Three questions help determine which
What do you want? What do you need? What can you afford?
If shopping for a car is tough, shopping for a truck is even tougher.
It comes down to the same three questions: 1. What do you want? 2. What do you need? 3. What can you afford?
You should be wary of buying more truck than you need. Do you really need a massive V8-powered 4-by-4 because twice a year you haul your ATVS to the cottage and back?
Driving that fuel-sucking thing to work every day might look cool, but it could bankrupt you.
My advice would be to get something more efficient for daily use, and if you do sometimes need something bigger, well, that’s what rental agencies are for.
We sampled a truck from each of the Detroit Three, all similar in basic layout but different in powertrains and other details, not necessarily to pick a winner as such, but to try and give a glimpse of the variety on offer. FORD F-150 $19,999-$49,899 This has been the bestselling pickup truck since the earth cooled. Heck, it has been the best-selling vehicle of any type for most of that time.
The main reason: it is simply the best pickup out there.
Its ongoing success gives Ford a massive customer base that tells the company what it likes and doesn’t like. This feedback loop helps keep Ford on top.
The F-series we sampled is an interesting example of how that feedback loop works. While fuel consumption isn’t likely your main criterion — you wouldn’t be buying a truck if it were — Ford has determined that its customers don’t want to pay for more gas than they have to.
That’s the carrot. The stick is that the U.S. government is implementing fuel-economy standards for trucks, and every manufacturer has to find a way to meet them.
Ford’s response is the application of technologies well-known both in bigger diesel-powered trucks and some high-performance cars: direct fuel injection, and turbocharging.
Called Eco-boost, this concept was originally a ‘skunkworks’ project done by a handful of engineers initially largely on their own time, just to see if they could do it. Engineers can be like that. The twin-turbocharged direct-injection 3.5-litre V6 produces the power and torque of a V8 with the fuel economy of a six.
The problem with Eco-boost, like with a lot of fuel-saving technologies, is that if you want your fuel economy, you’ll just have to pay for it.
Eco-boost is about a thousand dollars more than the price of Ford’s brand-new 5.0 litre V8 — it will take some driving to make up that difference.
Frankly, the most appealing engine in Ford’s F-series line-up is the base 3.7 litre V6.
Like the V8, it is also used in Ford’s new Mustang. It produces 302 horsepower, more than enough for almost any task, and gets 8.9 L/100 km on the highway. CHEVROLET SILVERADO $26,755-$50,645 My youngest daughter is a horsey type. She says horse people hate Fords, and love Chevvies. Go figure.
Not to say the Silverado isn’t a very nice truck.
Actually, combined with the me-