These were emailed to me by mjf150 and I promised to post them for all to see and give their opinions. He shrunk the grill on the Platinum and I agree with him that it does look better. The first pic is the original, unaltered. The last two are reworked.

 

I agree the smaller grille looks better. I think a simple painted surround would do the trick. The FX4 grille looks perfect in my opinion.

 

I agree, the models that have the painted surround look much better.

 

disagreed. If the grill was smaller and followed the line of the lights, then wed get people calling it looking just like the chevy, since they have similar hoods

 

I believe that's the point that truck design has gotten to. Every truck looks, in some way, like something the other guy is doing. In such a competitive field it's become very difficult to be unique.

 

I dont like the 09. But I prefer the original grill better. What needs to be fixed on the 09 is: Front bumper, tail lights, side mirrors and a shorter cab. Just my opinion...

 

Still ugly.

 

I prefer the larger grill. The smaller grill doesn't look right.

 

like a rock, ohh like a rock.

 

It doesn't look right smaller...it makes the truck look wimpy.

No thanks!

 

The smaller grill looks much better; it's more to scale with the rest of the truck. I'm sure an aftermarket company can make millions selling a modified hood/grill combo for the '09 F150's.

 

someone should do a photoshop of billet grills, id like to see one on a painted surround with no bars

 

Although I like the look of the 09 grill, I can see where some people don't like it. It seems to me that the grill isn't the problem, it's the headlights. They need to be positioned higher - more towards the corners (like the current F150).

On a side note, I could do wthout what I call the "tear duct" look of the headlight. The turn signal portion looks kinda funky.

Anybody agree with any of this?

 

I agree with the headlights being wrong. higher placement might help. but I also do not like the shape of the headlights. but with that new front end they needed something new with the headlights. I am trying to picture another headlight design that would fit that front end. I do like the shorter grill. the painted surround looks best to me. I wander what what aftermarket headlights will become available for this truck. I wander what the HD headlights will look like. people who do not like that grill will be able to find lots of aftermarket options I bet. I actually like the tail lights except for the chrome parts of them.

 

If I were to buy a new truck in '09 I wouldn't know where to go...The F-150 is a rehash. The others are ugly, and/or cheaply built.