Leftlane joined the Texas Auto Writers Association at its annual Texas Truck Rodeo held last weekend at the Oak Ridge Motocross course in Alvord, Texas, where the redesigned Ford F-150 pickup was honored as the “Truck of Texas,” the Ford Flex was granted “Crossover of Texas” and the Ford Expedition King Ranch was bestowed as the “SUV of Texas” after two days of tough on- and off-road competition. After sweeping the overall vehicle awards, Ford also took home the coveted “Truck Line of Texas.”
More than 40 members of the Texas Auto Writers Association and almost 80 automakers’ public relations representatives gathered in Grapevine, Texas, at the Gaylord Texan resort prior to the event before embarking on two days of rigorous testing on a special-made course in rural Alvord. The Truck Rodeo is considered by manufacturers and journalists to be the most challenging and comprehensive evaluation of new trucks and SUVs.
Winners of the competition are heavily marketed as such by automakers throughout the country and especially in Texas, the largest truck market and second largest auto market in the United States.
Any and all automakers producing trucks, crossovers and SUVs were invited to enter their vehicles. With such open rules, those gathered ranged from the diminutive Jeep Patriot to the six-figure Range Rover Autobiography and everything in between. Each vehicle is evaluated in a variety of tasks and compared directly to its peers.
The most hotly contested class was the full-sized pickup award, which was especially competitive this year in light of two redesigned for 2009 entries, the Dodge Ram and Ford F-150.
The F-150 won over judges and TAWA members just as it won over our own Mark Elias just a few days before, though the redesigned Ram actually took class honors. Yet it was the F-150 that came out victorious overall by winning the prestigious top award: Truck of Texas.
Ford’s president of the Americas, Mark Fields, was in attendance and he said of the F-150’s overall victory, “This is high praise. Texas auto writers are the toughest truck critics because they know [trucks] first-hand and truly appreciate how core truck customers really use their pickups.”
Ford offered two F-150s for evaluation, an off-road package FX4 and a luxurious King Ranch edition. It’s possible that the King Ranch edition swayed the Texans in attendance with its interior covered in hides from the famed South Texas ranch.
The Dodge folks didn’t go home empty-handed, however. In an unexpected twist, the Ram took home the Full-Size Pickup class award – a separate prize from the overall Truck of Texas award.
“This is quite an honor,” said Mike Accavitti, director of marketing for Dodge. The automaker presented two Hemi-powered Rams for consideration: A value-packed crew-cab Lone Star Edition and an upmarket crew-cab Laramie.
The F-150 and Ram took honors over the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, as well as the San Antonio-built Toyota Tundra.
But the voting wasn’t just about utilitarian pickups. Ford nearly swept the additional classes, including Luxury Pickup (F-150 King Ranch), Full-Size Crossover (Ford Flex), Mid-Size Crossover (Mazda CX-9), Luxury SUV (Lincoln MKX), Mid-Size SUV (Ford Explorer) and Heavy Duty Pickup (Ford F-350 Super Duty Cabela’s Edition).
Ford also won the overall SUV of Texas with the Expedition King Ranch. The Ram won the Outstanding Feature award thanks to its innovative Ram Box storage system.
Preventing a sweep were the individual class winners, which included the Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTEC, Subaru Forester 2.5X, Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, GMC Yukon Hybrid, Toyota Tacoma DoubleCab 4×4 and Suzuki Grand Vitara XSport 4×4.
We’re sworn to secrecy on our votes, but needless to say the field was ultra-competitive this year.
Though trucks are important to the Texas Auto Writers Association – about 15 percent of all pickups are sold within the state thanks to wide open prairies and ranches – the group also holds a similar event for cars and minivans at the beginning of the year, the Spring Challenge. We’ll bring you live coverage from that event as the rest of the United States thaws out from winter. Until then, enjoy our photo gallery.
And the winners were….
