• Year: 2006
• Make: Ford
• Model: F-150
• Trim: King Ranch
• Body style: Supercrew 4X4
• Mileage: 71180
• Engine: 8 Cyl. 5.4
• Trans: Automatic with Overdrive
• Exterior Color: T5
• Interior Color: Castano Brown/Tan
• Stock: 0F16277B
• VIN: 1FTPW14V16KD89950

Practical considerations are a big part of the design, and some of this can be easily seen. Every bed, no matter which length or style, is more than 22 inches deep, for a generous margin when hauling larger cargoes. All models, including the regular cab, have four opening doors on the body with storage room and/or seats behind the front seat. The SuperCab (extended cab) doors are larger than the vestigial doors on the standard cab, while, as mentioned, the SuperCrew has four full-size doors.

Six distinctly different trucks.

The Ford F-150 delivers a strong combination of style, interior comfort, performance, ride and handling. With six major trim variants and a choice of drivetrains and body styles, there's an F-150 for every type of pickup owner.

NewCarTestDrive.com correspondent Jim McCraw reported from Dearborn, Michigan, with Mitch McCullough reporting from Los Angeles.

The Ford F-150 offers a ride that's smooth and firm, with a minimum of body roll in corners, and a nice, plush ride over cobbled pavement, rutted dirt roads, and freeway slabs. We found this to be true in all the models we drove. Among them: an XLT SuperCab 4WD, a Lariat SuperCab 2WD Styleside with a 6.5-foot bed, an XL with a standard cab, and an FX4 SuperCrew. We were delighted by the ride of the FX4. It seems smoother than most off-road pickups. It offered a firm but comfortable ride around Los Angeles even with no weight in the bed to pre-load the rear suspension.

The power rack-and-pinion steering in the F-150 is exemplary. It's responsive, without hesitation or delay, and without being darty or overly quick or nervous. The truck tracks like a laser beam, turns in quickly, and recovers quickly even with no load in the bed.

The F-150's excellent ride and handling are benefits of a frame that's fully boxed with hydroformed front rails. The seven-crossmember skeleton is stronger, stiffer and heavier than any previous Ford pickup frame. The current frame is nine times more resistant to twisting and 50 percent more resistant to bending than the C-channel frame used up through 2003.

The front suspension is a double-wishbone setup for both 2WD and 4WD models. The rear suspension has outboard shock absorbers to control rear-end motions better in quick maneuvers. The outboard shock position provides better control on washboard surfaces, reducing the tendency to skate around in bumpy corners. The rear leaf springs are three inches wide. Liquid-filled motor mounts and a long list of other measures keep vibration and noise to a bare minimum.

Braking is smooth and responsive. They start slowing the truck just a little way into the pedal travel, and the more you push the pedal, the more acute the braking becomes; the absence of dead space in the pedal travel is a welcome relief from typical truck practice. All F-150s come with four-wheel vented disc brakes and ABS.

We found the big 5.4-liter V8 smooth and quiet. Rated at 300 horsepower and 365 pound-feet of torque, it delivers quick acceleration, although it doesn't seem as responsive as the 5.6-liter V8 in the Nissan Titan. The F-150's 5.4-liter V8 is part of Ford's Triton engine series, and features a single overhead camshaft per cylinder bank, three valves per cylinder, and variable valve timing. EPA estimates for a 5.4-liter F-150 with 2WD are 15/19 mpg City/Highway. A flexible-fuel (gasoline/ethanol) version of the 5.4 is also available for the 2006 model year. The high-capacity 4R75E four-speed automatic transmission that comes with the 5.4 is smooth and responsive, downshifting quickly and crisply when you punch it, and shifting almost seamlessly when cruising.

The 4.6-liter Triton V8 also features aluminum overhead-cam heads, but with a more conventional two valves per cylinder. Rated at 231 horsepower and 293 pound-feet of torque, it offers a broad torque band, with 90 percent of its peak torque available at just 2000 rpm for strong towing performance and solid acceleration when hauling heavy loads. The 4.6-liter is also rated 15/19 mpg.

The 4.2-liter V6 is an attractive option for work trucks. It's a nice, smooth engine of the traditional pushrod-overhead-valve kind, and we liked the XL model we drove with it, though performance is sluggish by modern standards. The V6 is rated at 202 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. A V6 2WD automatic rates 16/20 mpg; with a five-speed manual transmission, city mileage actually drops to 15 mpg.

The Harley-Davidson edition comes with a suspension biased further toward precision handling. The 5.4-liter V8 comes with a unique exhaust tuned for more hot-rod rumble. The available all-wheel-drive (AWD) system is electronically controlled and continuously monitors throttle position and wheel speeds to determine how much power to shift from the rear wheels to the front.

The Ford F-150 features six distinctly different interiors, and your take on each will vary according to how you think your pickup should be outfitted and how much you want to spend. The basic XL is surprisingly nice. At the other end of the spectrum is the King Ranch, which evokes images of Texas and cowboys. We love the King Ranch, but it's not for everyone.

We found the XLT's front bench seats attractive, but they are flat and lack support. The front bench is split three ways. The center section flips down to reveal a center console with storage and cup holders. The console is flat, unlike GM's, so you can put a clipboard on top of it and it won't immediately slide off.

The FX4's optional captain's chairs were much more comfortable, offering decent support for the hips and back. They also looked great, trimmed in black leather with light gray stitching. Adjusting the power seats may be a little awkward for drivers with big arms, however, because the clearance between the door armrest and the seat is a little tight. Rake adjustment on the power driver's seat is manual, and raking it forward can be a bit awkward. The center console between the captain's chairs is deep, holds a lot of stuff, and features a pair of big, solid cup holders. The floor shifter for the automatic transmission works very well.

Radio and HVAC (heater) controls are plain but straightforward and easy to operate. Delayed accessory power means you can turn off the ignition, remove the key, and continue to operate the power windows and run the radio until you open the door.

The Lariat has one of the classiest, quietest, most completely equipped pickup truck interiors we have spent time in. Lariat comes with every known amenity. In Lariat trim, an F-150 rivals luxury cars in terms of design, materials and completeness, with beautiful, rich wood trim, both shiny and matte metallic finishes on major panels, and a lovely three-pod instrument panel behind the multi-function steering wheel.

At every level, attention to detail is obvious. Giant mirrors afford an excellent view rearward. There's a hook for your dry cleaning. Optional rear park-assist helps greatly when parallel parking one of these big rigs. Its alarm beeps ever more rapidly as you back toward something and it even turns down the radio to make sure you hear its warning. A set of overhead storage bins is available that snap into rails; Ford offers five different sets of these bins, and the aftermarket is making additional versions with overhead entertainment systems and other specialty items built in. One of our few gripes is that the clear plastic over the instrument panel is too reflective in bright sunlight, making the instruments hard to read. Everything else inside functions very well and looks beautiful.

The SuperCrew features a roomy back seat where adults should find comfortable and convenient accommodations. The big difference in the back seats between SuperCrew and SuperCab models is rear legroom: 39.0 inches for SuperCrew, 32.7 inches for SuperCab. The rear seat bottom flips up for carrying cargo behind the front seats.

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