Bought a truck

"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion) 07/20/2018 at 21:00 • Filed to: None

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Sat in a super snake, test drove a GT350r. Twas a good day.

Base model F150 with a tow package for $20,899. 2018, with four miles on the odometer. don’t think it could really get much better than that for a full size truck in the PNW.

So after checking out all the Fords... I gotta say their interior layout is bad. Really bad. Like, it looks really b ad when you’re sitting in the driver’s seat , and the button placement is far from intuitive. The materials themselves are nice enough in the higher trims, but the layout man... Wow. Miles behind pretty much any mainstream Japanese or euro brand.

The F150 in particular is also quite unexciting. It feels like a boat. It’s big, vehicles can be lost behind the tailgate, the steering is incredibly dead and all-in-all, I would say * base model works trucks* in general have not improved in the last 15 years. These trucks are still getting shitty gas mileage, which could have been a big potential draw I suppose. If I could order 2001 Ford Rangers with 8ft beds, m anufactured today with a warranty I would do so in a heartbeat for that same $ 20k spent on a new full-size truck. 90% of the capability, 80 % of the creature comforts and vastly improved usability in an urban/suburban area. A 2001 Ranger with some modern engines... Oh man. Gib. Oh, I DID like the cloth seats on the F150. So there’s that. Oh and the one inch square parking brake button... Not a fan.

Sat in a focus RS. Again, interior layout is just so ugly. Buuuut the seats were great, bolstering but still quite comfortable. They weren’t super hardcore by any means, but a good level for a hot hatch. Shifter feel was surprisingly great too!

Okay, Mustangs. This dealership is one of the largest Mustang sellers in the country, and as such they had m assive selection of the good stuff. The new Shelby Super Snake looks absolutely incredible. And I’m not a Mustang guy. But good god that thing is monstrous in all the right ways, while still having a certain sophistication that the old GT 500's lacked. Asking price on the one I sat in was 130, 000. Y ikes. Lady I was working with informed me that the superchargers had to be put on after purchase in a different state in order to meet some kind of clean air act. Interesting. She also showed me the “ghost stripe”. Basically just an incredibly subtle racing stripe that can only be seen in perfect light, or if you’re up close and personal. Again, very cool. Ford is killing it with the Mustangs.

I asked for a GT350 test drive and the sales manager mentioned a GT350 test drive if we could run numbers on the F150 quickly.

Alright. That’s good for everyone.

Finished boring truck stuff and was handed the keys to the GT350r, a young assistant in the passenger seat. Turned the key.

THE SOUND OPPO, THE SOUND.

Those bastards at Ford had to have known all along that I’d walk out an addict, the flat plane my drug of choice. I want it. I want it bad. Bringing up any other points about the car just seems rediculous when there’s that orgasmic engine note. Some day...

DOTS on the way back

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 21:05

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Will the Miata fit in the back?

AestheticsInMotion > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 07/20/2018 at 21:11

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No :(

That would have bumped it up significantly. 

HammerheadFistpunch > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 21:12

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Thank you! Why does it not seem to bother other people more... The f150 interior design is so bad

AestheticsInMotion > HammerheadFistpunch 07/20/2018 at 21:17

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We may disagree on small work trucks but I’m 100% on your side for this. I should have looked at some platinums or King Ranches to see if the general interior design philosophy carried over a bit better on higher trims...

Discerning > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 21:32

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My feelings about the mustang’s interior reflect your feelings about other f ords, though I don’t typically bring it up.

The starter button, toggle switches, terrible center console and door card plastics, infotainment and climate control buttons have a weird layout, too-tall dash thanks to 3 large vents with gobs of real estate around them which is likely part of the reason the nav screen is so low.

Don’t even get me started on the Camaro.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 21:50

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Every time I get in the 350 I have to remind myself where everything is located. The chevy was way better. But then I get into the turbo and I’m like oh yeah....

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 21:51

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Why does the Super Snake with 800hp look so much less intimidating/menacing than say the Demon or Hellcat? Is it just a front end size thing? 

Longtime Lurker > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 21:51

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So what I’m getting from this it that your not going to turbo the miata anymore. You’re going to swap in a Ford 5.2. :)

MM54 > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 21:56

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I had a 2018 F150 Lariat as a rental for a couple days this week (work trip), it was an absolute boat/freighter. It (and thus you) sits absurdly high, cars disappear beside and behind you, it rides like an unladen truck (bouncy and harsh) and just sort of wobbles all over in the way that trucks do. Big enough that even I, the guy used to parking a crown vic, was struggling to make it into spots without having to back up and make it a 3-pointer. Cruise control worked on the highway nicely (550 miles in 2.5 days) and it got a little over 20mpg.

I do not understand what would possess someone to buy such a thing as their daily. So awful for anything that isn’t being a truck, and with the tiny bed (due to the SUV-sized interior) more of a tow than a haul vehicle.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 22:07

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All Fords have crap interiors. I have to listen to music in the ST or listen to the orchestra of squeaky plastics.

AestheticsInMotion > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 07/20/2018 at 22:40

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Have you seen one up close in the flesh? They are properly menacing. I saw the pictures first and thought "meh" but being a few feet away. Oh man. 

