Great Wall Steed vs Ford F150

What's the difference?

If you simply want a new ute at a low price, the Great Wall Steed could offer a bit of appeal - it’s not terrible, but it’s also far from great…

My advice would be to see what sort of second-hand HiLux or Triton you could get for similar money.

The Ford F-150 Platinum SWB is good but not great.

It has plenty of standard features onboard and some handy touches, it’s nice to drive on-road, and is adequately capable off-road but it lacks the overall plushness its price-tag promises.

The F-150’s smaller sibling, the Ranger Super Duty, does all of this F Truck’s jobs better, has more general appeal and all-round driveability, and it costs much less than the F-150.

Yet I can still see the appeal of the Ford F-150 Platinum SWB. As a potential purchase, it might make a lot more sense to you than me.

The Great Wall’s exterior styling is reasonably contemporary, even if the proportions are somewhat ungainly. Consider this - the Steed is one of the longest, lowest utes out there.

The dimensions are 5345mm long on a huge 3200mm wheelbase, with a width of 1800mm and a height of 1760mm. There’s just 171mm of ground clearance for this one, which is the 4x2 model. 

The wheelbase looks enormous, and the back doors are quite small considering the length of the vehicle (plus the door handles are huge!). The B-pillars are set back further than they should be, and that makes it hard to get into and out of the second row seats. 

The interior design is pretty smart, though — compared with some of the other older utes out there, the Steed has reasonable ergonomics and the controls and materials are of a passable quality, too. 

But our car - which had just a couple of thousand kilometres on the clock - had a missing piece of exterior trim, along with a few loose bits and pieces inside. The quality is better than the first-gen Great Wall utes, but we hope the next-generation global ute from the brand will be better again. It’ll need to be.

The Ford F-150 Platinum SWB is 5908mm long (with a 3697mm wheelbase), 2089mm wide (excluding mirrors) and 1995mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 2611kg.

It’s a chunky but stretched US-style ute with ample presence, but manages to look like it’s not trying too hard.

It doesn’t hurt this ute’s cause that its appearance now encompasses model year 2024 updates from the US, which include a facelifted exterior with a new front bumper, grille and headlights, as well as a new rear bumper, tail-lights, and gloss-black alloy wheels.

The wheel-and-tyre package (20-inch alloys and 275/60R20 Hankook Dynapro AT2 all-terrains) suit its style, but aren’t particularly great for off-roading – more about that later.

Inside, it’s a cool and practical space with leather-accented seats – those are underdone in terms of feeling posh – and there’s an overall roominess that’s difficult not to like.

In terms of design, this F-150 holds its own, inside and out, against the likes of the Ram, Silverado, and Tundra.

As mentioned above, the interior of the Steed is acceptable for a budget ute, but that’s as faint praise as saying “you look fine” to the reflection of yourself in the mirror after a big night out.

The cabin has a few elements to it that are decent - the dashboard design is decent, and the controls are pretty logically placed. If you’re stepping up from a first-gen Great Wall ute, you’ll be blown away.

Things like the big media screen and leather-lined steering wheel, as well as electric front seat adjustment and leather seat trim that feels more like cowhide than repurposed garbage bags this time around will all count toward some positive first impressions.

That said, the screen is one of the most confusing ones I’ve encountered - you have to pair your phone by hitting the icon that looks like a PC tower linked to a phone. Why? Also, the load times on the screen are terrible, and when you put it in reverse the screen simply goes black. There is no reversing camera as standard, which is poor form. You can option it if you want, likewise the sat nav is optional - and it looks a lot like a UBD or Melways. Plus the volume levelling is very inconsistent. 

As mentioned above the ingress and egress for rear seat occupants is poor - anyone who has feet bigger than a size six will struggle to get in and out without getting tangled. Once you’re back there, the knee room is tight, but head room is fine. 

There is reasonable storage throughout - there are cup holders between the front seats, door pockets with bottle holders and a few loose item cubbies up front, too. In the rear there are map pockets but no other storage options unless you fold the rear seat backrest down.

All in all, the Ford F-150 Platinum’s cabin is a highly practical space.

The 12-way power-adjustable, heated and ventilated front seats (with a handy massage function and memory) recline to a fully flat position and the fold-down centre console work table is a nice touch as is the auto shifter, which stows away flush at the push of a nearby button.

