Review of 2016 F150 Lariat 502A FX4 3.5 liter Ecoboost
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Review of 2016 F150 Lariat 502A FX4 3.5 liter Ecoboost
Fellow F150 enthusiasts,
A couple weeks ago I finally took possession of the Shadow black F150 that I had ordered while deployed. I have been reading about the truck for a long time, about the problems people have had with towing, ACC, A/C and heated seats, rusted rear end, wind noise, MPG, stiff suspension going over bumps around corners, etc.
I took a trip to California from Washington and back using the ACC set at about 6 over the speed limit. So lots of driving at around 76 MPH and over some mountain passes. 3 days later, I drove back to California and picked up a classic car that I towed with a u-haul trailer back to Washington. I kept the speed a little less this time, at 60 while in California with the stupid 55MPH while towing anything law and then at about the speed limit through Oregon and Washington.
Let me first address the possible issues I have read on the forum:
MPG: I averaged 19.7 MPG to California and back without towing and using solely the ACC. I averaged 13.3 while towing the car back from California, with what I expect was about 5000 pounds (3500 car 1500? trailer). I don't think that the ACC is the best if you're trying to get maximum MPG, as the vehicle brakes and downshifts to slow you down when going downhill and will maintain speeds when climbing, really getting into the boost. I'm happy with these numbers. I didn't really try to get better mileage. I am sure if I had kept it at 60, it would have easily been over 20.
ACC/ lane keeping system: This system simply amazes me. Is it perfect? Of course not. Sometimes when going around corners, the truck would think a vehicle was in my lane when it wasn't and it would slow down. As soon as it figured it out, which was really fast, it got right back to speed. I started being able to predict when this would happen, and had my foot on the accelerator ready to maintain speed. Other than those small issues, it did amazing. This technology astounds me.
The lane keeping system is a great safety feature. I don't text when driving, but I can see if someone falls asleep, is texting, whatever, this can give you a little bit higher margin of safety. That said, sometimes it was a little intrusive for me as I like to cut corners on the insides of the solid line when I know I can do it safely, such as onramps and situations like that. The truck would try to correct for that, screwing up my apex. That said, I think the safety margin for other situations is worth it, so I will leave it on.
A/C and heated seats: Both worked great. Of course the seats cooled better when the A/C was on. But at times I would turn it to the lowest setting as my butt would get a little cold. The heated seats worked great! No complaint there at all. Even with the A/C on cold, the heated seats would keep me nice and toasty.
Wind noise: Didn't notice anything except it was quieter than most other vehicles I've been in.
Rusted rear end: Mine was painted black and looks great. I haven't crawled under the vehicle to look at anything else, but eventually will and will report back.
Stiff suspension /"unsafe" hopping in corner over bumps: I've been meaning to write about this for some time. I've experienced this exact thing in many cars. I used to have a BMW 135i. Fun little twin turbo car. Suspension was so stiff, and with run-flat tires, you definitely experienced a hop when hitting bumps mid corner. This is what you get when you have stiff suspension. If you want it to hold the road better when the road is smooth, your suspension will be stiffer. If you want it to absorb bumps, it will have softer suspension and lose out in other areas. These are tradeoffs with suspension and for everything you gain in one area, you lose in others. I also race motorcycles. Do you know how much suspension tuning you have to do on a motorcycle? Even a great motorcycle with aftermarket suspension will handle poorly if the suspension isn't set up correctly, and if it is set up perfectly on one track, on the next track it may bad again and you have to change the setting. Making a vehicle with perfect suspension in all areas is impossible. You can't make a vehicle capable of towing thousands of pounds handle like a racecar on the street and a rally truck offroad. All of that said, I noticed nothing wrong with the suspension in the Ford and found that it did great in the vast majority of situations.
All in all, I am really happy with my truck. It looks good, drives great, has great power. I didn't know how I would feel about the fake engine sound, but honestly, I like it. Normally I hate gimmicky stuff like that but it definitely sounds good and you cannot tell that the sound isn't from the engine/exhaust.
One big complaint I have is the navigation. This thing has steered me wrong twice, and dropped me off at a Costco in the total wrong area. Told me I had reached my destination and I was in the middle of nowhere. Get with it ford, or release an updated version of maps. There are some roads around here that have been here for a couple of years and they still aren't on ford's maps. I do like SYNC 3, but I never had myfordtouch to notice any difference. I will say that the system is way faster than systems I have seen in any other vehicle. It responds very quickly. I don't like the safety features of a lot of it, such as only being able to respond to texts by line number. Now that I have replaced my iPhone, I expect siri to work better with that but I haven't tested it out. I don't like not being able to type in a destination while driving. Even my passenger cannot add a destination. Stupid. I will look through the forum and see what I can do to fix some of that.
Hope this post helped some people that may be on the fence. I would buy this vehicle again in a second.
A couple weeks ago I finally took possession of the Shadow black F150 that I had ordered while deployed. I have been reading about the truck for a long time, about the problems people have had with towing, ACC, A/C and heated seats, rusted rear end, wind noise, MPG, stiff suspension going over bumps around corners, etc.
I took a trip to California from Washington and back using the ACC set at about 6 over the speed limit. So lots of driving at around 76 MPH and over some mountain passes. 3 days later, I drove back to California and picked up a classic car that I towed with a u-haul trailer back to Washington. I kept the speed a little less this time, at 60 while in California with the stupid 55MPH while towing anything law and then at about the speed limit through Oregon and Washington.
