see the powerstroke name take such a beating.

 

I'm amazed at the folks suing Ford for the Crown Victoria fires. One guy sued Ford because his Crown Victoria caught fire after being rear-ended by a drunk doing 100 mph. In most any other vehicle, the guy wouldn't have been burned, he would be dead.

 

how true, and sad