Our feet are safe in the Ford F-150. That's right. Ford's F-150 is the safest pickup truck on the road today, based on the latest Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rating.
Where other vehicles are likely to cause leg, ankle and foot injuries during specific kinds of front-end collisions, Ford's supercab is the only one on the street that doesn't. However, the Ford F-150 had had its share of problems in the past.
Nonetheless, the F-150 model has improved from a "marginal" standing in 2015 to a "good" standing this year. Out of the seven vehicles tested by the IIHS, it was the only one to receive a "good" rating.
"We commend Ford for taking last year's test results to heart and upgrading protection for the SuperCab occupants in small overlap crashes," says Raul Arbelaez, vice president of the IIHS Vehicle Research Center. "Ford is leading the way among large pickup manufacturers when it comes to protecting people in a range of crashes."
Of the seven full-size pickup trucks tested by the IIHS, three others received' an "acceptable" rating: the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, the GMC Sierra 1500 and the Toyota Tundra. All of these vehicles feature double cab configurations, but in crew cab form, they actually tumbled to a lower to a "Marginal" rating.
The worst performer in the group, however, was the Ram 1500 in Quad Cab and Crew Cab configurations. Even if it was the oldest vehicle to be tested, it still received poor marks for its structure and lower leg and foot injury protection. The Ram 1500 received the lowest rating of all with a "Poor" score.
The toughest test created by the IIHS that has long troubled car makers is what is known as the small overlap crash test. This test simulates a car or truck heading straight into a narrow object like a pole on just one side of the front of the vehicle. Such collisions on the front corner of the car have challenged automakers to re-engineer the front of vehicles to better absorb both center and off-center impacts.
That's exactly what Ford has done for the newer F-150. The automaker added wheelblockers, nylon hinge pillar reinforcements and rocker cab reinforcements that help in this particular crash scenario. As a result, it's the IIHS' Top Safety Pick.
