Had to run some errands for work yesterday, so the boss told me to take his truck.
It’s a 2015 F150. It is the Platinum trim, powered by the 3.5L EB. It’s a very well cared truck with 150k miles.
My impressions:
Interior: I was greeted by the power folding side step coaxing me inside. I climbed into the nice dk brown leather seat and moved it into a comfortable position, everything seems nice. As I turn the key I familiarize myself with the buttons (so many buttons) and am immediately put off by the giant screen in the dash.
After driving it some, the screen became less prevalent, but was still annoying to me. The seats remained a nice place to plant ones ass. The rest of the inside was kind of a let down for a $60k “luxury truck”, it all seems very Fisher Price. The pillars are overly large, creating a lot of blind spots. There were creaks and groans coming from various places inside the cabin (seriously more noises inside this thing than my 25yo minivan), but the road noise is almost non existent, just a faint growl of the tires can be heard.
Ride/Handling: The ride on this truck can only be described one way, horrible! I could feel every seam in the road on the “smooth” interstate and had all I could do it keep from wetting myself from the abuse on my normal road to work. Seriously the worst riding vehicle I’ve ever been in on the road. Handling wise it seemed ok, despite the wander in the steering.
Performance: With all the hype surrounding this drivetrain, I was expecting a lot everytime I’ve drove one, holy shit do they have people sold on their bullshit. It does well in simple easy driving, except the terrible throttle response and noticeable turbo lag. The trans feels sluggish and confused with easy driving. The sound of the turbo spooling around 1500rpms is a nice change from the NA intake sound I’m used to.
Try to take off quickly and the engine has plenty of torque, after the initial poor response and turbo lag are overcome, and pulls quite strong from about 2k-5k, after 5k it falls flat on it’s face. Try to pass and that sluggish/confused trans becomes even more apparent as it hunts for the right gear, ultimately hitting 1 gear too low, causing it to be outside the powerband, then immediately shifting back up a gear and dropping in the sweet spot.
Economy: I only had a short time with the truck, mixed hwy driving, but I netted 14.6 mpg. He pretty much uses it exclusively for cruising to work on the I, his mpgs according to the truck were 16.1 mpg.
Final Thoughts: I’m at a loss as to why people are so crazy over these? Other than the very comfortable seats, it drives/rides/handles and gets worse fuel economy than our old F250. I am again completely unimpressed with the EB engine and the Fisher Price interior.