Ford's aluminum F-150 to cost more for repairs, insurer group says

Ford’s revolutionary aluminum-body F-150 pickup truck does well in most crash tests but is significantly more expensive to repair, according to an analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

That means buyers of the truck, the first to use the lighter-weight metal extensively, probably will pay more in out-of-pocket expenses after a crash and might ultimately have higher insurance premiums, the insurance trade group said.

The F-150 has been America’s bestselling vehicle for 33 consecutive years. The company has sold about 400,000, or about 4% of the autos sold so far this year.

The institute put the truck through a series of crash tests and found the vehicle’s performance varied, depending on the model.

The F-150 crew cab, which Ford calls the “SuperCrew,” posted “good” ratings for occupant protection in all five of the group's crash tests. But while doing well in most of the tests, the smaller and lighter extended cab, or “SuperCab,” earned only a marginal rating for occupant protection in a small overlap front crash.

Ford defended the truck’s safety record, noting that it earned the top National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash-test ratings in all configurations and is the only truck to have received that recognition from the government.

The automaker said it is addressing its poor performance in the small overlap front crash test, noting that the test was adopted as the truck was being designed.

Despite the small overlap test failure, the good ratings for the majority of the crash test demonstrate that aluminum trucks are just as safe as those built from steel, according to the insurance group.

“When people think of aluminum they think of a soda can,” said Russ Rader, a spokesman for IIHS, “but there’s no question that you can make an aluminum-bodied car or truck just as safe as a steel-bodied one.”

Still, while the aluminum truck might be safe, it is considerably more expensive to fix than a steel version, the tests found. Shops that are not trained to work with the truck parts will use other methods that take longer and could add to labor expenses, insurer group said.

However, vehicles from other manufacturers that use aluminum in auto bodies don’t have the same level of support and probably will be more expensive to fix than steel cars, he said.