Even though I prefer a vertically oriented screen nowadays, the F-150’s horizontal 12.0-inch LCD touchscreen is easy to use and offers clear, crisp colours so my old codger eyes can cope with the vast array of information and controls depicted onscreen.

The rest of the cabin is as roomy and as practical as can be expected in a dual-cab ute of this size. There are storage spaces and cupholders aplenty, as well as smart device charging points front and rear.

The 60/40 split rear seat even has a shallow lockable under-seat storage.

This F-150’s tub is 1700mm long, 1650mm wide, 543mm deep and measures 1285mm between the wheel arches so it will fit an Aussie pallet or a truckload of your camping equipment.

The tub has a tri-fold hard tonneau cover and the load space has a 12-volt outlet, load box lights, a durable-looking spray-in tub liner, as well as fixed tie-down points at each corner and four sidewall-mounted tie-down points as part of Ford’s BoxLink tie-down system.

The powered tailgate can be opened the usual boring drop-down way or you can use the 'Pro Access Swing Door' of the tailgate to open a side-hinged section as you would a door.

Bonus points for the raised ruler markings on the tailgate’s inner wall and the two G-clamp fitting positions at each side of the tailgate’s top edge.

The F-150 has a keyless entry system with a keypad on the exterior of the front passenger door. Punch in your permanent access code and – bingo – you’re in.

As practical as any of its rivals, the F-150 stays in the race here.

The new Ford F-150 Platinum SWB and long-wheelbase (LWB) body styles are priced from $163,950 (excluding on-road costs), making this top-spec F truck the most expensive yet.

In fact, it comes in at pricier than rivals Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado, but not as much of a hit to the bank account as the Toyota Tundra is.

Also, the “new” F-150s now on offer in Australia are actually the model year 2024 versions of this vehicle.

Standard features onboard the Platinum include a 12.0-inch LCD portrait touchscreen, 12.0-inch digital instrument cluster, a 14-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system, folding gear shifter, fold-out centre console, leather upholstery, 12-way power-adjustable heated and ventilated front seats (with memory and massage functions), and heated outboard rear seats.

It also gets power side steps, 20-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights and tail-lights, panoramic glass sunroof, spray-in bed-liner and a powered tailgate with a manual swing-door section.

Exterior paint choices include Agate Black, Iconic Silver, Rapid Red, Carbonised Grey, Star White, and Antimatter Blue.

This F-150 matches its rivals, such as the Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, and even the more expensive Toyota Tundra, in terms of standard features.

Great Wall uses a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder with 110kW of power (at 4000rpm) and 310Nm of torque (from 1800-2800rpm), which is only available with a six-speed manual transmission. There is no automatic transmission available. But you can get a petrol engine if you prefer, which is becoming rarer in the ute segment.

The payload capacity for the Great Wall Steed 4x2 is decent for a dual cab pickup at 1022kg, and it has a gross vehicle mass of 2820kg. The Steed has the standard 750kg un-braked towing capacity, but a meagre 2000kg braked towing rating.

The Ford F-150 Platinum has a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine producing 298kW at 6000rpm and 678Nm at 3100rpm, and that’s matched to a 10-speed torque converter automatic transmission.

The base-spec XLT gets part-time 4WD but the Lariat and Platinum grades get Ford’s more advanced full-time 4WD system. This setup has selectable two-wheel drive (2H), four-wheel drive high-range (4H), four-wheel drive low-range (4L) and four-wheel drive automatic (4A = 4Auto) that sends drive to the front and rear axles as needed, and which can be safely used on high-traction surfaces, such as bitumen.

The Platinum has a variety of selectable drive modes – including Normal, Eco, Sport, Tow/Haul, Slippery, and Off-Road – and an electronic locking rear diff.

This is a proven engine-and-auto pairing and is more than a match for any of the F-150’s rivals’ powertrains.

The Great Wall has a claimed fuel use of 9.0 litres per 100 kilometres in the spec we tested, and across our testing regimen - which included on-road driving laden and empty for a few hundred kilometres, it managed 11.1L/100km. Okay, but not great.

The fuel tank capacity of the Great Wall is 58 litres, which is small for the class, and there’s no long range fuel tank option.

Official fuel consumption is listed as 13.4L/100km (combined).

On test I recorded 14.1L/100km, but that figure included a solid half-day of off-roading.