Overall Winners:
Truck of Texas: 2009 Ford F-150
SUV of Texas: 2009 Ford Expedition King Ranch
Crossover of Texas: 2009 Ford Flex
Truck Line of Texas: Ford Motor Company
Individual Award Winners:
Outstanding Feature: Dodge Ram Box
Full-Size Pickup Truck: 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie 4×4
Mid-Size Pickup Truck: 2009 Toyota Tacoma DoubleCab 4×4
Luxury Pickup Truck: 2009 Ford F-150 King Ranch
Heavy Duty Pickup Truck: 2009 Ford F-350 Cabela’s Edition
Full-Size SUV: 2009 GMC Yukon Hybrid
Mid-Size SUV: 2009 Ford Explorer
Compact SUV: 2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara XSport
Full-Size Luxury SUV: 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid
Mid-Size Luxury SUV: 2009 Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTEC
Luxury Crossover: 2009 Lincoln MKX
Compact Crossover: 2009 Subaru Forester 2.5X
Mid-Size Crossover: 2009 Mazda CX-9
Full-Size Crossover: 2009 Ford Flex
Words and photos by Andrew Ganz.
10/21, 9:19 AM
posted by:
edgeguy
LOL. Not even Texas wants that retarded Hummer pickup.
10/21, 9:33 AM
posted by:
tyler_is_aero_tt
Texas is like a different world. About 5 out of 6 cars here are imports/
10/21, 9:35 AM
posted by:
pavlindrom
and the new dodge is better, IMHO
10/21, 9:44 AM
posted by:
Chris C.
Is there supposed to be some great revelation in this? Clearly, the Ford Motor Company dumps tons of money, time and support into this event. This is supported by the fact they gave an award of any kind to the Flex, a vehicle that is so far removed from any other mainstream vehicle and, not to mention, nothing more than another dull, Taurusesque people mover.
10/21, 9:52 AM
posted by:
Andrew
Chris C,
Let me clarify. The automakers are not allowed to sponsor the event in any way, shape or form. They can send as many PR people as they like to help educate reporters on their products, but Ford certainly had a smaller representation than either Chrysler or Toyota. The winners won based on their own merits, not because the automakers dump “tons of money, time and support” into the event.
10/21, 10:14 AM
posted by:
Lionwithoutpride
Chris C.-
For whatever it is worth, I like the Ford Flex. So you can add at least one person to the like column. And, from the looks of things in Texas, there are at least a few more folks that would put themselves in the like column.
10/21, 10:35 AM
posted by:
BMW M1
“Gaylord Texan resort”….lmao
10/21, 10:47 AM
posted by:
savedsol
Why is there a pic of a Subaru if this is about the F-150?
10/21, 11:29 AM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
If you thank about it the Ford F-series is the number one truck sold in Texas as a madder of fact, American truck brands out sell imports 7.6 out of 10.0 for retail and 9.7 out of 10.0 fleet sales, California is No. 2, were off by 20,000 truck sales… And this is off a NADA report most dealers get every month… And ya what’s up with the Pic?…
10/21, 12:18 PM
posted by:
A4
well yeah i think the subaru makes the most sense for this article… cough cough
10/21, 12:25 PM
posted by:
murderedout
Named truck of Texas, but it’s built in Dearborn, Michigan! Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra, built in Flint/ Pontiac Michigan. Dodge Ram, built in Warren, Michigan.
“Texas is like a different world. About 5 out of 6 cars here are imports/” – Tyler_ is- aero_tt
Michigan is like a different world. About 5 out of 6 cars here are domestic/
The new 2009 F-150 is nice, but the 2009 GMC Seirra Denali owns it in looks and power!
http://www.gmc.com/sierra/denali/index.jsp
10/21, 12:31 PM
posted by:
pzimet
This is perhaps one of the most pathetic stories I’ve ever read on LLN.
Shame on Texas.
Shame on Ford.
****ing idiots.
10/21, 12:53 PM
posted by:
Andrew
savedsol, I figured we’d get some flack on that one! But, really, how often do you see a longhorn Subaru Forester? We couldn’t pass that photo up…
pzimet, thanks for your input!
10/21, 4:25 PM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
Andrew..
Ya… the photo dose make the story….
10/21, 4:29 PM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
Texan’s are funny, look at the President…….
Tell me you don’t laugh every time you see him on TV…
Any one seen W. My bladder almost burst of how hard I laugh….LOL….
10/21, 6:19 PM
posted by:
Blakkarr
yarddog82abn,
Actually I get a cold chill of abject fear when I see “42″ (Douglas Adams must be turning in his grave”) on TV.
Anyway, Texas is almost a country unto itself. The love of trucks here almost trumps all good sense.