Ford F-150 wows customers with luxury or ruggedness

The Ford F-150 is still a favorite for many due to its flexibility and value.

The 2013 Ford F-150 is many things. If you have work done on your house the chances are about 50-50 that the contractor will arrive in a Ford truck. His truck may be outfitted with ladder racks, or it might have polished wheels, perfect paint, and a leather interior that rivals the best luxury sedans on the planet. In a pair of unrelated press releases today Ford highlighted the versatility and flexibility of the F-150 platform.

Ford Trucks A Lady's Favorite
Coincidental to this story I found myself at an appointment yesterday talking to the administrator of the office. She owns 5 cars including a Shelby Cobra (a real one) and also a numbers matching ’66 Shelby Mustang, Hertz edition (never rented). She wasn’t always a Ford gal, and she has owned other cars from other brands including a Corvette. Sorry TN readers, she is married! As if this is not interesting enough, it is her daily driver that applies to this story. After testing out the Ford Explorer, Ford Flex, and the Edge, she opted for a Ford F-150. As she put it, “4 doors, power, adjustable pedals, it was just the most comfortable overall.” The fact that a petite woman, who knows cars, and who shopped all the Ford products available, came to that conclusion says a lot about how good the F-150 can be as a luxury car.

Ford King Ranch
One example of the specialty luxury editions that Ford can create on the F-150 platform is the King Ranch edition, now in its 12 year of production. With custom Chaparrel leather, 20-inch machined aluminum wheels, My Ford Touch, and other special items such as HID headlamps, the King Ranch specification sheet is eerily similar to a luxury car advertisement.

Ford Work Trucks
In stark contrast to the luxury F-150 models is the rugged F-150 you might find at a construction site. Ford claims in its “We Own Work” marketing campaign that “More workers in the field get the job done using an F-150 – more than any other competitive half ton truck.” Calling itself the leader in sales for the commercial, industrial and vocational fields, Ford makes a strong case that the F-150 is indeed the default vehicle for that market segment. Ford is not sitting on this success either. Rather than just keep the V8 and V6 powerplants it has for generations, Ford introduced its EcoBoost turbocharged V6 in February 2011. So far it has sold over 200,000 of these engines in Ford trucks. Most manufacturers would be thrilled to sell 200,000 of any model line in 18 months, never mind just one version of just one truck.

The Ford F-150 comes in many flavors and maybe that is part of why it is so successful.