New Ford F-150 Earns ‘Top Safety Pick’ as Ford Extends Industry Lead in Safety Ratings
When they say “Built Ford Tough” they aren’t kidding.
The new 2009 Ford F-150 is the latest Ford vehicle to earn the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s “Top Safety Pick” award. With the award, Ford Motor Company, including Volvo, adds to its leading number of 16 IIHS “Top Safety Pick” ratings, further separating itself from Honda’s second place tally of 13. IIHS awarded the F-150 its highest rating for front and side impact tests and in evaluations of seats and head restraints.
Ford engineered the new F-150 to also earn top ratings in the U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tests to be conducted later this year. Ford has more IIHS Top Safety Picks and government five-star safety-rated vehicles than any other automaker.
The new F-150 also has been recognized as the one and only “Truck of Texas” by the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) – the sixth consecutive year a Ford truck has won top honors – as well as PickupTrucks.com’s Best Overall Half-Ton Pickup.
The Toughest Truck
The F-150’s legendary toughness contributes not only to its durability and capability but its safety as well. The 2009 F-150 has an all-new hydroformed steel body structure – including industry-first use of tubular ultra-high-strength lighter weight steel that offers top performance and contributes to the F-150’s unsurpassed fuel economy in the full-size pickup truck segment.
Also new in the F-150 this year is Ford’s standard Safety Canopy® side-curtain air bag rollover protection system, which helps protect front and rear outboard passengers in both rollovers and side-impact crashes. It is designed to stay inflated for several seconds, as rollover crashes often last longer than side-impact crashes. Added to this is a Ford-first – the new “K-bag,” a front seat dual-chamber side air bag named for its unique shape, which is designed to help protect the rib cage from excessive crash forces during a side impact.
Another standard safety enhancement is a state-of-the-art passenger seat sensor that specifies the timing and type of air-bag deployment based on the weight of the occupant. Additional sensors in the vehicle – monitoring roll stability control and rollover air bag deployment – have been integrated into one unit, increasing the sensitivity and accuracy of the system.
Stability and Towing Control
The F-150’s standard offering of Ford’s exclusive AdvanceTrac® with RSC® (Roll Stability Control) also met a newer requirement that vehicles must offer electronic stability control to earn IIHS’s top rating. The system, using a gyroscopic sensor, detects and measures over-steer, roll and yaw.
Working in conjunction with AdvanceTrac is Trailer Sway Control, which determines from the yaw motion of the truck if the trailer is swaying and takes measures to help bring it under control. Additional towing-related driver-aid features include Integrated Trailer Brake Controller, Tow Haul Mode and Reverse Camera System.
Tags: Built Ford Touch, F-150, Ford, IIHS Top Safety Pick, Mord Motor Company
