Monster V-8 engine to debut in 2020 Ford pickups Most stolen cars in U.S. all have big engines in common
Ford’s biggest trucks will get one of the world’s biggest V-8 engines starting this fall, as one aspect of the Truck Wars turns into an old-fashioned battle of engine size that’s reminiscent of the muscle car era.
Exhibit A: A 7.3L gasoline-powered V-8 coming to Ford’s Super Duty pickups and commercial vehicles, from ambulances and utility bucket trucks to just a step shy of massive highway semitrucks.
Most of the conversation about big trucks like these — they’re officially called Class 2 through Class 7 vehicles, based on the massive weights they can haul and tow — focuses on diesel engines. But gasoline engines play a role, too, accounting for up to 40% of sales of big Class 2-4 pickups like Ford’s F-250, 350 and 450 Super Duty trucks.
“Diesels are incredibly important for those trucks, but many customers don’t need their full towing capacity,” IHS Markit senior analyst Stephanie Brinley said. “Those customers can get everything they need at a lower cost with a gasoline engine.”
In addition to that, many fleet customers only keep trucks this size for three or four years, so diesel’s longterm, high-mileage durability isn’t worth those engines’ higher cost.
The new V-8 produces 430 horsepower and 475 poundfeet of torque in Super Duty pickups, slightly less in some of Ford’s other commercial trucks.
Ford builds the V-8 in Windsor, Ontario. It made and tested hundreds of pre-production versions before it was ready to start selling the new V-8. That’s expensive — every pre-production engine an automaker builds takes time, parts and money you’ll never be able to use in an engine it sells to a customer — but a sign of how important durability and reliability is to commercial truck owners. A broken truck is a crisis for a small business that can’t make deliveries, or for a hospital without an ambulance.
The 7.3L engine is an upgrade from the gasoline V-8 Ford offered before, a 6.2L that produces 385 hp and 430 pound-feet of torque. The 6.2L remains the base engine in the F-250 and 350.
General Motors also introduced a new 6.6L gasoline V-8 — its biggest gas V-8 — for its Class 2 and 3 (Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500) pickups this year. It’s smaller, with a total cylinder displacement of 6.6L. It produces 401 hp and 464 pound-feet of torque. Ram’s biggest gasoline V-8 for its 2500/3500 trucks is the 6.4L Hemi.
Ford has a new diesel V-8 coming this fall, too, but it hasn’t revealed its power output yet.
The new gasoline V-8 should increase the trucks’ capability, but Ford is playing coy about how much a truck with it will be able to tow or haul. Towing and hauling may sound like the same thing, but to truckers, “towing” means how much you can pull behind the vehicle on a trailer. “Hauling” is how much you can load onto the back of a pickup or flatbed, or how heavy a body you can put on an ambulance, utility company bucket truck, etc. Expect details on all that closer to when the 2020 Super Duty pickups go on sale this fall.
Do you have a Tesla electric car? Or a two-wheel-drive BMW 3 series luxury sedan?
Chances are you can get into your car right now and head out on your way.
But if you have a Dodge Charger HEMI or the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, you have a greater chance of being on hold with your insurance agent while reading this report.
That’s because those two large Dodge cars, known for their powerful engines, top the Highway Loss Data Institute’s list of vehicles most likely to be stolen.
The study, released last week by State Farm, found that in addition to the Dodge vehicles in the two top spots, the Infini Q50four door, Infiniti QX80 and GMC Sierra 1500 crew cab rounded out the Top 5 most stolen cars in model years 2016 to 2018.
The Top 3 have claim rates more than five times the average for 2016-2018 model year cars, according to Highway Loss Data Institute. (HLDI).
“The models most likely to be stolen tend to be powerful, pricey or pickups, but vehicle theft is also a crime of opportunity,” HLDI Senior Vice President Matt Moore said in a statement. “Better security features on all vehicles would be the best way to address the problem.”
The survey also said July and August are the top two months for vehicle claims.
On the other side of the equation, the BMW 3-series four door, Tesla Model S 4WD, Tesla Model X 4WD, Chevrolet Equinox 4WD and the Buick Encore 4WD were the least stolen cars, according to the study.
The institute found it “somewhat puzzling” that the BMW fared so poorly with car thieves given it, like the Dodge models, is a mid-sized luxury sedan.
The electric cars, the Teslas however, proved resistant to theft for several reasons, the institute said.
“Their low theft rate may be related to the fact that, as electric vehicles, they are usually parked in garages or close to a house to be near a power supply, HLDI said.