All-New Ford F-150 Wins Truck Trend’s 2015 Pickup Truck of the Year Award

LOS ANGELES -- January 7, 2015: Truck Trend, the nation’s premier light truck authority, has selected the 2015 Ford F-150 as the winner of its inaugural Pickup Truck of the Year Award for 2015.

“Ford seems to have found a sweet spot in the ½-ton pickup segment, delivering a compelling mix of efficiency and capability, while still delivering an enhanced driving experience that American consumers demand”

Truck Trend’s Pickup Truck of the Year award program is an invitation-only shootout that is only open to all-new or significantly revised pickup trucks for the upcoming model year. For 2015, the field of vehicles included nine entries from five companies and consisted of one variant from each company’s eligible product line. This year’s contenders included:

Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Ford F-150 XLT FX4 Ford F-350 King Ranch GMC Canyon SLT GMC Sierra 2500HD All-Terrain Ram Power Wagon Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro Toyota Tundra TRD Pro

Truck Trend’s experts were immediately intrigued with the all-new 2015 F-150, which is loaded with innovation, starting with an all-aluminum body. An industry first in any truck segment, the use of aluminum allows the F-150 to not only shed weight but increase capability, as the weight reduction directly improves the truck’s towing and hauling capacities. The F-150’s weight reduction also aids in fuel efficiency gains and improved handling and braking. In fact, the 3.5L EcoBoost V-6–equipped model in this test allowed the F-150 to dominate every instrumented test category, while delivering the best average and highest fuel economy of any ½-ton in the test. It was also lighter than the other two ½-ton entries, by 465 pounds when compared to the Chevrolet Silverado and a surprising 616 pounds less than the Toyota Tundra. In addition, the 2015 F-150 also features a modern and more aerodynamic design, an excellent suite of advanced technologies, a comfortable cabin, and four efficient powertrain choices.

“Ford seems to have found a sweet spot in the ½-ton pickup segment, delivering a compelling mix of efficiency and capability, while still delivering an enhanced driving experience that American consumers demand,” says Sean P. Holman, content director for Truck Trend. “What we put these trucks through was nothing short of grueling, and it was the F-150 that consistently impressed our experts.”

The Ford F-150 won Truck Trend’s 2015 Pickup Truck of the Year award after a demanding weeklong test comprised of hundreds of miles of performance testing, hauling, towing, fuel economy, and off-roading—all important disciplines in which truck owners expect their vehicle to be competent.

To thoroughly test each truck, the competition began with a day of instrumented testing at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The field was subjected to 0-60-mph and quarter-mile acceleration testing as well as 60-0-mph braking while unladen. Each truck was then loaded up with a specific payload (based on class) and retested from 0-60 and 60-0 mph. The final instrumented test involved each truck accelerating to 60 mph while towing 75 percent of its rated trailer capacity.

Using the same parameters as the instrumented testing day, the trucks were again loaded up and driven on a 20-mile loop through Southern California. Throughout the day, experts, payloads, and trailers rotated through the group, allowing each judge to drive every vehicle with a payload and a trailer. This also allowed testers to experience how easy each truck was to load or hook a trailer to, effectiveness of tie-down positions and integrated trailer brake controllers, how well the trucks were designed with outward visibility in mind, and chassis performance, among other features important to truck buyers.

With load testing complete, the vehicles were pointed toward California’s High Desert, where the field completed extensive off-highway testing over 100 miles of desert trail. Through rough roads, muddy basins, rocky climbs, and sandy washes, judges were able to evaluate tires, gearing, traction aids, electronic traction controls, ground clearance, suspension tuning, four-wheel-drive systems, thermal management, and overall vehicle dynamics.

Finally, each truck was driven over a several-hundred-mile highway route to gauge real-world fuel economy. In between tests the experts had ample time with each vehicle to form qualified opinions regarding important factors such as interior ergonomics, back seat comfort, technology usability, build quality, and features and benefits of each truck.

With testing completed, the staff at Truck Trend crunched the data and found that the F-150 led in three out of six scoring categories (Highway (20%), Empirical (15%), Daily Living (5%)), while coming in Second Place in the Tow/Haul (20%) portion of the test to the other Ford in the field, the F-350 Super Duty. The other two categories were Off-Road (20%) and Interior/Exterior Execution and Functionality (20%). In the end, it was the F-150 that scored the highest number of points and earned the nod from Truck Trend’s jurors.