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Outer Banks is the Site for Ford Truck Drive

9 June 1998

Women at the Wheels: Outer Banks is the Site for Ford Truck Drive

    MANTEO, N.C., June 9 -- Since the early 1700s, the Outer
Banks of North Carolina have been known informally as the "Graveyard of the
Atlantic" -- a dangerous and difficult chain of islands jutting into the
Atlantic Ocean.  The Outer Banks also is home to Kill Devil Hills where
Orville and Wilbur Wright soared in the world's first airplane.  So the Outer
Banks was a natural transportation "stronghold" for Ford Motor Company
to bring a fleet of its "Built Tough" Ford trucks to demonstrate
their durability.
    The test drivers were female automotive journalists from the Southeastern
and South Central United States, and they reviewed a range of Ford trucks --
the 1999-model Super Duty Ford F-Series trucks, along with Explorer sport
utility vehicles and Ranger compact pickup trucks.
    The drive -- along North Carolina's Highway 12, from Manteo to Nags Head
to Cape Hatteras and back -- was organized to familiarize the journalists with
the ride and handling characteristics of Ford trucks and to reiterate Ford's
commitment to customers -- including women vehicle buyers.  Ford executives
shared information about some of the company's initiatives in safety,
engineering, brand marketing and environmental issues.
    "The U.S. truck market has had five consecutive calendar years of sales
records, and full-size pickups remain the largest single truck segment," says
Paul Morel, Ford Division Truck Brand Manager.  "Traditional assumptions about
pickups and pickup buyers don't apply any more.  In days gone by, pickups were
primarily work trucks, used in farming, construction and building trades or as
delivery vehicles, rather than for personal use.  In recent years, however,
about 90 percent of all the new full-size pickups have been sold and
registered or leased to individuals."
    The 1999-model Super Duty F-Series is Ford's newest entry in the truck
market.  The all-new trucks -- F-250 and F-350 -- represent a new generation
of the Ford F-Series.  Ford F-Series, a perennial best-seller, has out sold
every truck in the United States for 21 straight years.  F-Series trucks
account for one out of every 10 vehicles built and sold by Ford since the
company was founded.
    The new Super Duty adds more versatility to the F-Series lineup as the
industry's first SuperCab with standard four doors in the over-8500 pound
gross vehicle weight segment.  They are intended for commercial and
recreational use.
    The standard fourth door allows commercial buyers to use both doors for
easy access of people and cargo, and it allows personal-use customers the
choice to use only the passenger-side rear door for their children and pets.
    Ford Explorer, America's best-selling sport utility vehicle, and Ford
Ranger, the nation's best-selling compact pickup truck, rounded out the truck
line-up.
    Coincidentally, all three trucks are built in the southeast -- in
Louisville, Kentucky which often is referred to as the "truck capitol of the
world."