Oh how the mighty have fallen. admittedly, when it comes to full size pickup trucks, a big-bore V8 is the first engine that comes to mind as an eight cylinder and hauling stuff just go hand-in-hand. American’s love full size pickups so it’s really no surprise that the Ford F-Series has been the best selling vehicle in the U.S. for the past few months. What was as a surprise is which model people have been buying the most. The recent introduction of Ford’s EcoBoost line up of turbocharged engines has seen an increase in six cylinder model sales so much so that V6 F-150s are outselling V8 models.
In July, Ford sold 49,104 F-Series trucks with both the naturally aspirated 3.7 liter V6 and the 3.5 liter EcoBoost V6 accounting for 56 percent of those sales. This is the third consecutive month that six cylinder models have outsold eight cylinder trucks, and that hasn’t happened since 1985. “The 3.7-liter has more horsepower than two of the three V8 engines we offered in last year’s F-150. The 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine, at 365 horsepower and 420 lb.-ft. torque, is in a class of its own – no one has anything even remotely close to this engine, which can tow as much as 11,300 pounds and deliver 22 mpg,” said Doug Scott, Ford’s truck group marketing manager.
When compared to other full size six cylinder pickups, the F-150 appears to have the upper hand. Including the high-output EcoBoost, all V6 F-150s accounted for 79.5 percent of the July market share for six cylinder full size trucks. And with 305 horsepower from its new-for-2011 3.7 liter V6, the base F-150 is no longer a slouch.
Source: Ford
