Edmunds.com Editors Hit Aluminum 2015 Ford F-150 With Sledgehammer

[Westside Offroad Group]

Composite and not aluminum

sounds fancy

 

[Ditchplains1]

JustVettn,
This is another example of inexact science. Typical of the "Myth Busters".
To truly assess the situation, a steel quarter panel and an aluminum panel would need to be struck with the same force, as well as vector of impact. The resulting damage would then need to be assessed by several body shops. Replacement of the rear tail light would be the same in both IF necessary...in the video they struck the quarter panel twice 'because there was not enough damage from the single strike'!!!
With impacts of the exact same force in the same vector of impact only then can you speculate as to the costs.
I would bet that the costs would be much closer; only under much more stringent testing can one extrapolate fairly....
Eddie
ps the box, cab, hood, and quarter panels are aluminum...steel usage is largely in the frame, suspension, block etc.
pps Also the two body panels would have to have the same stampings ie a 2015 style quarter panel in both aluminum and one in steel...as the stampings from dissimilar years would again render the comparison invalid.
ppps In addition striking 100 steel panels and 100 aluminum panels under the same conditions sent to 100 different repair shops...now we're talking more about facts than opinions...

 

[Reptar]

Around here we call 'em work trucks. You wouldn't even think about fixing those kinds of things up.

Well it would make for a pretty ****** article if they dented the fender with a sledge hammer, then said "we aren't going to fix it because it's a work truck", and then just went on to hypothesize about repair costs.

I have a friend with a mint mustang except the aluminum hood is corroding bad and Ford won't fix it, wonder if this happens to the new F150.
http://www.carcomplaints.com/media/complaints/images/1efb3cc6-867a-1032-b743-4c3114d2dee3r.jpg

You do realize that the hood's on the F-150 have been aluminum since 1997 right? Just because a handful of people have issues here and there doesn't mean every single one rolling off the lot will.

what do you think your raptor hood is made of

Ummmm, composite....NOT aluminum lol. But as mentioned every other f150 from '97+ was aluminum, at least for the 97-03 & 04 heritage trucks, including Lightnings, Harley trucks, Expeditions, etc.

JustVettn,
This is another example of inexact science. Typical of the "Myth Busters".
To truly assess the situation, a steel quarter panel and an aluminum panel would need to be struck with the same force, as well as vector of impact. The resulting damage would then need to be assessed by several body shops. Replacement of the rear tail light would be the same in both IF necessary...in the video they struck the quarter panel twice 'because there was not enough damage from the single strike'!!!
With impacts of the exact same force in the same vector of impact only then can you speculate as to the costs.
I would bet that the costs would be much closer; only under much more stringent testing can one extrapolate fairly....
Eddie
ps the box, cab, hood, and quarter panels are aluminum...steel usage is largely in the frame, suspension, block etc.
pps Also the two body panels would have to have the same stampings ie a 2015 style quarter panel in both aluminum and one in steel...as the stampings from dissimilar years would again render the comparison invalid.
ppps In addition striking 100 steel panels and 100 aluminum panels under the same conditions sent to 100 different repair shops...now we're talking more about facts than opinions...

I agree they should have dented a 2014 or earlier bed and went in for repairs at the same dealer to get a more equal comparison. (while yes an exact same stamping would be even more scientific for comparison, lets be realistic, since there's no steel bed '15s it can't be done, but it's not invalid doing the comparison to a steel bed '14, it's way more realistic than comparing to thin air estimates).

They're estimating the steel repair costs to compare against real world aluminum repair costs. Not quite apples to apples, so it would have been nice to see the actual cost difference on the two.


Oh and the comment about other steel parts....blocks? The 6.2 and many other older engines are iron. The 2015 lineup of engines are all aluminum blocks.

 

[Ditchplains1]

Reptar,
Points taken. Since we have composite hoods, and quarter panels, and the 2017 Raptor appears to also it's a non issue; except for the cab in the 2017. I realize the blocks were Iron...just thinking ferrous metals...sorry.
Eddie

 

[justvettn]

Quarter panels refers to the rear panels on a car, so I assume you meant fenders. Also box sides on current Raptor are sheet metal, not sure what the 2017 Raptor will have, 2017 motor is supposed to be an aluminum block.

 

[9599svt]

I know it wouldn't give an exact cost differance to steel but they should have hit a chevy and ram in the exact places and seen what it cost to repair. That would atleast give a cost comparison to the other makers. Maybe it costs more to repair but is more robust. I was surprissed that it didn't punch a hole right through it since it didn't bend in very far.

 

[Chris's FX4]

 

[ZaneMasterX]

So the edmunds guys got screwed and completely lied to about the costs? Sounds about right for a body shop.

 

[skyscraper]

As pointed out earlier in this thread, that Edmunds test was very half-assed and hardly accurate on a large scale of reference. They sure did get some publicity for it though.

 

[Chris's FX4]

Chevy disses aluminum Ford F-150 as only 'nice update'