yeah i read somewhere that the f100 was just going to be a shortbed, standard cab

 

Dunno if anybody has seen this on youtube about the ecoboost engines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgilKUwMl2A

 

My take on it is the F100 was to be basically a Ford version of the Dakota.

 

Test of an Ecoboost Taurus at 6:56 min is interesting. beats a Cadillac STS Northstar by a pretty good margin and pretty much embaresses the BMW.

Pretty informative video as a whole, however.

 

That seems problematic, considering that "mid-size" trucks like the Dakota don't offer an appreciable improvement in fuel economy over a full-size truck.

The problem with the drop-off in truck sales is that it's not just about fuel economy, it's also about price. Therefore, any truck that would be attractive to mass-market buyers will need to be efficient and cheap. The first can be addressed via technology and appropriate sizing of platforms, but the latter does not create an attractive business proposition.

 

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty neat look into the thought process behind the ecoboost idea and Ford's near and long term strategy (which I guess has changed a bit since the video).

 

Yup. Pretty dang sure.

 

Kinda surprising, too - consider that future Super Duty sales will likely be to commercial users, who aren't terribly picky about having the latest sheetmetal and interior materials.

Of course, if the money is already spent, it'd be a shame not to use the tooling.

 

Oil may come down in the short term, but in the long term it will not. China's pre Olympic buying of all the surplus oil it could buy has stopped, and they have a few million vehicles off the roads and most factories closed right now driving demand lower. It is predicted that by 2020 or so that China will use as much oil as the United States. There simply will not be enough oil to go around and prices will go high once again.

 

The current Super Duty just came out as a 2008 model and Ford has a replacement already? It does have an ugly front so maybe the replacement is just a MCE. Not happy to only muck up the SD truck looks, Ford ok'ed the SD front on the new vans also.

 

Yeah seen the SD front end on the vans, what the hell man, they are so ugly they could make a freight train take a dirt road.

 

As the owner of a 2008 F250 4x4 CrewCab V10 Lariat............... I think she is purdy.

All of you that think they are ugly............... well............... you can just suck eggs. LOL

That said (in jest of course), drive one................ they are one hell of a good driver, and have a gorgeous interior. Of course, what do I know........... its just my daily driver. (Bought July 2, 2008).

 

Was speaking about the vans, the SD trucks are.... uh... okay , the grille on the van just looks like it was tacked on as an afterthought.

 

The grille on the SD trucks looks like it's trying waaay too hard to be tough ... a wannabe big rig. But on the vans, it's even worse. Ford used to completely own the work van segment, now I see a lot more new GM trade vans than Ford.

 

I like the 2008 Super Duty a lot. I'd buy one if for some reason I decided that my K2500 wasn't cutting it, and five years from now when I do finally wear out my beloved current truck, then I very well might find myself in a SD.

That being said - they've got a face only their mother could love. The Ford truck team has built some nice-looking vehicles over the years, so I'm guessing that they had to beat the new SD with an ugly stick that was borrowed (maybe from the Focus team?).

I know that there's a lot of functionality in the new SD front end - it's great having the headlamps placed low (makes it easier to see in the fog, and it's kinder to other drivers). Those headlamps also contain very effective reflectors and lenses. The big ol' grill is necessary to deal with all of the waste heat from the 6.4L - an engine with emission controls so complex that the EGR cooler gets its own catalytic converter. But the overall package seems wrapped up in a way that's far less elegant than the Ram or Sierra HD (we'll avoid discussing the Silverado HDright now, since it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down). There's a reason that the previous SD went virtually unchanged for eight years - it was a great-looking truck.