Drove a 2015 (aluminum body) F-150 Today

.

The Atlanta dealers are getting 4 -- 2015 F-150s for about 2 hours at each dealer.

It was a coincidence that I stopped at a Ford dealer (today at rush hour) to look for the new F-150 and they told me that they had none on the lot and it would be spring, 2015 before they had any to sell .... HOWEVER ... in about an hour (at 1700 hours) , the Ford Caravan will be at the dealer for about 2 hours with 3 or 4 F-150s.

I waited (rush hour traffic) and they rolled in. Have some pics and I will try to post my first pics. ever on this site ........ Yes, it looks like my 1st pics are going to post.

I was super impressed with the quality and all the "automatic gizmos" on the truck, and it had a very sporty fell to it too.

On some military and fire fighting vehicles (my old business life) we switched to aluminum on many products years ago and I love aluminum if we can use it.

I would love to see an aluminum Tacoma with a regular cab, short box and a big V-6 ...


PS ... Nice trucks, but too big for me, I will go back to a Tacoma because of its' size.
.

 

.
Good one ... had me looking at it again ....

I thought ... wow ... screwed my first pic posted on here in years ....
.

 

at first look that front end reminded me of the tundra

 

what's the sticker on one of those?

 

'
I have a lot more pics .... but don't know how to add them to an existing thread.

Been on here a long time and my first photo post was this thread.
.

 

.
No stickers with price, if I remember.

What impressed was everything had a automatic features, i.e.... automatic different size steps everywhere, tailgate & etc and sliding rear glass had no frame.
.

 

Ugly as hell but I like the idea of aluminum bodies and frames, not only lighter but it would eliminate pretty much all rust issues people have with cars these days.

 

Only the body panels are aluminum. The frame is still steel. Aluminum wouldn't work well for a frame.

 

.
ONLY aluminum bodies, bed & etc. on the F-150 .... STEEL only frame that is a higher strength PSI steel.

It took guts for Ford (CEO Alan Mulally from Boeing) to take the best selling single vehicle in the US (600K+ units annually) and build it out of aluminum with this giant learning curve and still keep customers happy. Great truck, but not for me because it is too big for my needs.

I am a Toyota/Honda guy and believe that the Toyota trucks (small truck market) are the best in the world (so far). But Toyota (especially Tacoma line) needs to get MUCH more aggressive on "new product development" or they will lose a lot of loyal customers like me.

I like a "medium sized" truck that is dependable, high quality with excellent resale & service & good corporate support ...with features like the big trucks. ...

PS ... I would buy an aluminum body & bed Tacoma (at a higher cost) if it was available.
.

 

I wonder if insurance premiums would go up because of how hard aluminum is to work with. A door ding won't be a simple paintless dent removal with aluminum. Plus aluminum is much more expensive than steel. It is nice that it won't rot away.

 

.
Yes, they are working on that now. Harder to ding the aluminum - Ford said ... BUT ... more expensive and difficult to fix. Insurance will probably go up some but you save 700 lbs too in dead weight. ..... this is where the "commercial customers" will decide ... repair cost vs increased payload ??

Ford is training their body shops now on how to do it. Also, 3 times more adhesives in new F-150.
.

 

In reading about how aluminum was adopted for Fords F150, the auto body industry was and still is offering seminars on how to do repair and heavy collision training. Ford claims that the alloy is more "ding" resistant than steel because aluminum doesn't have "memory" after being formed like steel does.

Audi has been using aluminum for a long time as well as other brands for various body panels but if memory serves correctly, Audi utilized aluminum for the entirety of some of their cars. The A8 is all aluminum, as is the new Jaguar Convertable/coupes.

Corvettes have been using hydro formed aluminum for chassis for a number of years as well.

 

Honda starting using aluminum body and aluminum alloy framing and suspension starting in 1990. From wikipedia.

The NS-X was the first production car to feature an all-aluminium monocoque body,[5] incorporating a revolutionary extruded aluminium alloy frame, and suspension. The use of aluminium in the body alone saved nearly 200 kg in weight over the steel equivalent while the aluminium suspension saved an additional 20 kg; a suspension compliance pivot helped maintain wheel alignment changes at a near zero value.[6]

 

.
Yeah, the Ford guys and the magazines indicated that the auto/truck industry has been playing with aluminum on limited production and high end models for a long time.

But, no one has bet the farm on it like Ford did with the F-150. If I was in the market for a full size truck, I might look at a F-150, but would probably buy another Tundra (if a big truck was needed).

I love the size of the Gen1 and the Gen2 Tacomas (nothing bigger if possible) ..... I even like the older & smaller Toyota pickups with the old R-22s in them.

 

Corrosion of aluminum in salt environments is a big problem. The rust problem would be eliminated and replaced by a corrosion problem.

 

I read where a standard rear drive will weigh in at around 4100lbs. That's getting pretty close to a Tacoma. Another theory on all the electric gadgets is to help sales for those freaked out over an aluminum body. Time will tell on this one. 2014's are hot because of the last steel body factor, but the steel on all truck body panels these days crumples up pretty well in an accident.

 

Hard to tell from the photos but did it have the massive sunroof system? My company supplies them.