Best Buy Awards Overall 2015

In a segment not characterized by technical innovation, the all-new Ford F-150 stands out for its imaginative approach to several age-old problems. Towing, hauling and personal transport aren’t new, but the 2015 F-150’s ingenious solutions make it a logical choice for Overall Winner among our stellar Best Buys of 2015 competitors.

You can call pickup trucks a lot of things, but "revolutionary" is typically not one of them. Not until the 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck, that is. It isn’t often that a class-leader completely turns a category on its head, but that is just what Ford has done with its F-150. For more than three decades the F-150 has been not only the pickup truck sales leader, but also the annual best-selling vehicle in the United States. Success like that usually breeds conservatism. "Why change a good thing?" is a phrase commonly voiced in that situation. Instead of standing pat with its all-new 2015 full-size truck, however, Ford Motor Company decided to be bold. And so the F-150 offers a dramatically new aluminum body, a high-strength steel structure, and a thoroughly innovative lineup of powertrain choices, including one engine with an eye-poppingly small 2.7-liter displacement. It is radical stuff. But our testing and evaluation have told us that these brash moves will pay off, and so we have made the 2015 Ford F-150 the Overall Best Buy in our inaugural Best Buys competition.

Innovation with Real-World Benefits

Frankly, all the innovation in the world would not persuade us to award a vehicle our top Best Buy accolade if the vehicle did not live up to the spirit of the program. The goal of our extensive testing and evaluation was to ferret out those 2015-model-year vehicles that offer the highest quality+value / dollar quotient. Technology for technology’s sake has no place here. We seek technology that has substantial consumer benefit — benefit that far outweighs its cost. In the F-150, we have just that. Its high-tech aluminum body offers a 700-pound weight savings, and that slim-down program has very distinct positives. The most important of those benefits is that it enables every one of the F-150’s available powertrains to perform better and at the same time turn in better fuel economy numbers. You can bet without that giant weight savings, no 2.7-liter engine, no matter how highly stressed, could successfully power a full-size pickup with the F-150’s capabilities. But even if you opt for one of the other engines in the mix, including the tried-and-true 5.0-liter V8 or either of the 3.5-liter V6s, you will get the advantages of the lighter-weight body, including fuel economy that Ford expects to be up to 20 percent better than before. The F-150’s big towing and payload numbers are equally the result of Ford’s audacious move to aluminum.

User-Friendliness Built In

While efficiency is an important aspect of being honored as Overall Best Buy, it, like advanced technology, is not sufficient to nab a Best Buy crown. What our extensive drive testing and vehicle evaluation told us was that the all-new F-150 is an incredibly user-friendly tool. Its roomy, well-designed cab isn’t just well-suited to the critical job of piloting the vehicle; it also doubles as an effective office space complete with a console that doubles as a desk and twin 3-prong electrical outlets to power your gear. Not only are the front seats accommodating, but in the SuperCab version the rear seat is one of the widest and roomiest in the entire automotive world. Safety? We were impressed by the available array that includes hill-start assist, trailer sway control, fail-safe cooling, blind-spot warning, and curve control, which works to keep the truck on the road even if you enter a turn too exuberantly. Add to that smart cruise control, active park assist, inflatable rear seat belts and the ability to have the Sync infotainment system read text messages to you while you drive, and you have a vehicle that is about as safe as you could imagine.

Making your Day Easier

Oh, and did we mention all the extra features that help make the F-150 more convenient to live and work with? For example, there is the disappearing tailgate step that helps you climb into the bed, plus available swing-out running boards so you can more easily hop into the cab. With three cab styles, three bed lengths, five trim levels and the choice of 2- or 4-wheel drive, the F-150 can be configured to meet the precise needs of a wide variety of buyers. The fact that, at every turn, its advanced technology enhances the driving and ownership experience without adding substantially to the cost means that the 2015 Ford F-150 is a very worthy Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Overall Winner.

Configure it Your Way

Build and price your own 2015 Ford F-150 to unlock its Fair Purchase Price, 5-Year Cost to Own and more. As much as the F-150 has to offer, something else might catch your eye. Check out our Pickup Truck Buyer’s Guide to look at all of your choices.