Man, I don't know what to think of this article in USA Today. Ford is saying, "oh we can now tow more than we said we could with the 2004."

It seems that this is backhanded and makes them less credible.

I do PR for a living and I think this is not ethical. I own Fords, I am a little embarrassed that they are doing this.

So, what do you think? Do you think this is a sham and the F150's new tow numbers have been "invented" to artificailly outdo any perceived competition?

Are you pissed that you have been misled, your manual on your 04 may show incorrect tow numbers, or that you might have gone for the F250 instead based on the lower tow numbers?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...uckfight_x.htm

 

......yeah but. How many people would buy a Ford now instead of the Nissan?

I'll bet 99% of light truck buyers don't look at tow figures.

 

haven't read the article yet...but aren't they only increased by a about 400 or 500lbs from the original numbers?....I bet most of the original numbers for every car or truck are slightly hyped anyway.

 

See this thread:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=130288

 

I don't understand why folks are upset that Ford LIED (gosh) about the towing capacity. It's not that they claimed it could tow MORE than it actually can, so what's the problem? The proper response (from Ford owners) should be "cool" (or the equivalent).

In the 60s, muscle cars were routinely underrated in their horsepower ratings to keep the government off their backs, and so that people could actually afford to insure them.

If Ford made Nissan say "doh!", that's ok by me.

I seriously doubt that anyone would actually tow 9900 lbs for anything other than a short distance...but it's nice to know you could if you had to.

 

I don't see the problem they are just keeping the competitors in the dark. It's a fair market or is intended to be. If Nissan could make it so their trucks pulled 9900 lbs why didn't they. Seems they are just playing catchup and not leading. They could always try and lead the way and surpass what ford said they were going to be able to tow. I really don't see the porblem except for the fact Nissan is riding FORDS coat tails or letting them do all the leading.

 

The problem I have with this is that Ford intentionally misquoted the numbers. The issue here is that people are given information (that they believe is credible) and act on it. I'm not a lawyer and don't proport to be one, but this constitutes the federal law of 'false advertising'? This is advertising that is misleading and causes confusion for customers. People who bought this truck before the 'true' numbers came out may have a legitimate lawsuit on their hands.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I'm not so sure that this would constitute fasle advertising. The way I see it, there's no harm in upping the towing numbers after initial numbers were released. I think the harm would come if they initially released 9900 lbs then lowered them to 9000 or 9500... or whatever. Then, that would be false advertising, IMO.

 

Definitly no false advertising. You are getting more than what you paid for. If it had been the other way around, then yes, I could see the point. But being upset because Ford is now telling you the vehicle can perform better than what they initially told you is downright silly!
Exactly what sddriver said also, this is a competative market, the F-150 is a large cashcow for Ford, all is fair in Love, War, and marketing! Would you be pissed off if all a sudden AMD or Intel said, "Sorry folks, we told you the clock speed of your processor was 1.4 Ghrtz, but actually, it's closer to 2.0"?

 

What would you guys think if Nissan comes out in a few days and says, BTW, we knew you were lying. We lied too, the Titan can actually tow 10,200 lbs.

Would you beleive them? Why not?

 

Hi all,

I think the increase in numbers was probably an easing of the safety margin that is always included in any specification, ie. the truck can pull a bit more than rated, it will not self-destruct if you pull 9901 lbs.

For instance, a shackle ( the kind to hook a tow strap to the closed tow hooks on our trucks ) might have a WLL ( working load limit ) of 6 tons but a break strength of 8 tons, the difference being the safety margin. Not a good idea to exceed the WLL too much!

Another consderation is the brakes, if you have trailer brakes, so much better.

Another thought, the lower numbers might have been design numbers ( conservative ) and the higher numbers were arrived at by real world testing.

Competition is a good thing! If there was no competition, would we have this cool new truck with 300HP?

Best Regards

Michael