2025 Ford F-150 overview | CarExpert

After letting Ram and Chevrolet get the leap, Ford lastly launched a factory-backed right-hand drive F-150 in Australia in 2023.

Be aware: That is an up to date model of a overview that was first printed in July 2024. There have been no main modifications to pricing or specs since then.

A mid-life refresh is anticipated to reach shortly within the first quarter of 2025 (January to March inclusive).

Now we have up to date key particulars comparable to pricing and specs with essentially the most up-to-date info out there. Learn the unique model of this overview right here.

WATCH: Paul’s video overview of the 2024 Ford F-150 Lariat LWB

Teething issues aren’t uncommon for a first-year mannequin, however the F-150 has had greater than its share between two stop-sales and a number of recollects. Ford is compensating house owners who’ve needed to endure them, as it really works to rectify quite a few predominantly lighting-related compliance breaches.

We hope for Ford’s sake these are the final hiccups within the F-150’s rollout. Why? For starters, we really feel dangerous for patrons who’ve needed to put up with this. However the F-150 can be a genuinely good pickup truck that greater than stacks up towards the Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado 1500.

Ford Australia launched the F-150 in simply two trim ranges and in two lengths, to maintain issues easy and keep away from further points.

The short-wheelbase XLT on check is as fundamental as a Ford F-150 will get in Australia, full with fabric seats, halogen headlights, and common cruise management.

Okay, so it’s not a farm truck – it nonetheless comes with options like power-adjustable entrance seats and blind-spot monitoring, in any case. However in a market the place patrons are snapping up Silverado LTZs and Ram 1500 Limiteds, to not point out top-spec variations of ‘regular-sized’ utes, the XLT stands out in both or dangerous means, relying in your perspective.

For those who’ve learn the feedback of just about any Ford Australia social media put up, you should have seen offended remarks from individuals who say they gained’t purchase an F-150 and not using a V8.

We suspect many of those patrons are the identical who deride any Mustang and not using a V8, despite the fact that that automobile has been supplied with four- or six-cylinder energy because the very first yr.

You possibly can nonetheless purchase a V8 F-150 in North America, with a 5.0-litre V8 out there, to not point out the supercharged 5.2-litre of the Raptor R.

However People acquired over the must-have-a-V8 factor years in the past. Whereas six-cylinder engines have been out there in sometimes low-spec F-150s for many years, the primary twin-turbo V6 mannequin launched within the US in 2011.

Each the three.5-litre supplied right here and the smaller 2.7-litre accounted for round 60 per cent of US-market F-150 gross sales in 2020.

Will we miss the burble of a V8? Certain. However our recommendation is to recover from it, because the V6 is an excellent factor. Moreover, Ram is ditching its V8 and Toyota already has, leaving simply GM in case you merely should have a bent-eight.

Be aware: The F-150s pictured on this article haven’t obtained the rectification work

How does the Ford F-150 evaluate?

View an in depth breakdown of the Ford F-150 towards equally sized automobiles.

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F-150

How a lot does the Ford F-150 value?

For now, the F-150 is obtainable right here with only one engine and two trim ranges – XLT and Lariat – although each can be found in both short- or long-wheelbase guise.

To see how the Ford F-150 stacks up towards its rivals, use our comparability device

What’s the Ford F-150 like on the within?

Let’s speak concerning the F-150’s tub first. In spite of everything, this can be a load hauler, proper?

The bathtub within the short-wheelbase F-150 measures 1705mm lengthy, 1656mm vast (1285mm between the arches) and 543mm tall. For those who step as much as the long-wheelbase mannequin, you get an additional 300mm of size.

You get tie-down factors in all F-150 fashions, plus a spray-in bedliner. Solely Lariat fashions get a 12V socket again right here, nevertheless. The Lariat additionally boasts a power-opening and shutting tailgate.

For those who need assistance clambering up into the XLT’s tub, Ford has included a useful step that folds out of the tailgate. A pole additionally lifts as much as provide you with one thing to seize onto.

It jogs my memory of the previous wives’ story of NASA spending buckets of cash on a pen for astronauts whereas Russian cosmonauts merely used a pencil.

Briefly, it looks as if a extra difficult, seemingly dearer to supply answer to an issue Ford Australia solved within the Ranger by simply reducing out a little bit of the bumper to create a step.

Extra complicated or not, it really works effectively. One other neat contact is the incorporation of a ruler within the moulding of the tailgate – and whereas that is an American truck, there may be fortunately a metric ruler. There are additionally areas to fit a drink and pencils.

