GoodCarBadCar was quick to honour the Ram 1500 range with a Good 12 placement, but for customers aiming to spend a little extra, the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is downright irresistable.
Sure, an off-road truck isn’t every pickup buyer’s dream vehicle. Maybe you don’t need 411 horsepower. Perhaps a foot of suspension travel is too much for you. Gigantic skid plates might not be your cup of tea. Tires that are more than a foot wide and nearly three feet tall possibly offer a greater degree of curb-crawling competence than you can manage.
Yeah, the F-150 SVT Raptor is just too much truck for some pickup buyers.
For the rest of us, the idea of owning a comfortable, fast, and overwhelmingly effective truck is exciting, even thrilling. Only without the typical Raptor graphics, please. Garish isn’t goodness.
Engine: 411 horsepower; 434 lb-ft of torque from a 6.2L V8
Base USD/CAD Price: $43,340 / $56,599
City Fuel Economy: 11 miles per gallon
It’s Not Perfect: The Raptor is more than half a foot wider than a typical F-150. That doesn’t make parallel parking the Raptor in a downtown parking garage a task for the fainthearted.
Sales Stats: The Raptor is just one niche model in the vast F-Series range. The F-Series range happens to be the best-selling vehicle line in North America. 4.6% of all new vehicles sold in North America in the first eleven months of 2012 were F-Series pickups.
Viable Alternatives: The Mopar Ram Runner?
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited – Dodge Ram – BMW 328i
Ford F-150 SVT Raptor – Chevrolet Suburban –
Mercedes-Benz E350 4Matic Wagon – Porsche Boxster S –
Porsche Cayenne S – Land Rover Range Rover
