A New Benchmark to Maintain Number One Position

While San Antonio, Texas, the location of Ford's new F-150 media launch, is best known for the battle of the Alamo during the Texas revolution in 1836, where 189 defenders held the old mission against 4,000 Mexican troops for 13 days, it is also in the heart of pickup truck country.

Bill Ford Jr., Chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Co., poses with a 2004 Ford F-150 SuperCrew 4x4 inside the yet to be completed Dearborn (Mich.) Truck Plant in this publicity shot. This is Ford's newest assembly plant and will be going online in 2004 to make the company's No. 1 best selling vehicle. (Photo: Ford Motor Company)

The Ford F-150 has been king of the pickup truck mountain for 26 years and the best selling vehicle in the United States for 21 years. Texas is the No. 1 state for pickup truck sales, where Ford has led since 1986, and San Antonio has 6 of the 15 top dealers for F-Series sales.

"The F-Series outsells Chevy, Dodge, and Toyota combined in San Antonio," said Steve Lyons, President of the Ford Division.

Like the old Burma Shave roadside signs of the 1950s, Ford pulled out the stops during the recent ride-and-drive around San Antonio, Texas, to advertise that the new F-150 was making the rounds. This sign is posted on Buck's Pottery Shop in Gruene, a small town that is home to a dance hall, antique shops, and water tubing rides on the Guadalupe River. (Photo: Joe Cabadas, Canadian Auto Press)

Furthermore the F-Series represents 23 percent of Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales. Therefore the automaker has pulled out all stops to refine the F-150, which is all-new for the 2004 model year, and brought in nearly 300 automotive journalists to test drive the pickup in the "Lone Star State."

But, the F-150 is facing new competition from a renewed Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra line and completely updated Dodge Ram. As well, Nissan's new full-size Titan will soon threaten blue oval dominance while Toyota's revised 7/8ths size Tundra is taking aim at the Ford's heartland, having set up its assembly plant near San Antonio.