The 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor is Still Menacing, Wonderfully Ridiculous | Prescott Brothers Ford Rochelle IL

It may be all Ecoboost and 10-speed automatic underneath, but the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor strikes that balance of aggressive and goofy characteristics that made the outgoing model such a hit.

Oh yeah, and the off-road credentials were pretty good, too.

Unsurprisingly, like the 2015 F-150, the new Raptor is a case of same-but-different on the outside. The FORD letters on the grille are still enormous, an endearing characteristic. They've also been added to the tailgate in lieu of a blue oval. The whole look is perhaps more modern and sophisticated, but in person the Raptor still comes off as a tough thing.

Ford didn't let us pop the hood to see the 3.5-liter Ecoboost V6 that's supposed to be in there. Nor did they let us get too close to the interior, which at least doesn't stray too far from the new F-150's style. The paddle shifters inside were the first thing I noticed, though. And I'm still not convinced they look right in a truck, especially when they bear a similar appearance to the ones in the new Ford GT.

The thing about the Raptor has always been that it's a ridiculous vehicle. It's ridiculously large, ridiculously powerful for its size, ridiculously capable. But at the end of the day, the main attraction to this thing is its looks and sounds. They just make you smile.

This new one may be smarter under the skin, but it looks like it still has a sense of humor on the outside.

Can an actual Ford F-150 ride on 4 Power Wheels F-150s? | Prescott Brothers Ford Rochelle IL

 By Chris Bruce
A lot of kids are rough on their toys, especially when it comes to those made to be used outside, like a four-wheeled kid-size Power Wheels. Whether it's cruising through the sand box, carrying piles of rocks in the driveway or crashing around trees in the backyard, these motorized vehicles often take punishment from the moment the giftwrap comes off.

The folks at Fisher-Price decided to give their latest F-150 Power Wheels a true torture test worse than any kid could have ever managed by setting a real 2015 Ford F-150 on top of four of them. Would the little toy trucks explode in a shower of plastic shards in a massive collapse, and if not, could they drive away afterwards?

The latest F-150 might be 700 pounds lighter thanks to the switch to aluminum, but it's still a fullsize pickup. According to this clip, the truck weighs in at 4,120 pounds, which puts an average of 1,030 pounds on each of the toys. Check out the video above to see how the stunt goes, and click on the gallery below for some behind-the-scenes looks at the setup.

Ford adds 850 jobs to build 2015 F-150 | Prescott Brothers Ford Rochelle IL

By Noah JosephRSS feedGoogle+

Pickup trucks tend not to advance at quite the same pace as the rest of the industry. That's what makes the new Ford F-150 so remarkable, jettisoning its old steel construction in favor of aluminum. It's a game changer that Ford is betting big on, and in anticipation of surging demand, the Blue Oval automaker is adding 850 new jobs to put the thing together.

Those 850 new employees will be centered at Ford's Rouge complex in Michigan – with 300 at Dearborn Stamping, 50 more at Dearborn Diversified and 500 at the Dearborn Truck facility, the latter of which has already kicked off what Ford describes as "the largest manufacturing transformation in decades." Old manufacturing equipment is being replaced with the latest technologies, and even the Ford Rouge Factory Tour is undergoing a complete overhaul.

The new jobs come as part of the commitments Ford made to the UAW in 2011 to create 12,000 hourly jobs in the United States by 2015 – a number which Ford has already exceeded at 14,000. Over 4,000 of those are centered in southeastern Michigan.