The Ford F-150 Raptor and Tremor are both badass trucks: But which is right for you?
Just a few years ago, the choice was fairly simple when it came to buying a Ford F-150: There’s the Raptor, and then there’s everything else. Oh sure, the FX4 off-road package offers up plenty of capability for most folks, but there was still a dramatically clear line if you wanted the most badass truck for your money. But Ford blurred the lines by including another off-road-focused option with the Tremor in the fourteenth-generation F-150, and we finally get the opportunity to test the Blue Oval’s most recent updates for 2024.
At its core, the Tremor offers up a compromise between your standard, everyday F-150 work truck or all-around daily rig, and Ford’s most hardcore half-ton options with the Raptor and the supercharged V8 Raptor R.
Andre had the chance to directly compare both the F-150 Tremor and the Raptor head-to-head in the TFL Talkin’ Trucks podcast, and more detailed Raptor impressions are coming tomorrow, May 23. After the media program concluded, however, I had the chance to drive the revamped Tremor 1,000 miles across the southwestern U.S., from Palm Springs, California to our home base in Colorado. While we’ll have plenty of off-road testing coming up, I’m specifically focusing on the Tremor’s pros and cons as a road trip machine and, if you were to plonk down at least $66,145 for one, an everyday commuter.
Spoiler alert for those wondering if that’s the bottom-line price: This particular truck packs the bells and whistles from the “Tremor High” 402A package, Ford’s BlueCruise 1.2 semi-autonomous driving system and some accessories like a spray-in bedliner and hard-folding tonneau cover. As a result, we’re looking at a version of the 2024 Ford F-150 Tremor that costs a whopping $81,860. You can go even farther than that, of course, if you decide to start upfitting even more gear like the available winch or a light bar.
What’s new for 2024?
Across the entire lineup, the 2024 Ford F-150 sees some tweaks to the exterior styling and wheel designs. At the front, each truck gets a new grille, revised headlights and new exterior lighting elements. Arguably, the Tremor is one of the more profound examples, thanks in large part to the blacked out Ford emblem and the orange elements that complement the new turn signals. Around the back, you now have the option of the new “Pro Access” tailgate (which Andre demonstrates here), which offers up the option to open a small part of the tailgate through a side-mounted hinge if you need to grab something out of the bed with a trailer attached. Similarly to how it changed the front-end lighting, 2024 F-150 trucks also get updated taillights, as well.
One of the key tech upgrades to the revamped F-150 lineup is the optional BlueCruise system. It’s initial entry into the truck sphere was the F-150 Lightning, but now it’s available across the rest of the 2024 model range, including this Tremor. Other notable quality-of-life features include an optional head-up display, while the 12.0-inch infotainment screen that formerly was an option is now standard across the board.
As before, the Ford F-150 still packs a huge array of cab configurations, bed lengths and powertrains. On that last part, the engine choices kick off with the 2.7-liter EcoBoost V-6. From there, you can step up to the 5.0-liter Coyote V-8, the 3.5-liter EcoBoost twin-turbocharged V-6, a hybridized “PowerBoost” version of the same V-6 that adds an electric motor, and finally the supercharged 6.2-liter “Predator” V-8 if you want to drop six figures on the Raptor R.
For my road trip from California to Colorado, this 2024 Ford F-150 Tremor is rocking the good-old 5.0-liter V8 with 400 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque. No matter which F-150 you buy, you still get a 10-speed automatic transmission.
First impressions of the 2024 Ford F-150 Tremor, including BlueCruise
While the 1,000-mile road trip from Palm Springs would wind me through some of the epic scenery of northern Arizona and the Four Corners region across the Colorado Plateau, the first stretch took me onto I-10 out of California. It’s the perfect opportunity to test Ford’s latest version of BlueCruise, which is a hands-off, eyes-on driver assistance system competing against GM’s Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot, among the plethora of other semi-autonomous options hitting the market.
BlueCruise 1.2 narrows the gap between its two chief rivals, offering features like Predictive Speed Assist, In-Lane Repositioning and even Lane Change Assist. The first feature automatically slows the truck down if you’re heading into a lower speed limit zone or approaching a curve, while the second either helps keep the truck centered in the lane or offers more of a buffer if you’re moving around a larger vehicle like a truck.
The most interesting to use though, as it turns out, is that Lane Change Assist feature. Tap or fully engage the turn signal, and BlueCruise will move the truck into the adjacent lane on its own, with no other intervention on your part (at least in most cases). The digital gauge cluster will prompt you to change lanes if the truck slows down behind another vehicle and detects the other lane is open, and arrows to either side of the truck in the lower portion of the cluster and in the head-up display will flash when it’s actually making the change once you hit the turn signal. Then, once it’s made the passing maneuver and you’re ready to move back over, just tap the signal in the other direction and it will move back into the original lane.
