Daily Slideshow: Does the F-Series Go Overboard with Trim Choices?
Why are there so many different F-Series trim levels on the market? When you're the world's top-selling truck you need to have a truck for everyone. We break it down here.
An American Icon, infinitely customizable
The F-Series--specifically its star pupil, the F-150--earned its ground-shaking reputation for its working-class practicality and no-nonsense functionality. Following decades of unrivaled success in no small part for its job site application, it's certainly interesting that a modern Ford dealer offers the F-150 in a wide range of fancy trims. Perhaps this would be inevitable with any ultra-successful model, but we think it goes further than that. Relatively recently, the number of luxury trims available for the F-150 surpassed the number of "standard" options. This comes as quite a surprise for a vehicle that was once (and perhaps still is) associated first with the blue-collar American heartland.
What's in a truck?
What could it be that attracts people from all over to Ford trucks? If we had to give a one-word answer to that question, we'd answer with "versatility." There's an incredible range in the number of things you can achieve with a Ford truck. In this instance, that idea of versatility is crossing over to other things outside the standard utility.
>>Join the conversation about the variety of F-150 trim levels right here in Ford-trucks.com.
Large sales across all demographics
It's a commonly cited sales fact that the F-150 tops sales in both the working and affluent demographics. With high-volume sales from customers across all walks of life, it is guaranteed that people would have a diversifying range of different things they might look for in a Ford truck. It follows that a right-thinking company would produce a range of options to satisfy them.
>>Join the conversation about the variety of F-150 trim levels right here in Ford-trucks.com.
Special trims for special markets
For a company as large as Ford, whatever cracks they leave open in the market will get cropped up by third-party modding companies. A lot of the time, it's not that Ford hasn't thought of it themselves (in fact, look up the SkyRanger for a taste of "weird Ford") but usually because it isn't worth the investment. A small company doesn't have to look in such broad terms.
That's not to say that Ford won't touch niche trims, of course. Emergency police response vehicles are a specialized market that Ford is all too happy to plunge into.
>>Join the conversation about the variety of F-150 trim levels right here in Ford-trucks.com.
The aftermarket does what the officials won't
In a sense, the situation as it currently stands works to both sides' strengths. Ford's typically conservative business strategy typically hedges on safe, reliable returns--which says a lot about the number of trims they offer! There may still be a market for less popular modifications, but they may be too frivolous or niche-oriented for a mass manufacturer like Ford to be worth divesting from their high-volume sales. Independent shops are at an advantage when it comes to less certain bets; smaller size means fewer customers are needed to turn a profit. From this, a company can allow themselves to hunker down on a specialty. Newport Convertibles is one such outfitter, making soft-tops out of their customers' stock F-150s.
>>Join the conversation about the variety of F-150 trim levels right here in Ford-trucks.com.
The F-150's success is unprecedented
There's no other vehicle in the automotive sphere that comes close to the success, enduring appeal and widespread utility of the F-150. By that, we mean that apparent contradictions and curveballs were always going to come with the market territory Ford trucks occupy in the market. Even if the product itself is seen as the go-to standard within its class, there's nothing typical about a number-one sales streak stretching back over four decades now. As a whole, the F-Series would not have been able to clamber those heights of success without branching out to a suitably vast array of customers. At the same time, however, that success wouldn't happen if they had abandoned the grassroots customers they originally catered to.
Click here to check out the latest variety of trims offered for the F-150.
>>Join the conversation about the variety of F-150 trim levels right here in Ford-trucks.com.
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