AestheticsInMotion > Longtime Lurker 07/20/2018 at 22:41

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Hah! No, this is a work vehicle acquisition. Miata is still going forced induction 

AestheticsInMotion > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 07/20/2018 at 22:42

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I hear ya. I don't have squeaky plastics.... But everything else is loud. Everything. Give me all your sound deadening pls

Longtime Lurker > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 23:21

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But but cross-plane crank V8!

AestheticsInMotion > Longtime Lurker 07/21/2018 at 00:59

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God that would be an incredible miata... 

AestheticsInMotion > MM54 07/21/2018 at 01:01

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It’s strange. I’ve driven Rangers so long that when I think “truck”, I think super easy to park with phenomenal visibility and spacial awareness. The F150 didn’t have any of those characteristics...

Any headway on your vehicle hunt? 

AestheticsInMotion > Discerning 07/21/2018 at 01:04

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I have yet to sit in any Chevy made in the last ten years, besides a couple C orvettes. Was the layout in the Camaro bad? You'd think if the Japanese brands could master a driver oriented layout in their sports cars 25 years ago the big 3 could manage it today... 

AestheticsInMotion > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 07/21/2018 at 01:04

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I would have liked to try a Ram. Or Dodge. Whatever they are these days

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 01:31

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A stripper ram might be a good truck with the hemi V8.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 02:29

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A friend of mine boaught a 2018 Lariat two months ago with all sorts of goodies. He’s still trying to figure out where all the controls are let alone remember how to use them while driving.  Last time I was in the truck with him was a combination of him getting he owners manual out a red lights and him asking me to push buttons he couldn’t reach. 

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Discerning 07/21/2018 at 02:35

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I know I’m a weirdo but I love the current generation Camaro layout. It looks odd, but it feels and works nicely  when you’re actually driving it.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 02:40

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Also remember the Focus came out in 2010. The interior was wacky then and 8 years on it’s wacky and dated. Ford did a great job bolting in nice seats and the accessory gauge pod  on the ST and RS but there’s only so much they could do with that at the starting point.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 07:09

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Local shop owner has a 350R out parked out front. It’s pretty slick looking but something about it just isn’t “grrrrr” enough - even though it has brake discs bigger than my head.

Not sure I got the full story on his but apparently he got the 350R but with every available option so no back seat but has all the creature comforts. 

Discerning > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 07:51

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The vents are the lowest point of the center stack, the are individual buttons for climate control output (feet, hands, etc.) And the other climate control button locations are no better. 

Discerning > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 07/21/2018 at 07:52

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I’ve test driven a new camaro on 3 occasions and each time I find the interior layout more frustrating than the time before

boxrocket > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 09:42

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I agree that Ford’s fallen from the excellent ergonomics they had in previous trucks - I think pre-2009 models may have been the high point? - but the new ones have a shallow learning curve. The most egregious error is having the fan speed be anything other than a rotating knob, which is something that also irritates me about my wife’s CX-5.

The last-generation Ram’s weren’t bad, or maybe I had gotten used to them since they were the same for so long? I haven’t been in any of the new ones, but I’ve seen a few review videos and nothing stood out other than having buttons on the far side of the massive touch screen on the higher trim levels.

If you think Ford’s layout is bad or ugly, you haven’t seen the chaotic mess that is the GM truck interior. I can’t think of a GM truck since maybe the early ‘90s that hasn’t had a few major errors in interior design, especially offset wheel-to-pedal placement (like I don’t have enough lower back pain), door handles that either jab into the occupants’ outboard legs or are almost obscured by the seat, layouts that are beyond confusing, just awful plastic quality, and overal fit & finish.

An honorable mention goes to Toyota, at least on the older Tundras (not sure if the new ones have changed it) where you literally have to stretch across the cabin to use some of the controls, but at least they were big beefy rotating knobs.

Nissan’s older Titans were so-so. Same layout as the Armadas and QX56s which I’ve driven more of, so a medium learning curve, cheaper-feeling plastics , tiny buttons, but nothing super far from reach except maybe some of the controls below the larger display on models so equipped

boxrocket > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 09:51

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Bad is an understatement. I will say that their idea to use the rings around the center vents as the HVAC controls (temp on one, fan speed on the other IIRC) is surprisingly clever and a good use of space that I wish other OEMs would consider similar treatments. Though right now I think Land Rover has “the bee’s knees” in interior cleverness with the Velar and updated Range Rover & Range Rover Sport’s center stack and steering wheel controls , as they both employ touchscreens but with rotating knobs overlaid in strategic (and symmetrical) locations. Doug DeMuro’s video on the Velar is a good demonstration of it.

MM54 > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 10:01

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Yeah modern trucks have really lost the point, and there are no new ones (model-wise) coming in to fill the space of small and useful.

Not really any success with the search. Things have been pretty busy lately so I haven’t even been looking. All the trucks around here are rusted to hell and I don’t know when I’ll find time to head south. I recently discovered you can get a class 1 trailer hitch for a miata, though.

Mike Manly > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 13:09

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You must drop that shitty F-150 and buy one of my Rams, I’ll give you a good discount on it. Sure, it might be a beat-to-shit loaner but hey, at least you’re giving your money to your new favorite FCA CEO! And it’ll ou tlast that Ford by a long time! A full 500....seconds longer.

AestheticsInMotion > Mike Manly 07/21/2018 at 13:19

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Mergio wouldn't try to bully me :(

Mike Manly > AestheticsInMotion 07/21/2018 at 13:24

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This isn't bullying. This is marketing, the FCA way :)