Gadgetory

the f-150 is a big selling icon sure but along with that comes a big target on your back Dodge and Chevy trucks are not slouches let's drive the 2011 f150 lariat and check the tap Ford has doubled down on tech in recent years but is that really a big deal in a full-size truck or kind of forcing the issue well they set us a lariat which is mid to high trim with four-wheel drive and an extended cab but also sync the old-school version that we kind of miss first thing you notice about getting the f-150 since we don't review many trucks is this is nice and roomy I mean I cannot reach the door by you there is no way without climbing up here into the console or something you don't get vehicles this big unless you're in a full-size body on frame truck now we're at a Highline vehicle here this is a lariat edition it's about midway up the f-150 line which is a really big family nice elaborate really Lincoln looking gauges I'd expect those more on a higher-end vehicle than even a Ford lots of ersatz wood trim all over here notice the navigation head unit which is optional but it's the old-school sync right before they went to the my Ford touch era of sync and things got real complicated and weird the map quality isn't the best and it's kind of crunchy but you know what it sure is easy to use this thing the buttons that pop up are all real clear a combination of software buttons here Hardware buttons for major features of course this truck has sync at this trim level that would mean you've got the USB jack here the aux right next to it of course you can plug in a Zune if you still have one of those antiquities or more importantly you can plug in a thumb drive or your white ipod or iphone cable but if I just upgraded the audio system and didn't go for the nav you can do a Sony system that gives you 700 watts there's the amp sitting down there under the rear seat 10 speakers around the cabin and you get a six disc instead of a single slot and we've got a backup camera as part of an optional package on this vehicle as you can see it doesn't show trajectory it shows distance and you do have a digital zoom here that kind of basically crops into the image it's not really zooming anything with a physical lens so it's a limited use I think and the camera quality is a little soft on this one I only point that out because if you ever need a backup camera it's in a vehicle like this where you've got a bed and a high tailgate in these f-150s so there's a lot of stuff back there that's going to be hiding like you know a family of five is possible one choice on the gearbox in the guy you've got a 6-speed automatic with his big manly shifter right here he got a little shifting rocker on the side no paddles in a vehicle like this and notice all these off-road instruments here I have again something unique to a pickup truck we'll see how these work when we're on the road but they show the angle of the truck this way as well as this way and give you some indication of what your drivetrain is doing because we have four-wheel drive here's the knob for that it's electrically selectable from two high to four high which you can do on the fly and then for low of course you got to be in neutral for that now the interesting part of our f150 is the way the engine bays equipped like get up here and see it there it is three and a half liter EcoBoost v6 that means it's a turbo direct injection v6 real high-tech one they also have a low tech v6 not too exciting and this gives you the power of a v8 they claim with the economy of a six well let's sort it out 365 horsepower 420 foot-pounds of torque while delivering 15 21 mpg in this 4x4 big boy add one MPG on city and highway to go 4x2 comparing that to the v8 the five liter you'd normally expect in an f-150 it looks like this the EcoBoost motor has five more horses and a crucial 40 more foot-pounds of torque while delivering a modest economy bump of one to two mpg now notice I didn't mention anything silly like zero to sixty times and such that doesn't matter much in a pickup compared to what does payload and towing capacity looks like this the v8 truck has a lower and narrower range of towing weights than the EcoBoost v6 truck while the max payload on the two is identical you're just not giving up anything with the smaller engine except tradition now one thing we don't get much chance to talk about here in scenic car videos or things like bed length and cab size but in this case we do five and a half six and a half or eight-foot boxes available on the f-150 and then you can couple that variably with three different cabs the standard cab with just the front row see it's pretty rare these days unless you're driving a service truck then you've got the extended cab and the super crew we have the one in the middle the extended cab and by the way all of those are available with this kind of slick power back window it's a little small but it serves the purpose gives you some nice ventilation oh that's your buddies use it as a trash receptacle for your TBR or Marlboro empties underway the first thing you notice especially since you're aware of this thing as a v6 is how it is the power come on and you just simply to my feel anyway wouldn't notice that it's without a v8 now I'm not towing anything I don't have it loaded up so maybe it behaves differently under those conditions but as a driver with normal passengers and maybe a few lightweight things in the back it's a good feeling engine the ride in these high trim f-series is really compliant even though we're still dealing with a old solid axle rear leaf suspension I'm looking here at these road gauges I'm going up a windy hillside Road here and it's giving me you know within a degree it's read on my attitude and my angle here in terms of in another impression I can leave you with is if you're not a truck driver you find out real fast these things are a pain in the ass when you're driving in you know in a town or in a city unless you're out in Walmart land these are a drag depart there are pain to get around garages I know a lot of folks drive these in urban settings they must have the patience of a saint because I kind of got over it pretty quick and of course as always whenever we have a truck in which isn't that often I'm a little uh a little sad I didn't have anything I needed a haul this week it's always nice to have a truck and not have to go pay eighty bucks a day okay let's price our big boy at f150 lariat is thirty five five it's mid to mid high in the trim range so you're getting a lot of niceties as you saw this is no cable installers truck now some things you're going to add to that tech wise 2500 for that navigation head unit I would pass at that price and just get a damn clamp for my Android phone but that's your call for 35 for the Sony audio that's a worthy one a bear in mind you don't need to add anything to get sync in this vehicle it will come with it but with a more basic sort of a blue dot matrix display and of course no navigation or hard drive now the big hardware the stuff we don't normally talk about in cars because they're kind of truck ish include things like drivetrain an engine you're going to pay more for less in this car what I'm talking about is the v6 the EcoBoost v6 is 750 more above the base five liter v8 thirty to seventy to go 4x4 on this guy and as I noted with the EcoBoost motor you only give up one MPG city and highway and a couple of truck only configuration options to consider six and a half or eight foot bed those are a pick at the same price which is to say they're included if you want the shorty the five and a half bed that's actually like 2500 more and you'll pay about that much as well if you want to go for the big cab if you want to go for the small cab or this extended cab that's also a pick at the same price