Driving the 2015 Ford F-150: "The Biggest Loser" comes to pickups - Yahoo Singapore News

Somewhere in the Six Flags Fiesta Texas parking lot outside San Antonio, while trying to whip a 2015 Ford F-150 around a makeshift autocross course and in the process flinging more cones than a Dairy Queen in an earthquake, I had a thought:. By 2008, Ford engineers had begun to plan this redesign of the F-150, a vehicle that’s 20 percent of its sales volume and a larger percent of profits. The idea of saving weight by switching to an aluminum body quickly came up, but Ford needed several months of research — with suppliers, with aluminum producers and its own engineers — to ensure it could make the change, keeping a plan for a more... Toward the end of 2009, Ford decided an aluminum F-150 was possible. By then, another change had come along: Obama’s election, and his administration’s decision to require sharply higher fuel efficiency from cars and trucks sold in the United States by 2025. New fuel economy rules were “part of the equation, but... Which is how I came to the Six Flags lot, part of a rolling tour Ford set up to demonstrate to journalists, dealers and ultimately its most loyal customers just how different the new F-150 is from all that’s come before. across its lineup, Ford can now offer a. Source: www.yahoo.com