August is here, and with it, the F-150 is getting closer to its public launch. You can tell the momentum is picking up as more publicity and news hits the wire. The biggest news, however, just came from Ford: the price. From the LA Times:
Ford has announced pricing on its groundbreaking new aluminum F-150 truck, due to reach dealers later this year. Though cheaper models will see only a modest increase in price over current, non-aluminum models, the price of Ford’s high-end editions will jump by more than $3,000.
The new 2015 F-150 XL will start at $26,615, while the XLT will start at $31,890. That’s a gain of $400 for each version, which together make up about 70% of all F-150 sales. The price of the midlevel Lariat is up $900 to $39,880, which includes a fully digital instrument panel and blind-spot monitoring.
At the high end of the F-150 lineup are the King Ranch and Platinum models. The 2015 King Ranch edition is up $3,615 to $49,460. The 2015 Platinum model will start at $52,155, an increase of $3,055.
Many observers expected a modest increase due to new manufacturing and materials, and there’s certainly some variation here. However, keep fuel savings in mind when you look at the big picture (official MPG hasn’t been released yet but is expected to be higher than 2014’s 17/23).