The Ford F-150 is the most popular car in America, but it’s by no means perfect. Although MotorTrend praised the F-150 diesel in terms of its fuel economy and comfort, it also had some scathing critiques about it. Here are the two things that MotorTrend didn’t like about the F-150 diesel.

Towing and hauling

One of the main reasons why Americans will buy a truck over an SUV or a sedan is because a truck can carry and haul a lot of goods. If a truck isn’t great at those things, then there’s no practical reason why someone would buy it over a minivan or another car body type. Unfortunately for Ford though, this critical area is where the F-150 diesel didn’t perform well at, according to MotorTrend.

Despite being equipped with a 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel engine that pumps out 250-hp and 440 lb-ft of torque, the F-150 that MotorTrend tested just wasn’t good at towing things. Ford states that this diesel F-150 can handle a payload of over 2,000 in its truck bed and it can tow over 11,000 lb. The problem is, it doesn’t really handle those high payloads too well, according to MotorTrend.

MotorTrend tested the performance of the F-150 diesel while it was hauling a load and it simply was outperformed by its competition. According to MotorTrend, it took a full 22 seconds for the F-150 diesel, when it was hauling something, to hit 60 mph. This was over 4 seconds slower than the next slowest truck that MotorTrend tested.

The Ram 1500, which was one of the main competitors to the Ford F-150, couldn’t technically tow as much weight as the F-150 could. However, according to MotorTrend, it felt strong when it was towing cargo, and the Ram 1500 didn’t have as much trouble moving around as the F-150 did.

Poor acceleration

The F-150 diesel’s acceleration wasn’t just bad while it was hauling a load, it was just bad in general. MotorTrend namely blamed it on the fact that the V6 just wasn’t pumping out a lot of power. For comparison, one of the Ram 1500s that MotorTrend tested had a 309-hp engine.

Without carrying anything, the F-150 diesel took 7.7 seconds to go from 0 to 60 MPH. With the exception of one trim, the Ram 1500 bested that time from the F-150 diesel. MotorTrend tested five trims of the Ram 1500, and four of them were significantly faster than the F-150 diesel. Those four trims had 0 to 60 times that ranged from 5.9 seconds to 6.5 seconds. 

In the quarter-mile test, it was the same story for the F-150 vs. the Ram 1500. Four of the five Ram 1500 trims did better than the F-150 diesel. They were able to hit the finish line at between 14.4 seconds to 15.0 seconds and their top speeds ranged from 82 mph to 97 mph. In comparison, the F-150 diesel finished the quarter-mile at 16.1 seconds at a top speed of 84 mph.

Prices

Arguably a downside for the F-150 diesel, the price point for a brand-new one is pretty high. MotorTrend says that the base version of the F-150 diesel that was tested cost $48,000, but the trim that MotorTrend actually drove cost about $65,000. A couple of trims of the Ram 1500 are cheaper than that, but some trims were about the same in price.

For example, the Big Horn trim of the Ram 1500 starts at $37,000 and the version that MotorTrend tested cost $46,000. However, the Long Horn trim starts at $55,000 and the one that MotorTrend tested costs $68,000.