In the annals of American pickup trucks, it would be easy to argue that the Ford F-150 is an icon. The half-ton pickup made its debut in 1975 in Ford’s long-running F-Series, joining the ranks of true titans that include the legendary F-100 and F-250 models. To say the F-150 was a hit when it debuted would be an understatement, as the pickup’s combination of style, performance and sheer drivability redefined the term “Ford tough” for a generation of truck owners.
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The F-150 quickly became one of the best-selling trucks in Ford history and has held that title for more than four decades. The popularity of the F-150 helped make the F-Series the best-selling vehicle line in the United States – a designation Ford has held for nearly 50 consecutive years.
Of course, the sleek lines, 4-door design, and all-electric engine options we see in some modern F-150s are a far cry from the simpler designs Ford’s design team sent out onto American roads in the mid-1970s. While the celebrated, if sometimes problematic, pickup truck has clearly evolved over time, the shiny F-150s driven by truck lovers today seem to have something in common with their predecessors besides the name, namely the fact that they are manufactured in Ford plants in the United States. Given their reputation as America’s best-selling truck, that fact couldn’t be more fitting.
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Production of the F-150 will be split between two US Ford plants
More specifically, the F-150 is so popular that Ford Motor Company assembles its best-selling pickup truck in two separate plants, one in Dearborn, Michigan, and the other in Claycomo, Missouri, just outside of Kansas City. The latter plant is actually called the Kansas City Assembly, while the Michigan plant is called the Dearborn Truck Plant, as it is largely focused on producing Ford trucks. At the moment, these are the only Ford plants that roll out F-150s, with the Missouri plants and their United Auto Workers workforce responsible for turning out as many as 5,000 F-150s each week.
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For reference, that impressive weekly number equates to about 166,000 trucks per quarter, a figure Ford Trucks Communications Manager Dawn Mackenzie recently told the Detroit Free Press that the Missouri plant will reach in the first quarter of 2024. If those numbers hold up in subsequent quarters of 2024, Kansas City Assembly alone will have produced 664,000 F-150 pickup trucks by year’s end. With Ford reportedly already selling more than 400,000 F-150s this year alone, it might seem that the brand is just barely keeping up with demand, though the Michigan plant’s production undoubtedly more than makes up the difference.
If you want to know which Ford plant your F-150 was made in, you can easily determine its origin by looking at the truck’s VIN. According to the manufacturer, if the 11th digit of that number is an F, the truck rolled off the assembly line in Michigan. If that digit is a K, your F-150 came from Missouri.
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