2024 Ford F-150 XLT new car review

Everyone has an opinion on the wave of new American-style utes hitting Aussie roads in increasing numbers. This is the cold hard truth about them.

There is a raging debate in Australia about American pick-up trucks, we take the Ford F-150, one of the biggest in the business, for a spin to find out if they are right for Down Under.

IT’S THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

The Ford F-150 is big, NBA basketball player big.

Its almost six metres long, more than two metres wide and about two metres tall. It also tips the scales at almost 2500kg.

The distance between the front and rear wheels is enormous at about 3700mm, or a few feet longer than the giant Kia EV9 electric car.

You can also option a bigger tray that pushes its length out to 6184mm and its wheelbase to almost four metres.

The width and height make it difficult to enter older underground carparks and navigate inner city streets.

But it’s the length that causes the most headaches. A massive turning circle transforms U-turns into three-point turns and finding a suitable parking can be a drawn-out saga.

A giant 136-litre fuel tank will cost more than $300 to fill.

The F-150’s sheer size makes it a chore to drive around town.

IT’S A HEAVY HAULER

It may be a chore to drive around town but it’s excellent at doing what it’s designed for.

If you need to tow, it’s one of the best in the business with a braked towing capacity of 4500kg. That’s a tonne more than the smaller Ranger ute and the same as the RAM 1500 and Chevy Silverado.

A tow bar is fitted as standard and it has safety tech such as trailer sway control, trailer theft alert and blind-spot safety alert takes the trailer into account too.

The F-150 comes with nifty tech to remove any embarrassing boat ramp reversing incidents. A Pro Trailer Backup Assist feature has a camera that tracks your trailer position and allows you to put in a destination and the car will steer the trailer there automatically.

Due to its bulk the payload is just 769kg, which is less than smaller utes, and it’ll be much lower if towing to the limit.

AND A COMFY CRUISER

Power comes from a beefy 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine that makes 298kW and 678Nm.

That amount of grunt makes for effortless acceleration and it feels most at home on the open road, so put on some Luke Combs, wind down the windows and breath in that country air.

The F-150 is remarkably quiet and refined on the road. You can barely hear the petrol motor compared to the coarse diesel engine note and tyre roar of other utes.

Its suspension is a step above too. You’ll barely feel bumps, potholes and other road imperfections. Its weight helps keep it tied down, too.

Steering is sharper than most utes and four-wheel drive grip makes it composed in all conditions.

Ford claims the F-150 drinks 12.5L/100km, but you’ll need to do mostly freeway kilometres to hit that number.

It excels on the open road, though.

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR STICKER SHOCK

There’s a catch, though. Prices start at about $117,000 drive-away for the XLT grade we tested and jump to more than $150,000 for the top-grade Lariat.

That may be a ton of money, but don’t expect the XLT to have luxury items such as heated and cooled seats, leather accented upholstery, big digital displays or a premium stereo. They’re reserved for the Lariat.

XLT buyers make do with power adjustable cloth trimmed seats and an eight-inch infotainment screen with a digital dash of the same size. The displays look chintzy compared to modern machines.

The F-150 rides on 20-inch alloys but only comes with an 18-inch temporary spare, and it’s probably the only six-figure new car fitted with halogen headlights.

The Ford is a capable vehicle on and off the road.

THERE’S AN AUSSIE FLAVOUR

The Ford F-150 arrives in Australia out of the box in left-hand drive and is converted in a Melbourne factory to right-hand drive.

It’s not a simple operation but the end result is a well-built machine that looks like it’s come direct out of the factory.

There were no noticeable creaks or rattles in the cabin. Ford says about 500 new or modified parts are used in the conversion.

All the buttons and dials feel familiar and the steering wheel column-mounted gear shifter adds a bit of Yee Haw to the experience.