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There are a bunch of ways to kill a man at the Ford Allen Park Test Labs. Exposure in the cold room, dehydration in the hot room, altitude sickness in the pressure room, boredom in the strange little parking lot simulator shed. And that’s just the stuff I can come up with off the top of my head.
Oh, and you could run someone down with the new F-150, I guess, if your imagination was lacking for some reason.

F-150 stalks its prey from the cover of the tall grass

The big deal Thursday at APTL, of course, was the announcement of the redesigned F-150’s Superior Fuel Economy package. That’s why we were in a testing facility charmingly decorated in concrete and ductwork rather than in a conference room, luxury hotel or destination resort. Or at least that’s what I’m going to charitably assume.
Ford execs did a big truck-under-a-tarp reveal for the package. I got the giggles a little when they yanked the sheet off to reveal … another F-150, identical to the one five feet away, save for a green-and-gray SFE decal on the bed. I know, it’s symbolic, but come on. I dare you to keep a straight face when something like that happens. And I don’t know how many of these things you’ve been to, but the suits seem to find unveiling new models in a swoosh of canvas really exciting. Maybe they always harbored a secret desire to compete in the Spokesmodel competition on Star Search.

Ed agrees with me: Those jerks at American Idol are pikers.
But I digress. The SFE package’s low rear-axle ratio and low-resistance tires get it up to 15 MPG in the city and 21 MPG out on the highway. Available on SuperCrew XL and XLT, SFE-equipped F-150s with 4.6L 3-valve V8s can tow 7,500 pounds. That’s an impressive chunk of the towing capacity of the big, angry, non-eco friendly 5.4L V8s available with other packages.
The fuel economy is impressive, but it’s the decal that’s meant to impress on the XLT. Now, it’s hardly the karma boost you get from tooling around town in a silent Prius, but it’s about a square foot of real estate on both sides of the bed saying “I may be driving a giant truck, but I care about the environment. Please do not key my truck while I’m parked outside Whole Foods.”


Wear it with pride.
SFE is expected make up up to 20 percent of sales in 4×2-heavy markets like Texas, Arizona and Florida. Up where it snows, eh, we’ll take our chances. We’re waiting for that global warming to kick in anyway.

This is how I deal with winter mornings, too.