As we told you last night, Ford’s perennial best-seller, the F-150, got a significant update. One of the things that changed with this new 2024 F-150 was the front fascia, the grille, the lights, the indicators – you know, the whole face. But not just one face: there’s at least four distinctive and updated F-150 faces, and I’m sort of curious to know which ones you find most appealing. Having a choice of distinctive faces isn’t especially common on cars today. And when it was more common, it was usually done for devious badge-engineering reasons. But, here we are, in the Year of our Ford 2023, and there’s four F-150 faces. Let’s look at them:
So, we have the aggressive, FORD-yelling, Raptor face up top, covered in lights like an amber Las Vegas, bold and loud. Then, there’s the geometric angles of the Tremor, with simpler lights and an orange-bronze accent loop-bar in the middle. This one feels like fancy architecture to me.
Then we have the luxurious King Ranch, which really should be a new Dorito flavor, but in this context means luxury, so that’s what we get: chrome, slim, more refined grille bars, a divided grille like two geometric burger buns, and the whole thing bordered by alabaster white LED DRLs.
FInally, we have the base model face, which I actually think may be my personal favorite. It’s simple and straightforward, I like the grille mesh oblong pattern, and it all kind of reminds me of the ’80s F-150 face:
The way the indicators/DRLs bisect the headlamps is nice, too. It’s a good look, I think.
But! That’s just me! I want to know what you think, what face would you graft on your F-150, were you to F-150 an F-150. Let’s do a poll, why not:
I’m curious. Ford, if you use any of this for market research, you better hook us up with something good.
I can’t really decide on the xl trim versus the tremor,but I voted for the Tremor because it’s sort of the same setup only a bit more visually interesting.
Base model for sure but the Raptor grill fits with the rest of the Raptor styling pretty well.
I hate to say it but now that the new Tundra went all brodozery I’d say Ford makes the best looking full size truck these days. Or at least the only one that’s not hideous.
Base model! It looks like a Ford. You know how in the 1970s Ford had a design je ne sais quoi where the placement of the headlights, shape of the headlight openings, grilles, etc were such that you could immediately tell “that’s a ford” even if the oval fell off? That last design is a throwback to that.
The KR looks like a late 2000s grille.
The other two are stupid.
they are actually all good for once! last 8 years of f150 was only 1 or 2 grills that were good and the rest were not so much.
For me, the base grill is the proper grill for an F150.
The King Ranch would be a good candidate for reviving the Mercury brand.. the Mercury King Range.
Tremor should be reserved for the Bronco. But, I get the “family” thing. I do like the Raptor grill, always have. But, King Ranch is just so luxurious. Base is base.
Base, and it would look better still with the solid outer framing (but not the grille texture itself) painted body color to visually shrink the grille size. But then I liked the ’97 F150 best of all.
Also, I can’t believe bright non-metallic red isn’t one of the colors for the base XL trim.
For me the Base looks like a pick-up truck, the King Ranch looks like an upscale pickup truck and the other two look like over designed shit and kids action toy shit. It’s supposed to be a pickup dammit.
Base, then the King Ranch. The other two are too flamboyant.
I wonder what the numbers would have been without the trim levels attached.
99% of the commenter base is conditioned to think “base model good” and “King Ranch or Raptor bad”. Given this, the results are unsurprising, even if silly IMO.
I can’t speak for anyone else and I’m not a truck guy (which may make my views off-base, I admit), but I’ll offer my reasons for liking the base trim version.
For me, pickups are authentically work vehicles, beautiful primarily for their functionality. And if form follows function, their design should reflect that. Just as a sportscar’s design should evoke speed and athleticism, a pickup’s should telegraph that innate no nonsense practicality.
So the King Ranch grill for instance looks like a pickup masquerading as a luxury vehicle; I get that’s kinda what it’s designed to be, but to me, it’s a jarring juxtaposition that feels wrong. But the simplicity of the base grill feels very authentic to what a truck is and that for which it’s best used. The harmony makes me happy I guess.
I’m not saying anyone should or shouldn’t like any of them, I just find it amusing that I knew with certainty which choice would be favored by a large majority and which ones would not be.
It’s another humorous juxtaposition between the preferences of actual truck buyers and the commenters here. No one is ripping the grille off their Raptor to put an XL grille on, but thousands of XL owners do the reverse (or buy the cheap knockoffs).
Well yeah actual truck buyers are, literally, the majority of vehicle buyers. They are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know, morons.
Road salt of the earth.
The customer is always right in matters of taste
Except Raptor customers. They’re always wrong.
Thousands of people also have no taste and put ugly as Rhino wheels on their truck that stick out 8″ past the fenders.
That being said, the King Ranch and Raptor both have weird brow/edge lights. They look like AliExpress additions. Take those away and the Raptor would be my favorite, with the Tremor and Base being my next, and King Ranch last.
Not a truck guy either, and I’m a minimalist who appreciates form following function as much as the next guy. If you go back to the roots of any vehicle, even utilitarian trucks, bling and design has always been a thing. Chrome was replaced by plastic in the 70s-80s for cost reasons. Interiors used to have body matched paint/chrome with elegant fonts on the speedo/dash. Its hard to look at the interior of any 50s-60s car or truck and think designers didn’t care about presentation. The 80s were a jarring decade in design, but thats not the way its always been.
You make a good point, which makes me wonder – is the base grill specifically designed to attract people old enough to remember ’80s truck design (people who just happen to be in their earning prime)?
The contention could be made the ’80s was actually the decade that got the design right, departing from the ’50s and ’60s, and perhaps even connecting to the original Model T trucks?
