It’s Not Your Papa’s Truck Rodeo

by Rochelle Brown

Call me naïve, but when growing up, I believed that generally trucks were for men.  No well-bred lady would ever be caught driving a big ol’ truck.  But I’m not a kid anymore and lots of women, including me, love driving trucks!  Ford offered me a Ford F-150 to drive to San Antonio for the Texas Auto Writers Association’s Truck Rodeo and I was off!

The TAWA Truck Rodeo is a power packed two-day event that takes place each year at the beautiful 150 acre Knibbe Ranch just outside San Antonio.  No bucking horses and steer wrestling here. Only incredible trucks. There’s everything from small car-like crossovers to huge eco-boost pickup trucks.  The cowgirls and cowboys are my fellow TAWA members...this year numbering 57 strong.  Top manufacturers from around the country bring their best newest and

best vehicles to the rodeo.   For two days, we drive all sorts of trucks under all sorts of conditions both on and off road. 

I was absolutely in truck heaven.  What I noticed first was the cool, sleek bodies of the trucks. Very eye catching.  Lots of large, in your face grill styling on the bedded trucks and very contemporary and appealing colors and exterior features on the Crossovers Utility Vehicles and the Sports Utility Vehicles. 

One of my favorites was the Ford F-150 Raptor.

Designed for on and off road, this truck just begs to be challenged.  So, challenge I did with a professional Ford Engineer.  We took off for an off road adventure that took us across small creeks, down steep inclines, across rocky terrain that bounces you so much you can hardly talk, across fields and just about everywhere.  Many off road vehicles now have the rear cam but the Raptor has a front cam as well.  Great feature if you’re a little uncertain about what’s in your path.  And one of the coolest features is a built in cam washer that removes the dirt and mud so that you can see clearly.  Regular off roaders will really appreciate this feature because it helps with those pesky delays that require you to get out of the truck and assess the path.

After being jiggled for quite a while, I decided to slip into a seat of luxury with the new 2012 Cadillac Escalade. Sweet!  Just about everything you could ask for including a beautiful leather interior Bose 1.5 Surround Sound, Bluetooth capability, a six speed transmission and rear sear video entertainment.  One of the largest SUVs in the group, the Cadillac Escalade gets 13 miles per gallon in the city and 18 miles per gallon on the highway.

This was truly a year for outstanding SUVs and Crossovers as well.  The 2012 Ford Edge was just a jewel.  I think it’s great for families.  There is lots of storage room, a nice but rugged interior which is great for kids and the drive is very smooth.  And holding its own as the smallest crossover at the rodeo was the Kia Soul!  Driving it was just as much fun as the catch commercials we’ve watched during the past year.  It’s really fun and functional with bright colors that just scream to be checked out.

The Heavy Duty Truck is the real star of the rodeo.  I am told that more people in Texas buy Heavy Duty Trucks than in any other state.  Most of the HD’s were so versatile visually and functionally, they could go from working in the field to a nice country club with no problem.

The big talk at rodeo was about Ford’s new EcoBoost technology. The gas-turbo direct-injection engines can help provide up to 20% better fuel economy without sacrificing power that drivers want.

Two of my favorites were the Ford F250 King Ranch 4X4 Super Duty.  It is Ford’s best-selling truck and can handle up to 24,500 pounds.  The other was the Ram 2500 Power Wagon Laramie 4X4.  This was Dodge’s newest model which they chose to debut at the TAWA Rodeo.  Both trucks feature specialty leather seats and smooth wood grain accents and premium audio.

There were far too many cars to mention them all, but at the end of the second day of driving these wonderful cars, TAWA members had the difficult task of voting, but we did and these were the winners:

Truck of Texas – 2012 Ford F150

Sport Utility Vehicle of Texas 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Truck Line of Texas – 2012 Ford lineup of trucks

Outstanding Feature of Texas – Ford’s EcoBoost engine technology

Crossover Utility Vehicle of Texas 2012 Ford Edge

Sports Utility Vehicle of Texas 2012 Jeep Cherokee

Ford drove away with first place in several other categories including Full-sized Pickup Truck for the F-150, Luxury Pickup for the 2012 Ford F-250 Platinum EcoBoost and Heavy Duty for the 2012 Ford F-250 King Ranch.

I thought the winners of the SUV categories were quite deserving as well.  They include First place honors for the 2012 Dodge Durango in the full sized category, 2012 Jeep Wrangled Unlimited Rubicon in the Mid-sized group and the 2012 Nissan Xterra Pro 4X in the compact SUV category.

Crossovers made a terrific showing as well with the 2012 GMC Acadia Denali taking home first place for Full-Sized Luxury Crossover and the 2012 Cadillac SRX Premium in the Mid-Sized Category.

So, as I said at the top, it’s not your pappa’s rodeo.  It’s even better!

Rochelle Brown is an award winning broadcast journalist who now writes for the web as well.  She is a member of the Texas Auto Writers Association. She writes for Carladynews.com and Travelladynews.com