Join Motor Trend editor-in-chief Edward Loh as he presents the 2012 Motor Trend Truck of the Year award to Ford for the 2012 award-winning Ford F-150.
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00:00 (audience applauding)
00:03 - Well, thanks for joining us during your lunch hour,
00:09 but I think you'll really find this,
00:12 I think, a really special event.
00:14 And it's so special, I just wanna also recognize
00:17 we have Edsel Ford in the house.
00:20 Edsels are, obviously, we all know who Edsel is.
00:22 Edsel, where's Edsel?
00:24 Oh, there he is, right here.
00:26 (audience applauding)
00:27 Thanks for coming.
00:29 (audience applauding)
00:31 You know, it's been a really amazing journey this year
00:35 as we continue to really transform the company
00:38 with our One Ford plan.
00:40 And it all started at the beginning of this year,
00:42 as you know, when we introduced our new focus
00:45 around the world.
00:47 Fast forward to last month, we were in the LA Auto Show.
00:51 Hopefully, you've all had a chance to see
00:53 that absolutely beautiful new Escape
00:56 that's gonna be sold globally around the world.
00:59 And then just last week, hopefully you caught on the news,
01:02 we started talking about our global commercial van,
01:07 the Transit, that's gonna be produced both here
01:11 and in Europe starting in 2013.
01:14 And if that wasn't enough, we have a very, very special
01:18 Detroit Auto Show, or the North American International
01:21 Auto Show coming up, as you know, the beginning of January.
01:25 And we are gonna be proud to introduce
01:27 our new global midsize sedan, the Next Generation Fusion.
01:32 So we've made a lot of progress together,
01:35 working together over the past year.
01:37 But today, we're here to celebrate one of the products
01:43 that's almost one of the most iconic products
01:47 associated with Ford.
01:50 And I'm talking about the F-150.
01:53 And if you look at this year overall on F-Series,
01:56 guess what, we've sold over 500,000 so far this year.
02:01 And when we close the books on this year
02:05 in another couple of weeks, together,
02:08 we will have achieved 35 years of the best-selling truck
02:13 in the entire planet.
02:14 What do you think about that?
02:16 (audience applauding)
02:19 (audience cheering)
02:22 That is just an amazing, amazing accomplishment
02:28 driven by everybody on the Ford team.
02:29 And of course, we have our customers
02:31 to thank the most for that.
02:32 But it's been a really, really amazing year
02:35 for the F-Series because this was the first year
02:38 we will have sold over 100,000 F-150s
02:43 with the EcoBoost engine, which is the vehicle
02:45 you see behind me there.
02:46 And remember, last year, it was zero.
02:49 So customers are really, really seeing
02:51 not only the value, but the benefit
02:55 of our EcoBoost engines.
02:58 And before we kind of pop the cork
03:02 on 35 years of truck leadership,
03:06 we wanna celebrate another very special event today.
03:09 So with that, I would like to introduce Ed Lowe,
03:13 who is the new Editor-in-Chief of Motor Trend Magazine.
03:18 Ed.
03:19 (audience applauding)
03:22 - Thank you, Mark.
03:23 - Thanks.
03:24 - Now, if you could just give me a second here,
03:28 I'm finishing up a very important tweet
03:30 I need to send out right now.
03:33 And that is that it is my great pleasure
03:35 to announce that Motor Trend's 2012 Truck of the Year
03:38 is the Ford F-150.
03:40 (audience applauding)
03:43 So now that you and the rest of the world knows
04:00 that the F-150s won one of our most prestigious awards,
04:04 perhaps you're curious as to why.
04:06 Well, the first thing you need to understand
04:08 is that our Truck of the Year program
04:09 is not a comparison test.
04:11 We had four contending vehicles this year,
04:13 including the F-150,
04:15 and each was compared against our six key criteria,
04:19 advancement in design, engineering excellence,
04:22 performance of intended function,
04:24 value, safety, and efficiency.
04:28 And in each one of these categories,
04:29 the F-150 made a very compelling case.
04:32 But it was with advanced technology like EcoBoost
04:35 that the F-150 truly stood out.
04:38 Now, our F-150 EcoBoost had the 3.5 liter
04:42 twin turbo gas direct injection engine
04:44 that truly did deliver V8 performance.