I’m intrigued about your subtle observation on interiors, as I hadn’t considered how grills as a design thing are something that other people see and the driver largely doesn’t, while interiors are the opposite. There’s more to unpack there for sure.
I cant help but think people cared more about design prior to the 70s. It’s seen in the exterior of downtown buildings, hand painted signs/store windows, car interiors, basic consumer goods like FM radios. Design seemed front and center, now it looks like an afterthought.
I like the example of hand painted signs.. as an avid collector of old signage you cant help but see a gradual simplification and overall lazy approach around the 80s. Stylized fonts with drop shadows and 3D lettering with specular highlights give way to block lettering in simple parking lot signage.. No other conclusion can be drawn other than people taking less pride in esthetics or perhaps an overall loss of craftsmanship and the appreciation of it.
Cool hobby! I can see the root of our divergence more now, as my tastes are resolutely modernist – so I likely love the look of the signs/fonts that you’d hate! 🙂 Though I’ll admit ’50s styling is starting to grow on me a little and I’m starting to appreciate it more.
I’m an editorial magazine photographer, and work with graphic designers all the time for cover shoots. I love the modern fonts as well as the retro designs which pay homage. Graphic designers are the exception to the rule, and are among some of the last of a dying breed. I do love modern design as well, but it doesn’t find its way to as many consumer goods as it used to.
The simplification in signage has more to do cost savings than a modern take on fonts.
I’m curious – as a professional, what’s the worst font choice you’ve seen for car gauges?
God, I hope no one’s used papyrus. Thats a great question, I’m going to hit the Google.
Without the badges you can immediately tell the relative position of each model in the lineup – which the goal, so Ford did a great job in that respect – so taking badges off wouldn’t make a difference.
If you don’t like a top of the line truck, you won’t like the King Ranch grille, because it looks like the fanciest one.
You might say that for the King Ranch, but if I knew nothing about trucks, you could easily convince me the Raptor grille was the base model (the base Silverado has CHEVROLET plastered across a black plastic grille for example).
You can tell the Raptor is a special model because it’s covered in extra lights – it also does something with the Ford lettering that’s a bit unique. While you could argue that the Tremor looks fancier than the Raptor with the orange bar, both look like the higher model vs. The STX grille.
The base model is an easy favourite and the polls prove it, which is funny to me for now much effort I’m sure Ford went to for all the others.
But I think the King Ranch is also a winner, it is exactly the grill that trim should have.
Exactly, the King Ranch is what you’d expect of the King Ranch, and I like the clean design of it nearly as much as the base grill. Put the base headlights back in with the King Ranch grill and it would have my vote completely (I don’t care for the little chrome bar that disrupts the flow in the KR headlights).
The Tremor and Raptor grills have so much going on within them that they have gone from looking unique to looking garishly busy. Given how overstyled the rest of the truck has become, this is a case where less is more.
I think those are the turn signals since the vertical ones on the side seem to be DRLs.
I think the Tremor, because I like the contrast from the little pop of color. The only one I really dislike is the Raptor as I don’t like the “brand spelled across the grille” look, but that could be because it’s so often associated with aggro truck styling.
Out of the full-sizers I think Ford has typically had the best-looking base/entry trim in the STX appearance package – a nice upgrade but not over the top, kind of “less is more.”
Doesn’t the XLT have a chrome strip across the front? (Totally ruining the otherwise awesome grille?)
Personally, I hate the LED treatment on the higher trims. The two detached lines read as squinty wrinkles to me.
IMO Ford fascias have been going downhill in the DRL department since 2018, when they had simple bracket DRLS and grilles that were top/bottom symmetrical
Base. And although you didn’t ask, I feel the same about the base Chevy/GMC grilles
I picked the XL/STX/XLT for the same reason you did. It has that classic “egg crate” grille look to it.
I Like the 1980’s one best. The Raptor one looks like some sort of cheap knock off transformers toy, if you fold it up and twiddle with it it could be an even less cool Soundwave.
I like the KR the best, it’s horizontal flow goes best with the rest of the design.
My 85 F150 was my first thought looking at the STX/XLT. Nice the way Ford echoes the past with the new design. An homage to their history and the long running success of the F150 line.
The base model actually looks like a normal, rational truck. I have no idea how that one squeaked out in the Year of Our Ford 115.
I went with the Face Of Regular Driving. Base model all the way.
Also, that quad-light layout gives it a strong 80’s Brazilian Ford F-1000 vibe, and that’s a good thing.
King Ranch by a country mile. Oddly, the rest look like they’re trying too hard to impress.
It would appear that the more expensive they get in trim level, the less I like them.
Because Ford thinks the best way to telegraph expensive is to make them increasingly gaudy and overstyled, the standard playbook for mass produced American faux luxury vehicles going back to the Brougham era
I like them all, surprisingly the raptor grill is my least favorite. I think it has been around too long.
Question, did ford really put halogen lights on the low trims again? I really hope I am seeing that wrong.
I bet they’re LED but just look like the old school, “don’t touch it with bare hands you fool!” bulbs.
This is how I like retro myself…small design elements here and there rather than full-on reproductions of old stuff. I love that in the otherwise contemporary 2024 Mustang, you can choose the ’90s-tastic Fox body gauges (in all their red & green, Christmas year round glory) if you want.
I read elsewhere that they’re LEDs in all trims.
The “base” ones all the way…for the same reason that the steelies are the best Bronco wheels.
Truly, I was hoping for an about face with some actual cars showing up.
Or at least a poll choice like “the 2013 Ford Fusion.”