Ford went to pickup country to introduce the 2013 F-150. The presentation took place today in Bruceville, a small Texas town of about 1500 just off Interstate 35 between Temple and Waco. Appropriately enough the event also commemorated the 65 years that Ford has sponsored the National FFA (Future Farmers of America), an 84-year-old youth development organization that’s one of the largest youth organizations in the U.S. and a likely source of many future Ford pickup owners.
Ford has sponsored FFA since 1948, the same year Ford F-Series pickups first went on sale. The Built Ford Tough Scholarship Program, the Ford Fund, and participating Ford dealers have awarded $7.1 million in grants to FFA members over the past 15 years. Ford also sponsors the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) Lifetime Achievement Awards and an FFA chapter grant program. In 2011, six winning chapters were each awarded a $3,000 grant to support local initiatives.
“Farm families have always represented an important F-Series truck constituency,” said Doug Scott, Ford Truck group marketing manager and FFA sponsor board member. “For these multitasking customers, a Ford pickup means family transportation, economic livelihood, rugged capability and reliability. Like FFA, Ford pickups are an enduring agricultural tradition, and we are delighted to join forces with them to reveal the new F-150 models.”
For 2013, the mildly updated F-150 receives a new front-end treatment and grille and high-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps are now an option. A new Limited luxury model has been added to the line. Three new colors, Blue Jeans Metallic, Kodiak Brown Metallic and Ruby Red Clearcoat Metallic, have been added to the palette and there are new 18- and 20-inch wheels for various trim packages.
Lariat, King Ranch, Platinum and Limited series models come with Ford’s SYNC system and MyFord Touch and new 8-inch LCD color touch screen mounted in the center stack.
Interior upgrades include a new Steel Gray interior on Lariat and a black interior for King Ranch. Both lines also get nicer woodgrain accents. The Platinum trim package now includes a choice of Black or Pecan leather seating.
Engine options remain the same, ranging from a 3.7-liter V6 to a 6.2-liter SOHC V8 that Ford says offers best-in-class towing and payload capacities. We’ll see how those towing claims shape up with SAE’s new J2807 Towing Standard.*
*For more information about the new SAE standard, visit Allpar.com.
