2008 Ford Super Duty

While most of the vehicles introduced in 2007 can gracefully take the family for a Sunday drive, the Ford Super Duty trucks work through the weekend. These pickups carry America on their broad shoulders from 0-dark-thirty to closing time at the local watering hole.

Super Duty trucks come in nearly countless combinations and the F-250, F-350 and the all new F-450 -- the Truckasarus of pickups -- are all capable of crushing midsize cars and towing 24,000 pounds.

During the redesign, Ford made this work truck bigger, stronger and much better looking. The front end embodies the power found under the hood. Many of the features, such as telescoping mirrors and the trailer brake control system on the dash, may not impress most people. But ask someone towing a 10,000-pound horse trailer if he would want those features.

Ford also listened to its customers and added a tailgate step, stowable bed extender and the best rear camera system on the road today. That system shows a driver what's behind the truck inside the rearview mirror.

Ford's "tough luxury" interior packaged with its menacing good looks make the Super Duty trucks nice enough to drive to the theater and mean enough to scare tree stumps out of the ground just by parking near them. The new 6.4-liter Power Stroke diesel engine packs 650-pound-feet of torque at just 2,000 rpm.

But most of all, the people who buy these trucks, use them as designed. According to Ford, nearly 90 percent of Super Duty owners tow something. And these heavy-duty trucks represent roughly 40 percent of all F-Series sales -- a whopping 250,000 this year -- making it the top-selling new or redesigned vehicle in 2007.

While trucks may have lost some of their luster to smooth riding crossovers that offer utility to people who never really needed a truck, the trio of Super Duty trucks answers the call for the men and women who work as hard as they play.