2012 Ford F-150 Wins Another Trucking Award

Yep, chalk up another victory for America’s best-selling vehicle: The 2012 Ford F-150—specifically, the EcoBoosted FX2 Sport 2WD SuperCrew model—just took first place in Truckin’s “2012 Half-ton Shootout.”

The competition here included the “top light duty trucks” from four of the six full-size players: The F-150, Nissan Titan 4X4 Pro-4X, Chevy Silverado 1500 4WD Crew Cab LTZ and Ram 1500 Sport Crew Cab 4X4; a Toyota Tundra was “unavailable,” while the GMC Sierra was apparently deemed redundant. All the trucks were driven for a week and comprehensively tested for capabilities, with winner lauded as the one truck in this weight division that the Truckin’ experts would be willing to pay for with their own money.

The truck’s 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine garnered plenty of love from the judges, who called its performance “staggering” and noted that: “With zero turbo lag, the EcoBoost pulls like a freight train all the way till redline, yet still returns 18.2 mpg—incredible.”

Actually making that mark fairly impressive, Truckin’ achieved that number—which is .2 mpg above the F-150 EcoBoost’s EPA rating for combined driving—in real-world testing. At the same time, the winning F-150 also delivers EPA marks of 16 mpg city/22 mpg highway, as well as a max tow rating of 9,800 lbs.

Also, while not all of the testers were completely on board with the custom “blackout” appearance of the FX2 package, the bottom line was that they commended “Ford for pushing the limits of their FX2 Sport by adding unique looks, an upscale, amenity-filled interior, and performance that proves technology can overcome traditional thinking.

Congrats to Ford for stepping out and answering the call of consumers who demanded the best of both worlds—power and mileage.”