In Wheel Time
by Don Armstrong
Cowboy Coaches
In last month’s issue, we covered the Chevy Silverado and Toyota Tundra, this month we finish up our Rodeo Rides 2-part feature with a look at the other players in the light duty truck corral.
2012 Truck of Texas
– Ford F-150
Once a year, Texas Auto Writers Association members gather at the Kinnibe Ranch outside of San Antonio. Here, truck manufacturers’ offer up their latest creations for us to test on just about every kind of terrain the Texas Hill Country has to offer. And this year the winner was the Ford F-150.
Not much was changed on the 2012 model from the 2011 except an engine offering you may have heard about in TV ads, the EcoBoost engine, and that’s where the story lies.
Normally aspirated V-6s didn’t have enough horsepower and torque to address the needs of light duty hauling and towing, and although V-8s have the grunt, they typically don’t get great gas mileage. Enter the EcoBoost.
In the F-150, the twin-turbo, all-aluminum V-6 EcoBoost engine with its 365 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque provides best-in-class towing capability of 11,300 lbs combined with up to 20 percent fuel economy savings over the V-8.
F-150s start at $22,990, the EcoBoost engine is a $900 option.
