Letter From Our Editor
To our loyal followers:
Today we announced the Ford F-150 as Cars.com’s Best of 2021. Our annual awards program, in its 12th year, involves our Cars.com editors performing in-depth evaluations on more than 150 new or redesigned models throughout 2020 to come up with a short list of the most impressive vehicles on the market in six award categories. The popular Ford F-150 — the most-searched vehicle on Cars.com in 2020 — earned our Best Pickup Truck of 2021 award as well as our most coveted award: Best of 2021. Our Best Of award is based on standout improvements, refinements and — most important — innovations that put it miles ahead of the competition.
As is customary for our team, after concluding our assessments, we purchased the Best of 2021 vehicle, in this case the 2021 F-150 Limited SuperCrew hybrid, on Jan. 12, 2021, for a year of real-world testing to bring consumers along with us on the ownership journey. This Cars.com tradition is already showing value, revealing the other side of any product you choose to buy: the one you actually live with.
We have encountered some ghosts in the machine.
First and foremost, Cars.com’s editors are consumer advocates, delivering all the resources and information consumers need to make informed buying decisions. It is our responsibility to report on both our initial testing results as well as our more in-depth ownership experiences — and we have uncovered issues that need to be addressed for F-150 owners. Since taking ownership two months ago, we have received three malfunction warnings and the power steering assist failed. And as we’ve reported, Ford instituted a relatively small safety recall that includes the windshields of some 2021 as well as 2020 F-150 trucks, but not ours. In response to reports of premature rust on the vehicle, we too found some on our truck.
Here’s why the F-150 earned our Best Of award.
We were thoroughly impressed by critical updates in the 2021 Ford F-150 that put it over the edge as this year’s winner. These include an optional gas-electric hybrid powertrain that enables the pickup truck to drive in full electric mode at speeds up to 45 mph; optional advanced in-car technology and safety features such as Active Drive Assist, Pro Trailer Backup Assist and Trailer Reverse Guidance; a large and luxurious interior cabin that offers an optional flat table surface for onsite laptop work; and, most impressive of all, an innovative in-truck Pro Power Onboard generator system that no other vehicle can claim and has already proved its worth for owners during the recent winter storms in Texas.
Follow our ownership journey.
Our team prides itself on reviewing and evaluating each vehicle from the lens of a car buyer, and our honest and fair coverage will continue as we provide further evaluation on the Ford F-150. We invite you to join us on our journey of ownership as we share the ins and outs of one of America’s favorite trucks. We have reached out to Ford to get more answers. Please follow along on our dedicated Ford F-150 page where you can also sign up for email updates on Cars.com’s ownership journey throughout the year. And share with us your own ownership stories of the Ford F-150 on our Facebook page.
Thank you,
Jenni Newman
Editor-in-Chief