The courtesy white lamps subsequent to the centre high-mounted brake mild shall be disabled as a part of Ford Australia’s rectification work, as they fall foul of Australian Design Guidelines (ADRs).

The XLT has at all times missed out on the Lariat’s intelligent Zone Lighting characteristic, as seen on the Ranger. Nonetheless, Ford says it’s eradicating Zone Lighting from all Lariat fashions because it doesn’t meet ADRs.

The bottom F-150 additionally has a brilliant white LED mild on the surface of the tailgate, however this seems to be spared from Ford’s required rectification works.

It’s straightforward to step up into the cabin because of the facet steps and easy-to-grip seize handles.

Visibility out of the F-150 is great, with the entrance of the cabin feeling significantly ethereal because of the beltline dip in direction of the mirror – a design cue that’s been on F-150s for 20 years now.

These doorways are comfy to lean on, too, with all 4 of the F-150’s doorways that includes soft-touch trim up prime. The inside is in any other case primarily completed in arduous plastic, but it surely appears useful but good-looking.

No, it doesn’t look upmarket, not helped by the 8.0-inch touchscreen that appears positively misplaced within the big dashboard, however total the inside feels a step above that of the Ranger.

There are a swag of various inside supplies used right here – on the dashboard alone there a minimum of 5 – and the trim items close to the ability window controls on the doorways look a bit like Nineties Laminex.

Regardless of this, the inside isn’t too fussy, nor does it look low cost. These are fabric seats, however the patterned inserts and two-tone gray color scheme makes them engaging – a minimum of to my eyes. They’re power-adjustable and cozy, too.

Most significantly, every thing feels effectively screwed collectively. We didn’t observe any creaks or rattles within the cabin, with the one construct high quality problem being a little bit of plastic flash across the mixed mild/wiper stalk.

Talking of issues sprouting out of the steering column, the F-150 has a standard column shifter in contrast to the console-mounted levers or dials present in rivals. It doesn’t really feel low cost just like the one within the pre-update Silverado, and is strong and satisfying to make use of, although getting it out and in of park is a little bit awkward.

Forward of the driving force is an 8.0-inch instrument cluster display and analogue gauges, as a substitute of a 12.0-inch totally digital setup like within the Lariat.

Whereas that doesn’t sound as fancy, that is a pretty, legible cluster, and probably the greatest mixes of analogue and digital. We particularly love the engaging blue needles.

The infotainment touchscreen is barely an 8.0-inch unit as a substitute of a 12.0-inch one like within the Lariat, which additionally makes it a step down from the cheaper Ranger.

The controls are all straightforward to succeed in, and there are chunky dials for issues like quantity and local weather management adjustment and drive mode choice. Many of the headlight controls are to the right-hand facet of the steering column.

As is typical of a Ford, the cabin is bathed in smooth, blue lighting. And as is typical of an American pickup, there’s storage aplenty.

Whereas that doesn’t sound as fancy, that is a pretty, legible cluster, and probably the greatest mixes of analogue and digital. We particularly love the engaging blue needles.

The infotainment touchscreen is barely an 8.0-inch unit as a substitute of a 12.0-inch one like within the Lariat, which additionally makes it a step down from the cheaper Ranger.

The controls are all straightforward to succeed in, and there are chunky dials for issues like quantity and local weather management adjustment and drive mode choice. Many of the headlight controls are to the right-hand facet of the steering column.

As is typical of a Ford, the cabin is bathed in smooth, blue lighting. And as is typical of an American pickup, there’s storage aplenty.

The again seat places the Ranger’s to disgrace, and there’s a very flat flooring plus USB-A and USB-C shops and cupholders on the rear of the centre console.

There are additionally cupholders within the rear doorways, although they’re a bit squared-off. We didn’t attempt, however we suspect a Farmer’s Union would match completely.

Ford has fitted its SecuriCode keyless entry keypad on the F-150, permitting you to enter a keycode to unlock the automobile as a substitute of utilizing your key.

It’s a intelligent characteristic which Ford launched all the way in which again in 1980, and which few bothered to repeat. However RMA Automotive, might you not have moved the keypad to the driving force’s facet?

To see how the Ford F-150 stacks up towards its rivals, use our comparability device

What’s below the bonnet?

Whereas there are twin-turbo V6 hybrid, electrical, and V8 powertrains supplied in North America, for now Ford Australia is providing solely the twin-turbo 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6.

