I will be attending the 2015 test drive today at 1pm near Baton Rouge. I will post my impression shortly after. I will try to get some pics too while there. Anyone have anything in particular you would like me to ask?

 

Have fun!

Hopefully they are a little more "put together" than they were with my experience

It was still awesome to drive one in person though.

 

WOW!! it was great! drove the 3.5 and the 2.7. The 3.5 was a race red lariat, full options, FX4. The truck felt great, very nimble and the turning radius seems much improved. The leather has improved drastically over the last few years also. This truck is sooooo fast! The 2.7 was a new color sort of a brown metallic XLT, FX4. you can feel the difference in the motors, but the 2.7 is not underpowered. i floored it after making a U turn and it actually surprised me how fast it is. When i stopped at the light and saw the rpm go to 0, it startled me i had forgot about the start/stop option. It restarts and accelerates instantly. Very impressed and the guy i rode with actually was very well informed about the trucks. Both trucks/motors are a huge upgrade from my 2004 FX4 with the 5.4.

 

Awesome! I'm going to the one in Tampa in two weeks. I am not opposed to the 2.7, but that start-stop is not for me. So if I were to go with a '15, it'd be the 3.5 or 5.0.

Thanks for posting! Looking forward to going.

 

There were 4 trucks there, but all had the ecoboost, no V-8. The race red lariat was beautiful and the 3.5 is very powerful!

 

Thanks for the info. Can't wait to see these at the dealerships

 

yea, hopefully we will see them soon. The trucks are incredible

 

Took my test drives Saturday (2.7 & 3.5). You would think that Ford would plan better and send "truck people" instead of contract agents who specialize in event hosting. When I commented to one of our "hosts" that things like moon roof, heated cloth seats, and Navigation never used to be XLT options; it just drew a blank stare. I was hoping to learn something new, but this was basically a car show with seat time.

 

That was basically my experience ..... they knew the very very basics of the truck.

But at least you got to drive one before they hit the lots right

 

I was actually surprised, the guy i rode with in both trucks was much more informed than i expected. he still knew less than me, but he wasnt too bad.

 

I did the test drive in Corinth, TX on Saturday. They had 3 trucks a Lariat and an XLT both 2.7's and a King Ranch 3.5. I had driven the 3.5 when the did the drives back in 2011 so I just drove the XLT 2.7. All were Super Crews.

I currently drive an '09 Regular Cab with the 4.6 2V engine. The difference is night and day. Instant power on demand. It's not the 3.5 but it would leave my 4.6 in the dust. someone in this thread said something about the start/stop. I didn't even know it was there, except when the tach dropped to zero at a traffic light. The system worked seamlessly.



My guy was pretty knowledgeable. The truck's avg MPG reading was 22.4 and it had 10,000 miles. He said he hand figured a couple of long interstate trips @75 MPH and got over 28 MPG on both.

 

I don't want Ford to waste money on sending Ford people to these free events. They could be better and bigger with drag strips, but Ford decided to do less and make the test drives available to more people. Be happy. I like that a lot better because everyone now can get a chance to test drive. A lot of these Ford people and engineers are good at their jobs but they are horrible at communicating. Even trucks guys don't know everything - they only know what they know. So better to send a marketing team.

So you say to them the XLT never used to have a moonroof. You should already be aware of this fact and that the only reason XLT got these features is because Ford removed trim levels. No more STX, FX4 by itself trim levels, Lariat is like the Platinum on the current truck, Platinum is the new limited, etc. To get the moonroof you have to step up to the 302A package which is basically a FX equivalent to last years truck, so the only real difference is the badge on the side of the truck.

I was there to do a test drive, not talk. But the guy and gal I drove with were very knowledgeable and were only stumped on one thing - which was the lowest trim level or pkg that gets the sound enhancement. He wasn't sure but knew it was certain upper trim levels that would get it and offered to look it up for me in the book after we got back. I was impressed with the effort and the truck.