Let me first address the possible issues I have read on the forum:
MPG: I averaged 19.7 MPG to California and back without towing and using solely the ACC. I averaged 13.3 while towing the car back from California, with what I expect was about 5000 pounds (3500 car 1500? trailer). I don't think that the ACC is the best if you're trying to get maximum MPG, as the vehicle brakes and downshifts to slow you down when going downhill and will maintain speeds when climbing, really getting into the boost. I'm happy with these numbers. I didn't really try to get better mileage. I am sure if I had kept it at 60, it would have easily been over 20.
ACC/ lane keeping system: This system simply amazes me. Is it perfect? Of course not. Sometimes when going around corners, the truck would think a vehicle was in my lane when it wasn't and it would slow down. As soon as it figured it out, which was really fast, it got right back to speed. I started being able to predict when this would happen, and had my foot on the accelerator ready to maintain speed. Other than those small issues, it did amazing. This technology astounds me.
The lane keeping system is a great safety feature. I don't text when driving, but I can see if someone falls asleep, is texting, whatever, this can give you a little bit higher margin of safety. That said, sometimes it was a little intrusive for me as I like to cut corners on the insides of the solid line when I know I can do it safely, such as onramps and situations like that. The truck would try to correct for that, screwing up my apex. That said, I think the safety margin for other situations is worth it, so I will leave it on.
A/C and heated seats: Both worked great. Of course the seats cooled better when the A/C was on. But at times I would turn it to the lowest setting as my butt would get a little cold. The heated seats worked great! No complaint there at all. Even with the A/C on cold, the heated seats would keep me nice and toasty.
Wind noise: Didn't notice anything except it was quieter than most other vehicles I've been in.
Rusted rear end: Mine was painted black and looks great. I haven't crawled under the vehicle to look at anything else, but eventually will and will report back.
Stiff suspension /"unsafe" hopping in corner over bumps: I've been meaning to write about this for some time. I've experienced this exact thing in many cars. I used to have a BMW 135i. Fun little twin turbo car. Suspension was so stiff, and with run-flat tires, you definitely experienced a hop when hitting bumps mid corner. This is what you get when you have stiff suspension. If you want it to hold the road better when the road is smooth, your suspension will be stiffer. If you want it to absorb bumps, it will have softer suspension and lose out in other areas. These are tradeoffs with suspension and for everything you gain in one area, you lose in others. I also race motorcycles. Do you know how much suspension tuning you have to do on a motorcycle? Even a great motorcycle with aftermarket suspension will handle poorly if the suspension isn't set up correctly, and if it is set up perfectly on one track, on the next track it may bad again and you have to change the setting. Making a vehicle with perfect suspension in all areas is impossible. You can't make a vehicle capable of towing thousands of pounds handle like a racecar on the street and a rally truck offroad. All of that said, I noticed nothing wrong with the suspension in the Ford and found that it did great in the vast majority of situations.
All in all, I am really happy with my truck. It looks good, drives great, has great power. I didn't know how I would feel about the fake engine sound, but honestly, I like it. Normally I hate gimmicky stuff like that but it definitely sounds good and you cannot tell that the sound isn't from the engine/exhaust.
One big complaint I have is the navigation. This thing has steered me wrong twice, and dropped me off at a Costco in the total wrong area. Told me I had reached my destination and I was in the middle of nowhere. Get with it ford, or release an updated version of maps. There are some roads around here that have been here for a couple of years and they still aren't on ford's maps. I do like SYNC 3, but I never had myfordtouch to notice any difference. I will say that the system is way faster than systems I have seen in any other vehicle. It responds very quickly. I don't like the safety features of a lot of it, such as only being able to respond to texts by line number. Now that I have replaced my iPhone, I expect siri to work better with that but I haven't tested it out. I don't like not being able to type in a destination while driving. Even my passenger cannot add a destination. Stupid. I will look through the forum and see what I can do to fix some of that.
Hope this post helped some people that may be on the fence. I would buy this vehicle again in a second.
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Joined: Aug 2015
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Very well thought out and written review. I agree that using acc is not the best way to figure out what mpg is or should be, i noticed that on my wifes limited explorer. Sometimes it hunts for the correct gear and can rev up alot more than you would if you were driving, but all in all its pretty awesome not to have to brake everytime someone in front of you can't seem to keep a certain speed.
Most of the things you mentioned are somewhat nitpicky gripes from some users, such as the suspension, wind noise, etc. I don't find any of those things bothersome.
Enjoy your truck, I just made a year with mine and 21k miles and so far nothing major to speak of!
Most of the things you mentioned are somewhat nitpicky gripes from some users, such as the suspension, wind noise, etc. I don't find any of those things bothersome.
Enjoy your truck, I just made a year with mine and 21k miles and so far nothing major to speak of!
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Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 199
Likes: 32
I've been following this forum and the 15-16 F150 for a long time. I figured some people would like a non biased real world review of my experiences with towing and mpg among other things. Especially since half the threads on here are about mpg.
If you don't like it, feel free to move along. I'm sure I'll get by just fine without you here.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 199
Likes: 32
Yet here you are. I've been following this forum and the 15-16 F150 for a long time. I figured some people would like a non biased real world review of my experiences with towing and mpg among other things. Especially since half the threads on here are about mpg. If you don't like it, feel free to move along. I'm sure I'll get by just fine without you here.
