The 2017 Ford Raptor has been out for a couple of months now and has received mixed reviews in the offroad world. It seems like you either love it or hate it, and that usually comes down to how you feel about the Ecoboost V6. If you can overlook that, the Gen II is a great truck. It’s lighter and more powerful than the outgoing model and has more suspension travel too. And while I personally wish Ford would’ve gone more aggressive with the styling to distinguish it more from a standard F-150, I admit the looks have grown on me.
But most diehard Gen-1 Raptor fans can’t get over the fact that there’s a V6 under the hood. Both on principle, and because it sounds ridiculous, at least coming from a full-size truck. Yeah, it’s more powerful than the first gen Raptor, but not by that much. A few bolt on upgrades to the 6.2L V8 and it’ll outperform that stock V6 all day long.
With that being said, Ford is having no trouble selling the new Raptor. Some reports indicate that people are paying significantly more than the sticker price. I’ve heard as much as $20k over sticker. In an attempt to keep up the hype, Ford continues to release short videos highlighting certain features of the new Raptor. Some of which are awesome, such as the one with Ken Block behind the wheel out playing in the snow.
The latest video that highlights the “dual exhaust” seems silly. Why would Ford want to draw so much attention to the exhaust note? And even worse, why would they claim that it redefines the sound of offroad performance? They are well aware of the fact that most people are up in arms about the sound coming from the ultimate stock offroad truck. If you look at the older videos you’ll notice they go out of their way to mask the exhaust. They even send fake exhaust sounds through the speakers to help make up for it.