Foremost, before angry commenters descend on the section below, this comparison test was not only ranked on miles per gallon, as the title suggests at Pickup Trucks. However, fuel economy is stated to be the main factor here that was weighted most heavily.
If mpg reined supreme, the Ram 1500 HFE with its 3.0-liter EcoDiesel would have walked away a winner. But, many areas were combed for winning and losing propositions. In Chevrolet’s case, that meant a second place finish for the 2016 Silverado 1500 double cab.
Overall, the Ford F-150 with its EcoBoost power, trumped the Silverado this time as a complete package. Though, searching through the miles of infographics, points out marginal differences between the stonking 5.3-liter V8 utilized in 2016 Silverado the and 2.7-liter V6 powering the F-150.
The 2016 Silverado returned a respectable 21.7 mpg through a 120-mile route, while the F-150 actually returned worse fuel economy at 21.1 mpg. With a 1,500-pound payload and the same 120-mile route, the F-150 just squeaks by the 2016 Silverado, with the trucks returning 22.2 mpg for the Ford, and 21.8 mpg for the Chevy.
Again, despite this being a fuel economy shootout, the trucks were rated on many other variables, making this a semi-unclear comparison at first glance, especially for the sake of Ram.
For our take, we simply commend Chevrolet for engineering small-block power with fuel economy akin to Ford’s latest engineering, including aluminum integration.
Comments
Well this was what most political surveys would call a draw.
As many of us have said all along Ford was just working to draw even in MPG.
I anticipate GM in the next gen that is only a couple years out will see some weight reduction that will add a MPG or two more to what we have now.
MPG has got to be good along with everything else. If you can out handle out muscle out hustle ride better and look better and get better gas mileage now we are talking. Chevy should not stop until they can do all of those things. Even the they shouldn’t stope because the other guys won’t.
Real rear headrests. Chevy still needs them. Adults and tall teens do sit back there and this isn’t 1975. A safety issue. Then we will work on replacing those antiquated pushrod engines. One thing at a time.
Tell me what’s wrong with pushrod engines?
Im sure Magirus has had a few “pushrods” shoved in his backdoor hence why he’s so against them
Will agree on the headrest front.
Just seeing that the Chevy has a 5.3-liter V8 utilized in 2016 Silverado the and 2.7-liter V6 powering the F-150 and with the trucks returning 22.2 mpg for the Ford, and 21.8 mpg for the Chevy I’d say Chevy is the winner. Ford is using a smaller engine that is supposed to by an Eco model and the Chevy get .40 MPG less to me means the engineering is much better on Chevy’s V8. The MPG difference could be the truck weight for all we know. This shootout is meaningless based on the title. Ford makes a 5.0 Liter V8 so if you are going to have a MPG shootout shouldn’t you compare that F150 trim to the Chevy? Ford F150 has four engine choices. A 5 liter V8, 3.5 Liter V6, a 3.6L Eco V6 and a 2.7 liter Eco V6. This shootout is using Ford’s least gas guzzling engine and barely beats the Big Chevy Engine. Stupid article.
Silverado lost by 0.4 mpg while weighting 700lbs more!!
This entire test was worthless. Out of 19 categories used to crown the winner only 4 had anything to do with fuel mileage and 2 out of the 4 were tank range (calculated by EPA estimates) and EPA ratings!
Some of the rest of the categories were a joke as well. Like acceleration and dyno tests, where Ram was penalized the most for least HP and being slower while having a diesel under the hood!
And than of course, the judges scores, where they scored the trucks to opposite what they were saying about them.
It only gets worse for Ford if you read the http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2016/01/texas-truck-showdown-2016-towing-mileage-test.html where the 6.2L ran circles around the F150 3.5L ego boost while getting better MPGs
Three out of four trucks got better mpg with the 1500 bs payload.