2021 Ford F-150 XLT Supercrew 4X4 First Test: Big Performance Doesn’t Come Cheap

ford f-150 Full Overview

In announcing our MotorTrend 2022 Truck of the Year, we observed that today’s trucks are far more than workhorses. They’re also commuter cars, family haulers, weekend toys, and luxury vehicles. It’s a trend at least 20 years in the making, but one that doesn’t make everyone happy. Indeed, some of you wrote to us and expressed your displeasure with this mission drift and argued for trucks to be treated like trucks again. That’s easier said than done, as it turns out. Take, for example, this 2021 Ford F-150 XLT Supercrew 4X4 we just tested.

This isn’t a blinged-out luxury truck; it’s an XLT with cloth seats, a column shifter, basic four-wheel drive, a bedliner, and a max-towing package. One step above the base model, this should be a work truck, yet it’s priced at $59,520 as tested. (The same truck would cost $62,325 in 2022.) How the heck did that happen?

What’s an XLT, Anyway?

A 2022 Ford F-150 XLT trim starts at a more reasonable $39,825 (banish the thought of a full-size truck starting for less than $30,000; those days are gone), but that only gets you a single cab, the base engine, and rear-wheel drive. Single cabs are old school, and every truck maker in the industry will tell you full four-door cabs like this F-150 Supercrew are bestsellers. That’s an extra $5,260 right there.

Four-wheel drive is a $3,425 upgrade, and getting a stouter engine adds at least $1,195. If you want to tow and haul heavy things on the job site or at the farm, you need power. This 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6 has plenty of both, but it costs $2,595. After destination and acquisition fees, you’re already nearing $50,000 without any other options.

The rest of the asking price is made up of both the necessary and the nice to have. The max-trailer-towing package is $1,995, and the spray-in bedliner is another $595. Pro Power Onboard 2.0 kW, handy on the jobsite and in the field, is $995. Now we’re at $54,000 for a work truck. The other $8,000 covers stuff you don’t need for work but is nice to have, like the big infotainment system, optional wheels, etc.

Towing

Yep, modern work trucks are expensive. The good news is you still get a lot of work for your money. We hitched this Ford F-150 XLT up to a high-profile two-horse trailer and found it to be the comfortable, stable towing platform we’ve come to expect from Ford. After returning the livestock, we filled the bed with a yard of hot, fresh mulch for the garden. Here again, the torquey twin-turbo V-6 made light work of the added weight, and the sizable payload and tongue-weight ratings meant the truck barely squatted.

A Pleasant Ride

More impressive, though, is how well the Ford F-150 XLT rides, either empty or loaded. With leaf springs capable of holding up 2,100 pounds of payload, you’d reasonably expect a stiff ride, but Ford’s engineers worked wonders. The F-150 is as pleasant and comfortable to drive while doing work as it is cruising into town for groceries.

Track Testing

It’ll get you down to the market quick, too. Unburdened, the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 hustled this 5,345-pound truck up to 60 mph in just 5.3 seconds and past the quarter-mile mark in 13.9 seconds at 99.9 mph.

Power is not a problem, and neither is stopping. The Ford F-150 XLT was consistent in our braking tests from 60 mph, achieving a best result of 126 feet, about average for a full-size pickup. Even better, the stops were drama-free, with little nosedive or wiggling around.

Handling tests were similarly uneventful. We discovered excellent composure for a pickup truck, with well-controlled body motions, good brakes, and strong traction. The 0.76-average lateral g it pulled on the skidpad and its 28.0-second figure-eight lap at 0.62-average g are on the right end of the full-size-truck class—and undersell how well the 2021 Ford F-150 XLT takes a corner without any weight loaded into it.

Safety

Opt for Ford’s $750 Co-Pilot360 Assist 2.0 suite of driver aids and included among all the safety stuff are adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assistance, which helps steer the vehicle and keep it in the center of the lane. Ford’s system, which takes some load off your mind on long highway slogs, is one of the better hands-on systems on the market.

Wrapping Up

The rest of the driving experience isn’t bad, either. The cloth seats are plenty comfortable and feature a pleasing contrasting color scheme. The column shifter frees up a ton of center-console bin space and allows you to use the flip-out tray table while the truck is moving. The rear seat could use a bit more thigh support and recline, if we’re being picky, but we like how much space it frees up when you fold it out of the way.

As mentioned earlier, our truck was fitted with the big infotainment screen, and it’s good to see how far Ford’s Sync system has come. This latest incarnation is more user friendly and intuitive, sports modern graphics, and has a handy split-screen mode that lets you use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto simultaneously with other built-in programs like the radio without having to change screens.

Simple fact is, unless you’re a fleet manager buying dozens of trucks from a commercial dealer, even work trucks are pricey these days. Yes, the convenience and dress-up options can run up the bill, but even the stuff you need to get the job done will dent your budget hard. The good news is, these trucks drive, tow, and haul better than any time in history.

As mentioned earlier, our truck was fitted with the big infotainment screen, and it’s good to see how far Ford’s Sync system has come. This latest iteration is more user friendly and intuitive, sports modern graphics, and has a handy split-screen mode that lets you use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto simultaneously with other built-in programs like the radio without having to change screens.

Simple fact is, unless you’re a fleet manager buying dozens of trucks from a commercial dealer, even work trucks are pricey these days. Yes, the convenience and dress-up options can run up the bill, but even the stuff you need to get the job done will dent your budget pretty hard, too. These trucks tow and haul more than any time in history, and they drive, tow, and haul better than ever. But that capability doesn’t come cheap.

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Keyword: 2021 Ford F-150 XLT Supercrew 4X4 First Test: Big Performance Doesn’t Come Cheap