As we told you last night, Ford’s perennial best-seller, the F-150, got a significant update. One of the things that changed with this new 2024 F-150 was the front fascia, the grille, the lights, the indicators – you know, the whole face. But not just one face: there’s at least four distinctive and updated F-150 faces, and I’m sort of curious to know which ones you find most appealing. Having a choice of distinctive faces isn’t especially common on cars today. And when it was more common, it was usually done for devious badge-engineering reasons. But, here we are, in the Year of our Ford 2023, and there’s four F-150 faces. Let’s look at them:
So, we have the aggressive, FORD-yelling, Raptor face up top, covered in lights like an amber Las Vegas, bold and loud. Then, there’s the geometric angles of the Tremor, with simpler lights and an orange-bronze accent loop-bar in the middle. This one feels like fancy architecture to me.
Then we have the luxurious King Ranch, which really should be a new Dorito flavor, but in this context means luxury, so that’s what we get: chrome, slim, more refined grille bars, a divided grille like two geometric burger buns, and the whole thing bordered by alabaster white LED DRLs.
FInally, we have the base model face, which I actually think may be my personal favorite. It’s simple and straightforward, I like the grille mesh oblong pattern, and it all kind of reminds me of the ’80s F-150 face:
The way the indicators/DRLs bisect the headlamps is nice, too. It’s a good look, I think.
But! That’s just me! I want to know what you think, what face would you graft on your F-150, were you to F-150 an F-150. Let’s do a poll, why not:
I’m curious. Ford, if you use any of this for market research, you better hook us up with something good.
The cheap face is the best but I could live without the black plastic. Why can’t we have nice things?
tremor/XLT
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Raptor. wow that is ugly.
I like the grille of the one that has two doors and is not more than $45,000.
King Ranch for me, although I hate the way the LED headlights are glaring in my eyes even in the press photo.
As I said yesterday, I detest the base model grille. I’m not old enough to have nostalgia for 80s trucks and I think they’re kind of ugly (90s trucks all the way for me), and I’m pretty sure that mesh pattern is triggering my trypophobia. Looking at that grille is physically uncomfortable for me.
It’s funny, before even opening the article I was drawn to the STX face as it reminded me of the bullnose Fords from the mid 80’s. I see I wasn’t the only one who caught that vibe.
Second choice is the King Rach, though I would never buy that particular trim. I just dig how it’s relatively understated compared to the Tremor & Raptor.
None of them are terrible though, and are all better looking than any model Tundra.
Given that it’s Ford, there are even more grilles than this. Other people have linked them. And given that I am very much Not A Truck Guy I’m not the target market anyway but…
While the black grille surround looks good on the base model, I wonder if it might be better in body color or even chrome for the STX and XLT models. Reads kinda cheap, I’d be annoyed by it if I spent the extra cash on an XLT and it still looked mostly like the base model – it has always otherwise fit into a very specific “I want a NICE truck because I’m doing WELL but I don’t want a city boy FANCY truck” niche that a lot of farmers like to play in.
I know a lot of farmers, they would have a functionally fancy XLT and then make fun of anyone in a Platinum. They still want a bit of chrome and flash to show they definitely are buying nicer than an XL but aren’t pretentious about it.
I don’t like Ford having a big horizontal bar in the middle, I associate that look strongly with Chevrolet so it looks wrong on Ford. The main reason I didn’t vote for the Tremor.
The LED eyebrows on fancy models being disconnected from a vertical LED looks weird and half-assed. Like they’re gluing AliExpress LEDs haphazardly.
King Ranch for me. It’s powerful yet classy and restrained.
Option F: It’s the Lariat for me
Lariat Link
I like the tremor version the best, like JT said, feels like high design. Could be a timeless look for that special edition.
That being said, I have an ’86 f150 that i have been wanting to tastefully modify the front end of as part of a large scale modernization for that vehicle, and the xl/xlt front end would look good! It briefly crossed my mind yesterday how good these look, but didn’t really make the connection to my old truck’s generation until Torch photochopped it. Many years of trying to unsuccessfully render that “tombstone” grill or the recent cast of ford faces onto that Bullnose front clip have finally come to an end!
The XL/XLR totally inoffensive. It’s a solid choice.
I like that the Raptor swaps out the blue oval to spell out FORD, but dislike the gaudyness of the rest of it. I am surprised they didn’t spell it out across more of the trims like this.
The King Ranch/Tremor seem overwrought and tacky.
Tremor, but the base isn’t without its charm. I’m guessing at some point the base will be available painted or in chrome as well, as is tradition.
The STX face is truly excellent and there’s no way it isn’t an intentional nod to the 80’s trucks. King Ranch is a pretty close second for me, It’s clean and simple with a bit of that 90’s billet thing going on. Tremor is okay, I guess? Raptor is hideous, as one would expect.
I’d do a small tweak…..Tremor, but either chrome or black the orange center bar.
If you look on the Build and Price it seems the STX/XL/XLT are all slightly different from each other as well, giving 6 total options. The one being pictured is the STX.
XL
XLT
That being said, just like with the Bronco, the base model is the best looking.
Base face is good. King Ranch face is bad. The Tremor face is pretty decent. The Raptor face is aggressively meh.
I have spoken.
I went with the XLT grill, because it reminds me of the old Ford style grills. Also those are the only one’s where the headlights won’t blind me
Eh, I’m a sucker for the Raptor look, but they all look pretty good. They may be oversized for most users and dangerous to pedestrians, but they still have aesthetic…
The eternal dichotomy of pickups
All those snips are great representations of what my rear view mirror will look like come next year.
Raptor is borderline Dekotora. Base model looks like it could be from a 90s Econoline van.
I vote king Ranch.
I was all set to vote for the Tremor, but…tell us more about this grille shaped like a bat.
The truck Gotham deserves but not the one it needs!
Good to know you’re still keeping Austin weird. 😉
BAT CITY, BABAAAAYYYYYY
I like the XLT, but the Tremor is pretty cool too.
The brow/edge lights on the Raptor and King Ranch look like eBay aftermarket add-ons.