OUR HOMES | OUR RIDES
Ford’s Studly Raptor BY RANDY STERN | PHOTOS BY RANDY STERN In 2021, the Ford F-Series lineup of pickup trucks continued its four-plus decades streak of being the best-selling vehicle sold in the U.S.A. While sales were down from the previous year by 7.8 percent, Ford still managed to deliver over 726,000 units to their intended customers. The lion’s share of the F-Series sales goes to its half-ton model, the F-150. Granted, our community usually dictates the vehicles that we drive. There are some surveys that state that we would purchase the
F-150 on a relative scale as does everyone else in this country. You would think that our preferred half-ton full-size pickup would be the Ram 1500, but not necessarily. In the pickup truck market, the key to success is to offer something for every type of consumer. If you own a business, you really need a work truck. If you’re planning to tow something, you can get away with a trim that offer leather (or leatherette) seating. Then you get into the more expensive trim
levels. These are trucks that deliver on luxury that are usually found on top-of-the-line sedans. Then there are ones that make you want to fulfill your more adventurous side—the 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor does this and more. It’s an absolute beast of a pickup truck. This third-generation model is based on the enhanced F-150 introduced about a year ago. As with the last two generations, the folks at Ford Performance would take a mere F-150, drop its most powerful engine, jack up the susContinued on page 38
36
LAVENDER FEBRUARY 10-23, 2022
