Recently, the 2015 Ford F-150 has been going through certification procedures for its reliability and overall performance, along with other popular models on the market. And while pickup trucks by General Motors scored rather poorly on some tests and failed to impress the board, the Ford F-150 did quite well and managed to come out on top. In the end, the pickups by General Motors were awarded four stars by the committee, while the F-150 got a five-star rating.
The model also got great scores for its performance in frontal and side crashes, and was awarded four stars for its crash protection in a rollover. We don’t know the full test results for the other versions of the model yet, however – namely the two-door model and the Supercab. They should be made public soon enough, but our expectations are to see more or less the same results as with the main model.
Ford have been making some serious changes in the way they’re producing their trucks recently, as they decided to switch their production from steel bodies to aluminum for the F-150. The decision was intended as a weight saving measure, and while there was some skepticism aimed at the change at first, as some people were afraid that aluminum isn’t as durable as steel in the event of a crash, those fears were quickly dissipated with the help of these recent tests.
Ford are also quite proud of what they’ve managed to accomplish with the redesign of the truck as well, as they have been using an advanced combination of materials and design practices for the F-150, making it the safest version of the model to date. Of course, there is probably still some room for improvement, but the company will refine the model as time goes by and will make it an even more solid, reliable vehicle for the road.
Despite the results from the tests, General Motors have still been quite active in promoting their own trucks, and their marketing is currently about on the same level as Ford’s. Of course, after the results start making their way to the public, we’ll likely see a shift in opinion towards both companies, and hopefully more people are going to start trusting aluminum-body truck designs for their safety features.
If the trend continues, other companies might follow suit as well, and we may eventually see other manufacturers starting to pay more attention to aluminum in their designs. Hopefully, their engineering will be on the same level as Ford’s however, and will provide a similarly safe and reliable experience on the road. Looking at Ford’s progress, it doesn’t seem so hard to achieve that in the end.