When Ford shakes its money maker, a bunch of F-150s fall out onto the floor. Without a doubt, the Ford F-150 is the most important car they have ever had. It’s entering decade number five as the best selling truck in America, and on a month to month basis, it is almost always the #1 selling vehicle. So anytime Ford decides to make any changes to the F-150, it’s time to sit up and take notice because we’re going to see roadways full of them in the near future.
The F-150 is going to have a new look at the front. This is usually the main thing you get in any cars mild redesign. The F-150 is going to get new headlights, a new grill and a new bumper. Overall the design does give a nod to the current Ford Super Duty’s front end. The design seems to lend the truck some heft and it appears even larger than it already is. Overall the look definitely screams Ford but overall is looking pretty good.
Past F150 – Source: Shutterstock
The biggest changes are going to come in the power train category. For the longest time Ford has been letting their 3.5-liter V-6 be the default engine for their low end F-150’s. Well say goodbye to that engine as it’s time for that dinosaur to hit the road. As a direct replacement, Ford will be switching to a more efficient direct injection 3.3-liter V-6 in their base model. But the engine offerings do not stop there. Ford is now going to offer up a brand new 3.0-liter turbo diesel V-6. This engine is meant to be both powerful and fuel efficient. Ford hasn’t even released the specs on the engine yet. What is known is that Ford is going to pair the turbo diesel with their 10-speed automatic transmissions. It’s pretty rare for the big three to co-operate, but that transmission was actually created during a joint venture from Ford and General Motors. A lot of F-150’s have been purchased lately with their “Ecoboost” engines. Ford has responded and has worked to further improve their Ecoboost engines with direct fuel injection that should hopefully provide both better power and better fuel economy.
2018 F-150 – Source: Wikimedia
While the engine offerings are the main changes in the 2018 F-150, there’s going to be some quality of life offerings to catch up with their competition or sometimes to go beyond it. The F-150 will not have LTE connectivity and offer itself as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Considering the number of F-150’s on the road, if they all worked together, their hotspot could cover a good portion of the country if they were all equipped. A seamless interstate hotspot made up of F-150’s and only accessible to Ford customers in other cars should be a future feature. The F-150 will now also have pre-collision assist and pedestrian detection. While these features are often expensive extras, if you are an easily distracted person then you certainly want to invest in these features to help you avoid potential accidents and protect your F-150 investment.
Overall it seems like minor but necessary changes to help make the 2018 F-150 even better than the current model. Hopefully Ford keeps up with the minor updates before the next major revision and keep their sales strong.
