Ford F150 Truck Blog

Here’s one of the latest F150 SVT Raptor videos to hit YouTube. It’s the Raptor at Monster Jam in Detroit that was last weekend.

Good PR move for Ford – bringing the Raptor to Monster Jam. But…. you could just hear the disappointment when they didn’t jump the Raptor F150 over junk cars…. oh well, maybe next time. The Raptor is still a sweet truck!

For the 32nd year in a row, Ford’s award-winning F-Series is America’s best-selling truck with 2008 sales of 515,513. F-series outsold its nearest truck rival by more than 50,000 units.

In addition, for the 27th year in a row, F-Series is once again America’s best-selling vehicle of any type – car, crossover, SUV, truck or van.

“Our thanks go out to our customers, our dealers and, of course, the Ford employees and supplier partners who design, engineer and manufacture quality, fuel-efficient trucks delivering unmatched capability,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s group vice president, Marketing and Communications.

Above Source: Ford Press Release

Congratulations Ford on pulling this off during one of the toughest sales years in recent times. Gas prices went up sharply and truck sales dropped, but obviously Ford has the best built trucks and truck buyers know that. I guess you could say Ford is King of Trucks.

I know, I know, you see the headline and think there must be a mistake. A four cylinder engine in an F-150? That’s crazy talk. Well, until recently that was a crazy idea.

With gas prices as high as they are and truck sales so low, it’s maybe not such a crazy idea after all. Derrick Kuzak, the Vice President of Product Management from Ford has said “it’s a potential”.

If Ford does offer a four-cylinder engine, it would most likely would be an EcoBoost engine (turbocharged with direct injection). It’s projected the engine would be offered in 2013.

Ford has already acknowledged that they are working on and plan to produce a diesel F-150. Heck, there’s also talk of a new F-100 truck (a bit smaller than the F-150). And the Ford Ranger plant that was scheduled to close multiple times now just might stay open for a few more years.

Source: [Automotive News]

Here’s what we do know about a potential SVT truck for 2009. Earlier this morning AutoBlog reported that an SVT rep commented “a new SVT truck is coming … later this fall”. Shortly thereafter PickupTrucks.com reported from a credible source that the truck won’t be called a Lightning. In fact it looks like it’s going to be part of the Harley-Davidson line-up of trucks.

Here’s what we don’t know. We don’t have details but it’s probably safe to say the truck will likely be a version of the supercharged Harley F-150. Expect big custom wheels, a custom instrument cluster, perhaps special stitching in the seats. Production may be limited. We also don’t know whether this will satisfy 01-04 Lightning owners. Will this new SVT truck be a Lightning replacement? We’ll see.

One thing is clear. Ford needs to keep coming up with new models and incentives to get truck sales levels back to where they were not that long ago. Trucks are big business and the F-Series was the top selling vehicle for many years (that is until this year). With rumors of a Raptor F150 and a new Ford F100, this potential new SVT truck might be just what Ford needs to be #1 again.

Sources: [Ford SVT Lightning Concept 2004 - Photos] [Autoblog] [PickupTrucks]

For those of you who haven’t seen the video, here it is:

Also be sure to check out our 2009 Ford F150 Information.