Video: Up Close With the Refreshed 2024 Ford F-150

The new grill designs across the lineup, it's more of a coast to coast design, as Ford calls it, which basically just means it extends across the full width. Lower trim levels get new LED headlight designs. Higher trim levels get different C-clamp shaped LED lights. But that's really the extent of the visual changes. Most everything else that's new is either a new paint color, or new wheel design, or things like that. It's still a handsome truck. It's not broken. Ford didn't really need to go out of their way to make this look drastically different. Honestly, I think it's an improvement. I think they've done a really good job of differentiating the trim levels and making it look a bit more modern. Inside the 2024 F-150, the biggest news for most consumers will be the standardization of technology. 12-inch digital instrument panel is now standard across the lineup, as is the 12-inch touchscreen running SYNC four, not four A, which is the larger vertical screen. That's how we usually see it. SYNC four, great system. We loved it in our long-term F-150. Glad to see that you can even get it on the lower trim levels. Also, Ford is making BlueCruise more widely available. Otherwise, the interior layout is pretty much the same. Just like the exterior, new materials, new accent colors, things like that. But it was a good interior to begin with. I'm glad they're not doing too much to it. Also new for 2024 is an available Head Up Display with things like towing specific, off-road specific, even performance specific displays, as well as BlueCruise specific features. These updates really add to the available technology in the new F-150 and really take it to the next level. In terms of powertrain, Ford is eliminating the base 3.3-liter V Six for 2024. So now the base engine is the 2.7-liter Eco-boost V Six. Ford is also saying that they're going to double production of the PowerBoost hybrid. We owned one for a while. We had mixed feelings about it. It never really hit the ideal fuel economy numbers. But this is a PowerBoost. So you do get the standard 2.4 kilowatt generator in back. You can upgrade that to a 7.2. That's only available on the hybrid. It's a great feature if you're towing a trailer or trying to power a job site, a campsite, anything like that should be more fuel efficient than most of the gas engines. But again, we struggled to hit fuel efficiency numbers with it. When we own one, it'll be interesting to see where the EPA rates this for 2024, and whether customers can actually get that kind of mileage. Other news for 2024 is the elimination of the limited trim, which was the previous top luxury trim. Now it's Platinum Plus. You still get platinum along the hood here. And you still get a very, very lovely luxurious interior with basically all the bells and whistles. So this is the back of the 2024 F-150. And it looks a little strange, doesn't it? This is, at first glance, a somewhat normal tailgate. It's got a power up and down feature. But if you wanted to get access to these golf clubs, you either gotta reach around this corner or try to reach over this large tailgate. But if we fold it back up, this is what Ford calls the Pro Access tailgate. And all you have to do is push this button and it swings open. You get three positions of opening all the way up to 100 degrees. And then you can step all the way up to the bumper and reach right in and grab your stuff. It works with all sorts of bed covers and tunnel covers as well, according to Ford, which functionally, gives you a trunk for your pickup truck. Which is great when you don't want people who aren't you to access your stuff. And it gives you great access also to the new bed box that's in the bed over here. It's not a very big storage compartment, but it's a nice little bonus. And if you don't get the Pro Power Onboard generator, you get a second one on the other side. But the really nice thing about this is that it allows you to use the cab for carrying people, and the bed for carrying things, especially if you have a bed cover. Makes accessing things a whole lot easier. And there's another little trick that helps when you're towing as well. An advantage to the Pro Access tailgate is giving you bed access while you're towing. If you try to fold this tailgate down with this here, crash right into it, damage your tailgate. With the Pro Access tailgate, you just open it up, you go to the first position, it's about 37 degrees open, and then you have access to the bed. You can even just pull out, say, your cooler and you're ready to go. Now if you need to get farther into the bed, you have a couple things. There's a deeper bumper step here that you can step on if you're tall enough. There's a nice little handhold here. If you need more help getting access, there's a handy little step here. When you step, step, and you're in. So works great. It's a really neat feature. And the nice thing about it is when you have this, you still have a power up down tailgate as well. So you lose out on the fold out step gate that we've seen in other F-150s. It's available as well, but you do have this step. You do have the bumper step as well. So there's a bit of a trade off, but I think it's very much worth it. The Raptor gets its own set of updates as well, starting with this new Shelter green paint color. This is the high output V Six version, so it's still the 3.5-liter twin turbocharged Eco-boost V Six. Same horsepower and torque figures. That's gonna be more than enough for most of you. The bigger news is behind the rear tires, with the 37-inch tire package, you get the Fox dual live valve shock technology. It was previously a single valve. Now they've added a rebound valve for better body control, both off-roading and on the street. But the bigger news for us is something we don't quite know yet. And that has to do with the Raptor R, which is right over there. So the Raptor R, like the Raptor, gets this new grill design with the textured Ford badging. The Raptor R also gets this larger power dome and underneath the power dome is a 5.2-liter supercharged V Eight. That's not new. That's what the Raptor R had when it debuted. But what is new are the horsepower and torque figures. Ford is playing those close to the vest for now, but they are saying they're targeting both more than the previous 2023 Raptor R and best-in-class numbers, which would imply more than the Ram TRX. So more to come there. Other big news for the 2024 Raptor is this new modular front bumper, which includes things like an available mounting point for a dealer-installed light bar down here to help you with visibility when you're off-roading. Redesigned front tow hooks that are a bit more aggressive and supportive for when you have to do recoveries off-road. These side cutouts expose a lot more of the front tires, which gives it both a more aggressive appearance and helps you with off-roading by exposing those tires more to obstacles ahead of you. The new F-150 has a lot of smart and sensible updates to what was already a great truck. And we can't wait to put some of them to the test, like that Pro Access tailgate. For more on the 2024 Ford F-150, and everything else here at the 2023 Detroit Auto Show, you can find it at cars.com.