Buying a 2015 Ford F150? Get the Supercrew.
There's no way to way to post this without looking like it's brand bashing, so I'll open with this: If safety is a primary concern, buy a Ford F150 Supercrew. It has fantastic crash ratings, I assume even better than Chevy or Ram, based on the article.
But you may want to upgrade to the Supercrew if you were considering the Supercab or regular cab.
New test shows disparities in Ford F-150 crash protection
After a highly unusual follow-up crash test, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has concluded that Ford Motor Co. “shortchanges” some buyers of its redesigned 2015 F-150 pickups by equipping certain models with protective steel bars while leaving them off others.
In separate crashes, a four-door crew cab F-150 SuperCrew aced IIHS’s tests and earned the safety agency’s coveted Top Safety Pick rating. But an extended cab SuperCab version of the F-150 received the second-lowest rating of “marginal.”
Why the difference?
IIHS says it comes down to four protective steel bars that Ford installed on the SuperCrew that are left off the SuperCab. The tubular bars, welded to the frame and placed in the front wheel wells, also are missing from regular cab F-150s.
David Zuby, IIHS’s chief research officer, said leaving the bars off the SuperCab “shortchanges buyers who might pick the extended cab thinking it offers the same protection in this type of crash as the crew cab.”
“It doesn’t,” he said.
“In a small-overlap front crash like this, there’s no question you’d rather be driving the crew cab than the extended cab F-150.”
...
In May, when Automotive News asked a Ford spokeswoman why the protectors were on the crew cab but not other versions, she said, “It’s something that we do regularly. It’s to optimize the structure. All of that is to meet regulatory requirements and achieve public domain ratings.”
Asked to clarify what public domain ratings were, she replied, “crash testing.”
Spokesman Levine said Ford had no plans to recall 2015 F-150s without the blockers, which the company also calls Small Offset Rigid Barrier countermeasures.
...
The SuperCrew’s occupant compartment remained intact, IIHS said, and the crash-test dummy had a low probability of injury thanks to the pickup’s structural and in-cabin safety equipment.
However, in the SuperCab, “intruding structure seriously compromised the driver’s survival space,” IIHS said.
But you may want to upgrade to the Supercrew if you were considering the Supercab or regular cab.
New test shows disparities in Ford F-150 crash protection
After a highly unusual follow-up crash test, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has concluded that Ford Motor Co. “shortchanges” some buyers of its redesigned 2015 F-150 pickups by equipping certain models with protective steel bars while leaving them off others.
In separate crashes, a four-door crew cab F-150 SuperCrew aced IIHS’s tests and earned the safety agency’s coveted Top Safety Pick rating. But an extended cab SuperCab version of the F-150 received the second-lowest rating of “marginal.”
Why the difference?
IIHS says it comes down to four protective steel bars that Ford installed on the SuperCrew that are left off the SuperCab. The tubular bars, welded to the frame and placed in the front wheel wells, also are missing from regular cab F-150s.
David Zuby, IIHS’s chief research officer, said leaving the bars off the SuperCab “shortchanges buyers who might pick the extended cab thinking it offers the same protection in this type of crash as the crew cab.”
“It doesn’t,” he said.
“In a small-overlap front crash like this, there’s no question you’d rather be driving the crew cab than the extended cab F-150.”
...
In May, when Automotive News asked a Ford spokeswoman why the protectors were on the crew cab but not other versions, she said, “It’s something that we do regularly. It’s to optimize the structure. All of that is to meet regulatory requirements and achieve public domain ratings.”
Asked to clarify what public domain ratings were, she replied, “crash testing.”
Spokesman Levine said Ford had no plans to recall 2015 F-150s without the blockers, which the company also calls Small Offset Rigid Barrier countermeasures.
...
The SuperCrew’s occupant compartment remained intact, IIHS said, and the crash-test dummy had a low probability of injury thanks to the pickup’s structural and in-cabin safety equipment.
However, in the SuperCab, “intruding structure seriously compromised the driver’s survival space,” IIHS said.