Overall, the system proved itself as a pretty seamless and stress-free process. That said, while it is better, it’s still not perfect and there are a couple things you’ll want to remember when using BlueCruise 1.2. First off, you have to keep your eyes on the road, even when your hands are on the wheel. Getting my stopwatch out, the truck will give you about 5-6 seconds before it starts fussing at you to put your eyes back where they belong on the road. That is still technically plenty of time for things to go wrong, though, so beyond a quick change of the climate controls or radio station, it is absolutely not worth your safety or that of other motorists to try and game the system — BlueCruise will disengage if it detects you’re screwing around or otherwise distracted through a series of escalating warnings.
The other thing to note is that it will occasionally prompt you to actually put your hands on the wheel. In extreme cases, it will actually make you take control, but most of the time the steering assistance will stay on. Later in the trip once I was on twistier divided highways like I-70 in Colorado, this happened a lot more often. It’s a sort of insurance policy in the event you actually need to take over, so your hands are right there, but very rarely was BlueCruise really stumped to the point where it effectively gives up, flashes the red warnings and tells you to take over. I had that experience if the truck didn’t quite know what to do while approaching a tricky interchange, but otherwise the system did work as advertised and took much of the drudgery out of long, monotonous stretches of Interstate highway.
Even if you’re on parts of the road network where BlueCruise won’t engage — it only works on certain sections of pre-mapped divided highways or “Blue Zones” — the lane keep assist system will still work and help out with steering. On other highways, it will just ask that you keep your hands on the wheel.
Performance, fuel economy and road trip impressions
While BlueCruise works fairly well, one part of the journey that proved to be more of a mixed bag was that 5.0-liter V-8 under the hood. As I climbed out of the California desert into the vast open space of northern Arizona and southeastern Utah, that 400 naturally-aspirated horsepower didn’t really feel like enough to really shift the truck along.
Don’t get me wrong, this engine sounds fantastic and has a character to it that the EcoBoost just doesn’t — and it proved to be every bit as efficient as the EPA ratings suggest, averaging 20 mpg throughout the trip — it just doesn’t move this big, heavy truck with the sort of gusto that you get with forced induction. So, while I came into the trip thinking I’d stick with the V-8 as my primary option were I to buy this truck, the extra 100 lb-ft of torque the 3.5-liter EcoBoost offers is tempting (it’s only $90 more, too).
Ford’s refinements to the fourteenth-generation F-150 have made it a fantastic road trip companion, even if you opt for an off-road-focused trim like the Tremor. Even with the knobby General Grabber A/Ts, the road noise was never intrusive, and the suspension (as well as the comfortable, Tremor-branded leather seats) soaked up 1,000 miles worth of bumps without issue.
With all the features you’ll likely want, power outlets aplenty and an array of comfort-minded features like the ventilated seats (those came in handy in Arizona at 106 degrees…), the 2024 Ford F-150 Tremor made the trip a thoroughly enjoyable experience that I’m glad I had the chance to take on. If you’re eyeing a do-it-all truck to hit the trails as well as the open road, the Tremor is a great option. Again, we’ll have videos taking the Tremor off the beaten path against its main rivals, but as far as on-road adventures are concerned, where you’ll spend most of your time, the latest F-150 Tremor gets a thumbs up from me, whether you agree or not on opting for the EcoBoost over the V-8.
But, is the F-150 Tremor a smarter buy than the Raptor? Well…it depends.
That may sound like a cop-out, but it really does boil down to what you specifically want out of your truck. This Tremor obviously isn’t positioned to tackle the most hardcore, high-speed off-roading you may want to take on. The Raptor and Raptor R offer a far more appealing package on that front, specifically with its Fox suspension setup. On the other hand, the Tremor is a bit more practical for everyday use specifically because it’s not as hardcore as the Raptor, since it doesn’t have the wider fenders or the firmer ride that, in the Raptor’s case, isn’t the most ideal for long-distance journeys.
Then there’s the elephant in the room: the Tremor’s price. At the base $66,145 MSRP, the 2024 Ford F-150 Tremor is a downright bargain against the Raptor’s $80,435 base price (assuming all things are equal and you can get one at that price). Tack on the packages, though…and the decision gets a little bit tougher. While I think the Tremor looks awesome in its own right, the Raptor is just a beast, through and through.
Again, though, if you’re looking for a more practical everyday truck, things start to lean back in the Tremor’s favor again. Payload capacity is better in the Tremor’s case, coming in around 1,785 pounds with the V-8, as is towing capacity at 10,200 pounds (to the Raptor’s 1,400 pounds and 8,200 pounds, respectively).
On the whole, if I were to buy an F-150 with my own money, it would be the Tremor because it makes a lot more sense for what I’d specifically use the truck for. As ever with new half-ton trucks, though, you may just want to think twice about the bells and whistles if you’re aiming to stick to a budget.
