Ford Announces 2015 Expedition King Ranch: It's Good To Be King
By David Boldt
It's been 15 years since the Ford first aligned itself with King Ranch, Texas' largest — and arguably most historic — South Texas spread. With that alignment came an entirely new category: the big-buck luxury truck. Of course, Ford's large SUV, the Expedition, wasn't immune from the King Ranch upgrades, which were first applied in the 2005 model year, and neither is the newish update rolling out now. Ford unveiled the 2015 Expedition King Ranch at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which runs through March 23. Somewhere, ranch founder Richard King is smiling.
Beyond the many changes to the 2015 Expedition announced at this year's Dallas Auto Show (including a new front clip, enhanced interior and EcoBoost drivetrain), the King Ranch Edition brings unique interior and exterior trim, an enhanced level of standard equipment and special wheels to both the Ford showroom and what — anywhere other than the King Ranch — might be known as the "back forty." As Aileen Barraza, a color and materials designer for Ford, explains, "King Ranch models evoke luxury that is earned … a reward for hard work, which is what has made the ranch so successful."
To better document the launch, Ford has enlisted Texas' official state photographer Wyman Meinzer. Roughly 4,000 images were taken over the course of four days, serving to fully establish the newest King Ranch Editions — the 2015 F-150 and Super Duty were announced at the same Houston program — in their native setting. Those images can be seen at Ford.com.
Robert Underbrink, the ranch's CEO, suggests that "King Ranch editions aren't merely trim levels. They are representations of an authentic American story that parallels that of Ford Motor Company." And somewhere, Henry Ford is smiling.
For a list of new King Ranch features for the 2015 Expedition, F-150, and Super Duty, click here.
Manufacturer photos
Comments
That is the king (sorry) of all trim packs. Love the King Ranch trim.
Wish I could find a King Ranch Suburban!
Love the King Ranch, but let this be the last SUV article that gets posted on pickuptrucks.com The car guys can post their stuff on cars.com We don't want to hear anything but trucks and vans here.
It would be interesting to know how much of a royalty King Ranch is paid for each Ford truck/SUV that bears the King Ranch name and logo. It's gotta be a good bit.
Will we also be covering the 2014 Dodge Durango?
With:
Best-in-Class standard and available towing+
I don't care to hear about suvs on this website, but the expedition is much more similar to a pickup than a van is.
I find it hard to associate a family business and people who work on a cattle farm with any particular vehicle. Maybe this sort of advertising works in the US.
Cargo vans fits because 1) nobody is covering cargo vans and 2) they are used for hauling like pickup trucks unlike SUV's which are mainly known for the passenger carrying space.
If SUV's are covered why not cover station wagons and minivans which are SUV's with seats in the back. Then why not sedans next?
http://autos.yahoo.com/news/disappointing-dozen-cars-fail-measure-140000640.html
Oxi - where are you?
Your Taco made the list 'The disappointing dozen: Cars that fail to measure up'
Oxi - can you name a manufacturer that 5 of its products made the list? hint Fix It Another Time.
@ Dave A SUV Van are pretty much the same. Either can carry people or cargo. I hope they keep covering SUVs.
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/s7YvlDwwwvo/mqdefault.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpTCk3KwTII
Doe, A SUV is not the same as a cargo van. SUV has seats in the rear. The only reason you wanted SUV's covered was because you were complaining about all of Ram and Ford cargo van coverage.
Ryan, it's probably hard for you to fathom considering your countries small market, but Texans buy around 400,000 pickups per year. A lot of these are used on ranches that grow cattle, which produce leather. All King Ranch trucks have leather interiors. Shouldn't be hard to see the correlation.
World English Dictionary
sport utility vehicle or sports utility vehicle
— n
sport utility , Sometimes shortened to: sports utility , SUV a high-powered car with four-wheel drive, originally designed for off-road use
It's not like there is too little info on trucks or it is getting posted by the team so quickly, that sport utilities needed to be added.
In Johnny Doe's video the guy removed the seats from an old SUV to haul some lumber.
If someone can put a couple rows of seats in the bed of pickup truck, does that mean a SUV site should start covering all pickup trucks?
Let's start covering school buses now too because you can take the seats out and aul more lumber than a SUV with the seats gone. Same difference.
@ Dave A bus, van and pickup are pretty much the same. Either can carry people or cargo. I hope they keep covering SUVs and start covering minivans, and buses!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iarc0-V4tdY
Chevy Astro Van
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TN31ScbpY8
@Dave I never complained about vans, and if you looked I showed that people do use their SUVs for work.
@Dave SUVs can be used for work!
http://lumberjocks.com/assets/pictures/projects/403084-438x.jpg
The other day I was driving my 2013 F-150 covered with snow on the hood I didn't brush off and I had the heater fan on high, then as I speed up to get on the highway the snow on the hood blows off and up the windshield, then all of the sudden my heater blower fan shut down, turning it on and off I got it to work but it only went at a slow fan speed, later, after going about 10 miles the blower fan corrected itself, working on high.
What happened?
@Tom#3
If you can provide more information on your snow-fan issue, ie, cross wind, snow type, humidity, etc.
Can you also provide me with the ambient air temperature at 2 000', 500' and sea level. I require this so I can classify the snow type.
Furnish me with you velocity in m/s, and engine rpm.
The trim level of your vehicle will also help ;)
Also I'll need a 3d representation of the ducting from the air inlet to the fan and beyond into the vehicles cabin. How were you vents adjusted?
Was you window open a little, so can I have what your window were set at and what style of cab you have.
Was your system on recirculation?
Once you can provide this we can help ;)
So, what do you think occurred? If it occurred at all:)
@D If you follow that guy you will learn he is good land lord. He always use his subs to haul dry wall/wood/trash/sidewalk salt/tools/engines..ect Most the stuff he hauls he likes to keep dry.
please keep doing articles on vans, suvs etc
thumbs up Mark
for the people that don't want them, don't read the article, very simple !
@Lou,
Why shouldn't the site do articles on SUVs? Every other site does SUVs! If you don't like the post don't read it!!!!!!!
If we're going to start SUV articles, might as well report on the Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Land Crusier, and every other truck based SUV out there...
@John
I do think it would be okay to report on all vehicles that the US EPA considers trucks.
Even the larger trucks make for interesting reading.
Very ugly! Front ends look kinda like the Toyota Tundra.
GM owns over 75% of the suv market. Your King Ranch will make no difference Ford!
@greg - for once you are probably right.
I for one actually asked Mark and Pickuptrucks.com to start covering large truck based SUV's. They have way more in common and would actually be purchased by people on this site. I mean who really is buying these full size vans.
Trucks and SUV's are crossed shopped way more than vans. I have a family of 5. Can just barely fit in a crew cab now. And they have similar towing etc.
I have owned Dodges, Chevys and Fords. I am a logger and use the truck hard. And I dont mean reality tv hard, I mean 300,000.00 miles of work hard. They get no sympathy, not much care or hardly Sundays off. Of them all, my Fords 350 stay in the fight and leave me stranded least of any of them. As for me, I will stay with my F350s
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