This really out-punches the Coyote V8 supplied abroad, which has the identical quantity of energy however 122Nm much less torque. Ford would possibly model the engine EcoBoost, but it surely’s not rather more environment friendly in real-world driving than rival V8s.

Throughout the identical drive loop – albeit with barely totally different site visitors situations – we achieved 13.7L/100km in a Silverado ZR2, and 13.8L/100km in a Ram 1500 Laramie Sport.

The F-150’s payload determine isn’t something grand. As is sort of widespread for these full-sized American pickup vans in Australia, the F-150 can’t carry as a lot as some smaller utes, and also you’re going to hit that most determine fairly rapidly when you begin loading up the cabin with folks and the bathtub with their stuff.

It might tow greater than a HiLux-class ute, nevertheless, with a braked towing capability of 4500kg.

To see how the Ford F-150 stacks up towards its rivals, use our comparability device

How does the Ford F-150 drive?

The F-150 is one refined pickup truck. It’s nearly as if Ford needed to counter complaints of the absence of a V8 by making the V6 as easy as doable.

When the automobile is idling and also you’re outdoors, it has a beautiful, burbly exhaust be aware.

When you get inside, nevertheless, you barely hear the engine. The predominant sound of the engine is the faint whistle of the turbochargers. What you may in any other case hear of the engine sounds good, but it surely’s exceptionally quiet.

The cabin is even quiet at freeway speeds. There’s a little bit of tyre roar, however surprisingly little wind noise regardless of the massive, chunky exterior mirrors.

The engine mightn’t make quite a lot of noise, but it surely produces quite a lot of thrust. The dual-turbo V6 is effortlessly highly effective, and admittedly you gained’t miss a V8.

The ten-speed auto shifts easily and unobtrusively for essentially the most half, and helpfully tells you what gear you’re in at any given second.

The auto will shift to the best doable gear for the sake of effectivity, and we did observe an annoying behavior of holding onto seventh gear on steep descents.

In response, I needed to manually shift gears… however Ford makes this exceedingly troublesome. It makes use of the silly plus/minus buttons some American manufacturers appear so enamoured with, which by no means really feel as intuitive as flicking a paddle or transferring a shifter.

Making this even worse is that they’re positioned on the column shifter, the place they’re obscured by the rim of the steering wheel, and it’s important to awkwardly attain over to press them. Utilizing these feels as awkward as choosing one thing out of soup together with your fingers.

Additionally awkward is parking the automobile. In XLT guise, the F-150 has solely a washed-out reversing digital camera and rear parking sensors.

There’s no entrance digital camera, nor are there entrance sensors, which isn’t ultimate given the entrance form of slopes away after which drops off like a cliff, making it arduous to guage the place the automobile ends.

A automobile this massive is already going to be a trouble to park, and the absence of those options is keenly felt.

The steering additionally doesn’t loosen up a lot at low speeds, whilst you appear to succeed in full lock rapidly, making it really feel particularly cumbersome to park.

Regardless of this, when you awkwardly manoeuvre out of a good carpark and get out on the open street, it doesn’t really feel too cumbersome.

The steering is properly weighted, and has some heft to it with out being too high-effort. It’s a little bit of a cliche, however the F-150 does shrink round you.

On some narrower nation roads the F-150’s width was seen – extra so by a colleague within the automobile behind me, who commented it seemed prefer it was going to fall off the street edge.

On these rural roads, the F-150 proved exceptionally comfy. Now and again, the rear fidgets a smidge, and there’s a contact of body shake. So, it’s nonetheless a ute then, however that is one very comfortable ute.

It manages to supply a pliant experience with out ever feeling uncontrolled, with solely a little bit of float over, say, rural bridges.

The F-150 is a automobile you may level at a poorly surfaced street and it’ll simply gobble it up, loping alongside totally fuss-free. Pothole? What pothole?

You’re by no means jolted round within the F-150, and it proved comfy after we took it off street as effectively.

We took the F-150 on some dust forestry trails, in addition to some rockier, tougher trails, getting it muddy within the course of.

It’s going to really feel a bit vast on some trails, but it surely at all times felt comfy and surefooted. We didn’t take it on something so difficult we would have liked to pop it into 4L or lock the rear differential, however that gear is there in case you want it.

You may also toggle between slippery, deep snow, sand and dirt/ruts drive modes, in addition to regular, eco and tow/haul modes. These are all activated by way of a chunky rotary dial.

One important disadvantage, significantly in case you journey quite a bit by means of rural areas, is the usage of halogen headlights.