04:46 And it didn't matter whether the truck bed was empty
04:49 or had 1,200 pounds of payload,
04:51 or if the truck was towing an 8,700 pound trailer.
04:54 And that made a really strong engineering excellence point
04:58 with our judges.
04:59 But you know what?
05:00 It also made an efficiency statement as well.
05:02 Because with an EPA estimated 16 mile per gallon city
05:05 and 22 mile per gallon highway,
05:08 the F-150 EcoBoost truly does deliver V8 performance
05:11 with V6 fuel economy.
05:12 Now, sure, there is a small premium for the EcoBoost.
05:16 And if value's your thing,
05:17 well, F-150 has you covered as well
05:19 with the 3.7 liter naturally aspirated V6.
05:22 And if you absolutely have to have a V8,
05:25 F-150 has two, the five liter
05:27 and the 411 horsepower 6.2 liter V8
05:31 that's in one of my personal favorite vehicles,
05:33 the F-150 Raptor.
05:35 I had the opportunity to drive one here from the airport.
05:38 The super crew hadn't been in it before.
05:40 And you know what?
05:41 I'm seriously considering driving it all the way back
05:43 with me to Los Angeles.
05:44 (audience laughing)
05:45 Seriously, I mean, I can go as the crow flies.
05:47 I got a better ride, more leg room,
05:50 and just as much free food as on my flight over here.
05:53 (audience laughing)
05:55 But seriously, the F-150 is a great looking truck.
05:59 When it comes to design, it's always been handsome.
06:02 It's a continually evolved vehicle.
06:04 We know that it's great.
06:06 It's got excellent packaging efficiency.
06:08 And that's what our judges were really most impressed with.
06:10 Not just the outside, but what's going on on the inside.
06:13 It's things like the premium leather,
06:15 the soft touch materials,
06:16 that great full color multi-information display
06:19 between the gauge clusters.
06:20 And of course, high technology like sync and my Ford Touch.
06:24 To find these kinds of really luxury touches
06:27 in what's a serious work truck,
06:29 what it really did, it really blew our judges' minds.
06:32 And that's truly the bottom line.
06:33 Is that when it comes to performance of intended function,
06:37 the F-150 simply excels at being, well, a truck.
06:41 You know, no matter what task we threw at it,
06:43 it mastered them all.
06:44 It aced our instrumented testing at the proving grounds,
06:47 and it really swayed opinions
06:49 out on the real world road loops.
06:51 In fact, most of our judges preferred
06:53 the way the F-150 drove and handled
06:56 when it was carrying payload or towing the trailer.
06:59 It seemed no matter what we threw at it,
07:02 it just got better and better.
07:04 So at this point, I'd like to invite Derek Kuzak,
07:07 Group Vice President for Global Product Development up here.
07:10 (audience applauding)
07:13 Derek, on behalf of my team at Motor Trend,
07:17 I'd like to congratulate you and your F-150 team
07:19 for building Motor Trend's 2012 Truck of the Year.
07:22 Congratulations.
07:23 (audience applauding)
07:31 - So Ed, on behalf of the entire Ford Motor Company team,
07:34 I'd like to thank you and the Motor Trend staff
07:36 for really providing us this really great honor.
07:39 And it really is important to us at Ford,
07:42 and also important to our customers.
07:44 And I was gonna talk a bit about the truck,
07:46 but you said everything that I could possibly say, Ed.
07:49 And you said it better than I could say.
07:51 In fact, I wanna sign you for our marketing team.
07:53 (audience laughing)
07:54 Having said that, though,
07:55 just a bit of perspective on this.
07:57 It was almost three years ago to today
08:00 when we were also receiving the Motor Trend
08:02 Truck of the Year Award from Motor Trend with the F-150.
08:07 And as we were receiving that award,
08:09 all of us knew that we were already working on
08:11 the truck that you see behind us today.
08:14 We were working on that great set of powertrain upgrades
08:17 and new powertrains that Ed took you through,
08:20 the feature content in the interior,
08:22 and kept tuning the design.
08:24 So it really is evidence of our strategy
08:27 of continuous improvement and really
08:29 big changes in our vehicles to make a statement
08:32 around design, fuel economy, interior comfort,
08:35 and convenience.
08:36 And winning the Motor Trend Truck of the Year,
08:38 first introduction, and then with the upgrade,
08:41 makes a real endorsement of our product strategy.
08:44 So thanks very much for that, Ed, thanks.
