let’s look at these criticisms 1x1
Drive modes: I fully get this criticism and agree with it. Normal mode is to “economy” oriented and literally fights you on the street. There need to be something in between normal mode, which should be ‘economy’ mode, and sport mode. Some have reported using tow/haul mode but I believe that locks out 8-10th gear also
Both my ’09 Ducati and 14 Kaw have drive modes that you can customize to your liking, including the level of traction control interference or off entirely, so it’s not like the tech is that hard to implement. If Ducati can do it, anyone can. Most bike manufacturers make more of a single model of bikes than Ducati churns out in total.
I’ve heard a lot of “EPA mandated” - bikes have to go through it too. The drive modes aren’t as convenient as Ford would have us think. Gone are the days when you simply turned off the pavement, yanked the lever into 4h and hit the gas. Now it’s stop, figure out the terrain, decide what mode to select, wait for the transfer case to catch up, then go. I know it’s all gadgety, but it’s far from convenient. And then there’s the “revert to normal mode at start up” bull$hit. Neither of my gadgety super bikes did this, and my truck shouldn’t either. I know there’s probably some Ford engineer whining about some knucklehead leaving the truck in rock crawl / starbucks mode, but come on, this could be way better.
Normal would not suck as bad if was a more aggressive shift pattern and less lazy throttle and I seriously doubt we’d lose any economy over those changes.
I think sport and the rest of the drive modes we have present a choice of either adapting to the vehicle or not liking it. Drive modes not fully suiting your needs is a legit complaint, it’s not a 100% match for probably a lot more people on here than care to admit. How hard would it be for Ford to give us a Raptor app, and let us make some subtle parameter changes like drive mode default, throttle delay in various modes and some of the other parameters like shock valving - maybe even an anti-dive for panic stops, etc. The Mustang GT performance pack has some track apps (that I’ve not even seen) but give a little leeway here and it would go a long way toward taming these criticisms.
I think OP has unrealistic expectations of the suspension and the complaint seems to center around handling manners for the ride not at speed. The adage ‘hit it faster and it’ll smooth out’ comes to mind. There’s no free lunch with suspension, no matter what the ride. You want luxury? buy a luxo-barge. It will have a smooth, composed ride, but you won’t be winning any autocross or track events. You want to win the auto-cross, you give up the luxury ride. You want to have a high speed off road oriented suspension, low speed ride is compromised. it’s true on cars, bikes and trucks. The truck floats to some extent, and can be unsettled by certain pavement conditions, but this is true of any live axle vehicle, and any of the current manufacturer’s off road oriented trucks with possibly one exception in the car world - Subaru. Within it’s limits of about 8-9 inches of travel and unloaded, they are capable of some pretty impressive stuff off road - right up to the point that they get stuck, but their ride quality is pretty settled. Off road bikes that you see on the street have the same issues; floaty, un-poised suspension that literally feels disconnected from the pavement. but put in an off road, gonzo terrain conditions similar to what the Raptor excels at and it handles it as expected and you have a lot more confidence in it in that environment.
So I think the Raptor suspension ‘complaints’ here are thinking the grass may be greener somewhere else. It’s not.
The tried and true complaint about the EcoBoost. You either like it or you don’t. ‘such a reputation’ look at the production numbers on this thing. OP said this is the biggest complaint, but typed twice as much about drive modes. I drive regularly in high 90’s to low 100’s and not had a problem. and the oil changes are messy. ok. I think others have made similar complaints and made suggestions on FRF as to how they handled it.
hey, if you miss the old truck you may have let it go too soon. 3 years is a pretty short turnaround, I’m at 2.5 years on my 2017 Rap. I feel like we’re a pretty good driver to vehicle match. Nothing’s perfect, I’d change things on the Raptor if it were up to me but not a whole lot.
