Is the EcoBoost V-6 Just Right for the Ford F-150?

Ford has been rolling out EcoBoost engines for a couple of years now, to mixed reviews and effect. These engines feature gas direct injection and turbocharging, and it works pretty well in V-6 form. The four-cylinder EcoBoost remains a question mark, because it launched as a premium engine at extra cost in the otherwise V-6-powered Explorer. It could do wonders for the 2013 Fusion/Mondeo.

The new Explorer crossover/utility vehicle has been a huge success in the marketplace, and Ford says it has sold more than 100,000 of them so far, this year, 96,957 of them through the end of September. It has done something the Ford Flex, on the same platform, hasn’t been able to do – catch and pass the Chevrolet Traverse in sales numbers.

Like a summer movie theater blockbuster, the Explorer’s popularity flies in the face of its critical reception. Not so Ford’s best application to-date of EcoBoost technology to date.

The Ford F-150 EcoBoost is like one of any number of Clint Eastwood-directed movies from “The Unforgiven” on. It’s a wide-screen, bigger-than life epic earning critical acclaim usually saved for small independent and foreign movies. It’s big. Huge. Not the kind of vehicle I prefer to drive day-by-day, though for a full-size pickup, it drives smaller than it is.

I just spent a week with my first EcoBoost F-150, and I’m impressed. Mostly with the engine, because the truck is a carryover model. My ’11 F-150 Lariat had more than 10,000 miles on the clock, and had the kind of luxury appointments I’d expect from a Lincoln MKS.

If there’s any noticeable turbo lag, it’s very low in the rev range, with the boost only adding to the feeling that this a V-8 in all but cylinder count. Though I had no opportunity to tow or haul, unladen, the F-150 EcoBoost feels like it can do anything the 5.0-liter V-8 could do. It’s the last bullet in the chamber aimed at the old saw about how there’s no replacement for displacement.

It’s amazing, though, how quickly the market, which is easily stereotyped as big, macho suburban cowboy types who don’t flinch at guzzling gasoline by the tens of gallons, has adapted to the turbo V-6. The F-150 EcoBoost went on sale in late February, and Ford expects it will sell more than 100,000 by the end of the year, says spokesman Mike Levine. By the end of September, Ford had sold 416,388 F-Series, including both the light and heavy-duty models, about 73,000 of them EcoBoost F-150s.

The EcoBoost option isn’t available on the Super Dutys, of course, and it’s not available across the board on the half-ton models. No STX, Raptor or Harley-Davidson. On my ’11 Lariat tester, it was a $750 option over the 5.0-liter V-8, but for the 2012 model year, it’s now an $895 option on the FX2, FX4, Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum, which come with the V-8 standard. On the XL and XLT, which come standard with the Mustang’s 3.7-liter V-6, the 5.0-liter V-8 is a $1,000 option, while the EcoBoost V-6 is a $1895 option.

Separate Super Duty from F-150 sales in September, and the F-150 take rate for EcoBoost was 42 percent of total sales, Levine says. The 3.7-liter V-6 took another 15 percent, making the V-6/V-8 split 67/33 percent for the month. For the first seven months it has been available, Ford has sold about 73,000 EcoBoost F-150s, he says.

Consider that through September, Ford had sold just 49,788 of its compact Ranger pickup trucks. That’s an easy choice. The F-150 EcoBoost 2WD is EPA rated 16/22 mpg, versus 15/20 mpg for a 2WD Ranger. The F-150 EcoBoost 4WD is rated 15/21 mpg, compared with 14/18 mpg for a Ranger 4WD automatic and 15/19 for the same with a manual.

My 4×4 Lariat indicated a 15.3 mpg average, just slightly better than the EPA estimate. That was mostly city driving over my weeklong loan, and I didn’t have time to drive it in a variety of situations.

“We were expecting a 40 percent take rate on the EcoBoost,” Levine adds. “Now we’re expecting 45 percent.” EcoBoost sales actually have picked up since gas prices have slid from their $4+ per gallon summertime highs.

Of course, the suburban cowboy market for pickup trucks has all but dried up. The F-Series is on track to be the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. again this year, though it won’t match the 800k level of half a decade ago. The pickup segment accounts for about 11 percent of the total U.S. market, compared with 14 percent pre-2008. Rural residents, ranchers, big-trailer owners, independent contractors and construction and work crew fleets are this decade’s big pickup buyers. The fleet buyers, especially, appreciate the lower costs of operating V-6 trucks versus V-8 models, whether EcoBoost or not.

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