08:46 Now we all know that delivering a great vehicle
08:49 is only done by a great team.
08:51 And within Ford, that's an extended team
08:53 across our engine plant, our truck plants,
08:56 and across all of product development,
08:58 purchasing, finance, marketing.
09:00 And I'm really pleased today to have a lot
09:02 of the F-150 team members here with us.
09:05 And I'd like to have just a select few representatives
09:08 actually join us up on stage.
09:10 So I'm just gonna call out the names,
09:12 hold your applause until we get 'em all up on stage
09:14 if that's okay.
09:15 So we'll start first with Phil Colorino,
09:18 Eric Keene, and Jackie DeMarco,
09:20 who represent the program leadership team.
09:24 We next have Craig Erzin from purchasing.
09:27 Followed by Phil Fabian, Mark Harrison,
09:31 and Jim Majikowski, all from our powertrain
09:34 and engine engineering team.
09:36 Frank Garnau and Jeff Stoltz, who helped lead the launch.
09:40 From marketing, Raj Sarkar, Doug Scott, Mark Gruber,
09:45 from our great marketing team.
09:47 From vehicle engineering, Jeff Lewis, Don Pachecki.
09:50 From the new model launch team, Don Piger.
09:54 And then Jeff Carrier and Dan Klebe
09:57 from Dearborn Truck Plant.
09:59 And finally, Jim Pomerich, representing finance.
10:02 Welcome aboard team, thank you.
10:04 (audience applauding)
10:07 And let me invite Mark up back to the stage.
10:17 - All right, so what about this team, huh?
10:20 (audience applauding)
10:22 Good job, guys.
10:23 That'll, congratulations.
10:26 Great job.
10:27 Fantastic.
10:30 A lot of guys, gals to thank here.
10:32 Fantastic, great job.
10:35 Okay, so, Ed, thanks so much again.
10:42 You know, this team had a big part to play in it.
10:46 All of you had a big part to play in it.
10:48 But also, we have the great men and women
10:52 working at our plants in Dearborn Truck,
10:55 Kansas City Truck, the engine plants,
10:58 like in Cleveland and in Romeo,
11:00 that put the great power plants in this vehicle.
11:03 So we have a video from two of the plant managers
11:07 that also want to say a few things.
11:09 So if we can roll the video.
11:10 - Well, I think the men and women
11:15 at Kansas City Assembly Plant,
11:16 our customers and our employees,
11:18 they're the real champions of what we do here.
11:22 And we're just really grateful.
11:25 Everyone out there wants to come in
11:26 and do the best they can possibly do each day.
11:28 I know that it's always good to be recognized
11:32 for your hard work.
11:33 - People make up the Dearborn Truck Plant
11:37 as a very diverse group of people
11:39 that come from different plants all around the country.
11:41 It's truly a diverse group that works hard,
11:44 is very dedicated to quality
11:45 and the success of the Ford Motor Company.
11:47 - And I believe our people capitalize on that diversity
11:52 and challenge each other to continue
11:54 with the quality improvements
11:55 and the labors of their hard work.
11:58 - All right, they really are excited.
12:00 I want you to know that.
12:02 (audience laughing)
12:03 (laughing)
12:05 I mean, is this a great Christmas present
12:12 to all of us and our customers?
12:14 (laughing)
12:16 Now we got one more person
12:21 who wants to send us all a message.
12:24 So why don't we roll that last video?
12:26 - I'm always proud to be a Ford truck man.
12:31 But seeing the F-150 win Motor Trends Truck of the Year,
12:34 well, that puts a big smile on my face.
12:36 Congratulations to the entire Ford truck team
12:38 and the hardworking folks in Dearborn,
12:40 Kansas City, Cleveland, and Romeo.
12:43 Red Solo Cup, I lift you up.
12:47 Let's have a party.
12:49 Salute.
12:51 (audience applauding)
12:54 - Now we actually didn't ask Toby
13:02 what actually was in that cup.
13:03 (audience laughing)
13:05 But listen, thank you all for coming.
13:07 What we'd like to do now is all the members
13:09 of the truck team, if you can come up,
13:11 we'll take a really big group shot.
13:14 And for everybody else, have a great holiday.
13:17 You deserve to rest up and relish this award.
13:20 So thank you very much.
13:22 (audience applauding)
13:25 (audience applauding)