Additionally, in contrast to the Lariat, the four-wheel drive system within the XLT is barely a part-time setup, so there’s no 4A mode you need to use on pavement.

All F-150 fashions in Australia include Ford Professional Trailer Again-Up Help.

This lets you successfully steer your trailer as a substitute of your automobile offered you equip a yaw sensor to your trailer after which program its parameters on the touchscreen, which you then use to see what’s occurring behind you.

In earlier testing of this characteristic, we discovered it to be intelligent however sadly a bit more durable to make use of in XLT fashions as a result of their smaller, lower-resolution touchscreen.

To see how the Ford F-150 stacks up towards its rivals, use our comparability device

What do you get?

There’s fairly a bit much less normal equipment within the XLT than the Lariat, however for round $33,000 extra the top-spec F-150 would need to have extra gear…

F-150 XLT normal gear:

• Built-in trailer brake controller
• 4.5t-rated tow hitch and 70mm tow ball
• Professional Trailer Again-up Help
• Digital locking rear differential
• 2 x entrance restoration hooks
• Skid plates for entrance differential, switch case and gasoline tank
• 20-inch alloy wheels in 275/60 R20 BSW ATT all-terrain tyres
• 18-inch alloy spare wheel
• Computerized halogen headlights
• Tailgate step, ruler
• Spray-in tub liner
• Digital park brake
• Keypad entry
• Proximity entry with push-button begin
• FordPass Join
• Rear privateness glass
• Material upholstery
• 12-way energy driver’s seat with energy lumbar
• 10-way energy passenger seat with energy lumbar
• Energy-adjustable pedals
• Twin-zone local weather management
• 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• 8.0-inch digital instrument cluster display
• Satellite tv for pc navigation
• DAB+ digital radio
• 7-speaker sound system
• Tilt and telescopic steering wheel adjustment
• Electro-chromatic rear-view mirror
• Storage below rear seats

To see how the Ford F-150 stacks up towards its rivals, use our comparability device

Is the Ford F-150 secure?

The Ford F-150 has by no means been examined by ANCAP. In its house market nevertheless, the 2024 Ford F-150 wears a ‘High Security Choose’ score from the US’s Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security (IIHS)

Normal security gear consists of:

• Autonomous emergency braking
• Blind-spot monitoring with trailer tow protection
• Lane-keep help
• Rear cross-traffic alert with trailer tow protection
• Reversing digital camera
• Rear parking sensors
• Tyre strain monitoring
• Entrance, front-side and curtain airbags

F-150 Lariat provides:

• Adaptive cruise management with cease/go
• Lane centring
• Evasive steering help
• Entrance parking sensors
• Encompass-view digital camera
• Site visitors-sign recognition

To see how the Ford F-150 stacks up towards its rivals, use our comparability device

How a lot does the Ford F-150 value to run?

The F-150 is backed by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre guarantee.

Servicing is required each 12 months or 15,000 kilometres, whichever comes first, with the primary 4 providers capped at $429 every. That’s in stark distinction with rival Ram and Chevrolet pickups, the place there’s no capped-price servicing out there.

To see how the Ford F-150 stacks up towards its rivals, use our comparability device

CarExpert’s Tackle the Ford F-150

The Ford F-150 is an excellent pickup truck that has been let down by a awful rollout.

Not solely did Ford wait till after GM and Stellantis entered the pickup market in Australia, it additionally used a special firm for the native remanufacturing that has made some rookie errors in terms of compliance.

One wonders why Ford didn’t merely use Walkinshaw, as GM, Stellantis and Toyota have completed. If this was to save lots of a buck, between recollects, compliance fixes and stop-sales that decision has backfired spectacularly.

We hope that is the final of the problems with the F-150’s native remanufacturing, as this deserves to be as profitable because the likes of the 1500 and Silverado.

Okay, so the smaller engine doesn’t work out to be that rather more environment friendly in real-world use than the Ram 1500’s V8, and it doesn’t sound pretty much as good.

The XLT additionally has some unusual characteristic omissions for a automobile this costly – the shortage of entrance parking sensors and a entrance digital camera, for instance, make this an actual ache to park.

However that is an impressively refined automobile which, parking apart, is especially user-friendly. It’s highly effective and cozy, whereas undercutting its main rivals on worth and providing a extra beneficiant after-sales bundle.

The Ford F-Collection pickup vary is the US’ best-selling automobile for a motive, and it’s a disgrace {that a} clumsy rollout could have broken the truck’s repute.

Curious about shopping for a Ford F-150? Get in contact with one among CarExpert’s trusted sellers right here

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