But two Ford F-150 models with different configurations – one a crew cab and the other an extended cab – scored far differently in safety tests. They claim that aluminum is not as good as steel, and aluminum repairs are more costly. But in the extended cab there were significant intrusions from the toepan, parking brake and brake pedal and the likelyhood of suffering moderate injuries to your left leg and thigh were high.
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“For starters, there’s been lots of buzz around the release of the first aluminum-body pickup and how it would perform in crash tests”, Zuby said.
The Institute ran low-speed crash tests with the new F-150 and older steel-bodied versions of the same truck.
The Institute traditionally tests just one body style for a given model, but because of the popularity of the F-150, even its second most-popular variation outsells most other vehicles on the market.
IIHS estimates repairing damage on the aluminum F-Series will cost about 25 percent more than a similar fix on the previous edition of the pickup. Engineers weren’t able to design the extra front-end braces quickly enough for all versions, he said, so a decision was made to add them first to the four-door SuperCrew truck which accounts for a large majority of F-150 sales.
Ford’s F-150 pickup did its creators proud after the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety awarded the light-duty truck with their Top Safety Pick. The problem with the extended cab is that it doesn’t come with the same structural supports that mitigate damage on the SuperCrew. “We addressed that small overlap front crash in the SuperCrew first because that’s 83 percent of our volume”.
However, whatever case Ford makes, the F-Series has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for decades. “The tests that NHTSA and IIHS have done have proven on an engineering basis that that’s just a fact”.
Watch the IIHS overview on how the Super Crew crash test results varied from the Super Cab (Extended cab) version. Initially, only the F-150 crew cab was on the schedule. In the SuperCab version, the steering wheel was pushed back nearly 8 inches (20 centimeters), coming “dangerously close” to the crash dummy’s chest, IIHS said. The dummy’s head barely contacted the front air bag before sliding to the left and hitting the instrument panel.
In both scenarios, the aluminum F-150 had more extensive damage than the steel model. In the area of crash avoidance and mitigation, IIHS assigns vehicles with available front crash prevention systems ratings of basic, advanced or superior, based on the type of system and performance in track tests. The new F-150’s fuel economy increased as much as 29 percent, primarily because the use of aluminum trimmed the truck’s weight by about 700 pounds (318 kilograms).
Ford disagrees with the IIHS findings. At a time when average prices for new pickup trucks keep climbing, wouldn’t it be nice if we could save a little money when insuring the vehicle?
Ford closed down its Dearborn Truck Plant for about a month last fall in order to retool it for production of the body and bed of the 2015 F-150 with military-grade aluminum in favor of traditional steel.
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The biggest issue, Solmes said, is that most vehicle parts are held together through welding, but the aluminum-bodied F-150 is held together through rivets and adhesion. Ford chipped in up to $10,000 in rebates to purchase equipment for aluminum repairs to any interested dealer with a service shop.
