Thursday, July 06, 2006

Diesel F-150 news from New Zealand?

The F-150 has been one of the best selling vehicles in the world for almost 20 years running. And now with gas prices rising above $3 per gallon, sales are starting to slow down. What can Ford do to reinvigorate the line? Why a Diesel of course! Ford has been reported to be working on a new 4.4L V8 Diesel for use in the F-150 ( and hopefully their large SUVs?) derived from their Eurpean Diesel.
Built for the Range Rover, the new powerplant will be built in England and shipped to the US for installation. This could be a needed boost for Ford truck sales, since the Diesels will be much more fuel efficient. Don't look for Prius numbers here, but a Prius can't tow a trailer like an F-150 either.

GM has Gas/Electric Hybrid full size pickups, that nobody seems interested in buying, and Ford should avoid the prospect of following suit. But Ford should bring out the Diesels and what ever happened to the Hydraulic Launch Assist that they were working on?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember reading somewhere that Ford will release a version of hydraulic hybrid by 2008

Big Ford Fan said...

Really? I hadn't heard a date, but hopefully they'll come to market in time to save some of their lucrative full size truck market share.