 2012 Ford F-150 SuperCrew FX4 EcoBoost. Click image to enlarge |
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Manufacturer’s web site |
Review and photos by Chris Chase
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2012 Ford F-150
I keep waiting for the day when I’ll get to test a truck equipped the way trucks used to be. A pickup with a three-place cloth bench seat and rubber floors used to be a common thing. Now, the beds of most pickups are more luxurious than the cabs of the trucks from the “good old days.”
I know I sound about twice my age and I should stop complaining, because I’m not even a “truck guy.” But I test them once in a while, and try to use them for the kinds of things they’re built for. I can usually find some stuff to throw in the back. Indeed, I had several such opportunities during the week Ford lent me an F-150, kitted out in FX4 SuperCrew trim with the optional EcoBoost turbocharged V6 engine.
  2012 Ford F-150 SuperCrew FX4 EcoBoost. Click image to enlarge |
This is the kind of truck I’m used to seeing in this job: one loaded up with enough niceties to turn it into a near-luxury vehicle with a pickup bed on the back. The F-150 SuperCrew starts at a reasonable $25,000, but gets expensive quickly when you shuffle up through the various trim levels and option it up, as evidenced by my truck’s nearly $47,000 as-tested price tag.
The SuperCrew’s huge rear seat makes it a great truck for moving people and stuff you don’t want exposed to the elements (the rear seats fold up out of the way for that purpose), but its utility is limited by the availability of just the two shorter (5.5 and 6.5 feet) box lengths (my truck had the 6.5-foot bed). My neighbour needed to pick up 30 sheets of drywall, whose 8-foot lengths could only be carried with the tailgate down. Ford’s box extender (a $350 extra) adds a theoretical 1.5 feet, but its curved corners were at odds with the rectangular drywall. Thankfully, the box extender doesn’t cut into that precious 4-foot width when it’s stowed, so, we stretched a couple of straps between the tie hooks in the box and the trailer hitch: perfectly functional, though less elegant.
That same neighbour—a contractor, and something of a truck guy (his work truck is an older Ford Econoline diesel)—thought the tailgate step (a $300 option) was cheesy, until he tried it. It’s pretty much a necessity given the sheer size of modern pickups. Same with the box access steps (another $300) that slide out, just in front of the rear wheels, and make it possible for people shorter than seven feet (in other words, everyone) to reach into the box from beside the truck.