Based on my on-test figures, a full tank (136 litres) of unleaded petrol in this F-150 will get you a driving range of about 965km.

For a big ute, it exhibits reasonable fuel usage.

A lot of utes these days are aiming to be dual purpose vehicles, with passenger-amenable ride, handling, steering and powertrain combinations that mean you can use them for work and play.

The Great Wall? Well, it’s more work-oriented. That’s a nice way of saying you won’t want to subject your family to this truck, but your workmates? Too bad for them.

The ride is harsh without weight in the back, bucking over bumpy sections of road and jolting after a sharp edge.

The steering is light but requires a lot of turns lock to lock, and the turning circle is large. You need to keep that in mind when you’re parking, plus the vision from the driver’s seat isn’t as good as it could be.

The engine enjoys using every gear but first, but the manual shift action isn’t enjoyable and the torque on offer doesn’t come on smoothly. 

I will say this - with 750 kilograms in the back, the rear suspension didn’t sag very much at all. The Steed offers a big payload, and the chassis can cope with it.

What can’t cope with the weight is the engine - we had 750kg in the tray and four adults on board, and it was worse than sluggish. I struggled to get it moving from a standstill, revving harder than I usually would in a diesel-engined ute. There’s a lot of lag to contend with, and the engine simply doesn’t like low-speed moves at all.

But at higher speed it got into a groove, and the ride was actually really well sorted with mass over the rear axle. Plus the fact it has four-wheel disc brakes - unlike many of its newer, more high-tech rivals - means the braking performance was pretty promising, too.

From the get-go, this short-wheelbase F-150 is a smooth driving ute on road.

And the V6 offers a welcome low-level rumble as a soundtrack to your driving experience. Nice.

It’s a big vehicle with a steel ladder-frame chassis and a lengthy wheelbase, but it suits our conditions, especially with Aussie-tuned steering, impressive on-road ride and handling and its new continuously controlled adaptive dampers setup works in conjunction with the Terrain Management System and is claimed “to enhance vehicle control on every surface”, according to Ford Australia.

This system does iron out much of the jarring sharpness often felt in test vehicles along chopped-up back-country roads on the way to my unofficial 4WD proving ground.

F-150s are imported to Australia from the USA as left-hand-drive vehicles and reengineered to right-hand drive by Melbourne-based RMA Automotive, at the company’s production facility in Melbourne.

The utes undergo a comprehensive transformation – including changes to steering, driver displays, air-con, as well as software upgrades, to name but a few – aimed at making them capable of excelling in Aussie conditions.

And it does excel.

This F-150 is well controlled with a planted feel on sealed surfaces, the steering has a nice weight to it in all conditions, acceleration is smooth, and the 10-speed auto delivers clever management of this big ute.

It’s very quiet and comfortable in the cabin. You can just barely register the low-level rumble of the twin-turbocharged V6 as you truck along stretches of highway and rural back roads.

On-road, the F-150 is a near-perfect open-road touring vehicle. The bonus is, as a Platinum driver, you have access to a suite of driver-assist tech which includes modes aimed at making the task of 4WDing (Off-Road) and towing (Tow/Haul) safer, more controlled and, consequently, more enjoyable than it otherwise may be.

Much better suited to towing and hauling than 4WDing, the F-150 still makes a good fist of it, but it does have off-road limitations.

It has to be driven with consideration, and you have to understand and appreciate the off-road parameters in which this F-150 performs best. If you drive anything more severe than light-to-medium-duty off-roading, then you risk damage.

Otherwise, visibility is great, the driving position is commanding, steering at low speeds is well-weighted and precise, and throttle response is impressive.

Again, this is a big ute so it has off-road angles you’d expect for a vehicle this large: the approach angle is listed as 24.5 degrees, departure angle is 25.3 and ramp-over is 20 degrees.

Ground clearance is listed as 239mm and wading depth is 700mm. Bash plates do offer the front differential, transfer case and fuel tank some protection though.

The tyres – Hankook Dynapro AT2 all-terrains (275/60R20) – aren’t well suited to 4WDing, but more aggressive all-terrain tyres on an 18-inch rim and an aftermarket suspension lift would go some of the way to help sort out the F-150’s off-road issues with its less-than-ideal showroom-standard rubber, only adequate ground clearance and off-road angles.

For such a big ute, payload is an underwhelming 704kg. For reference, the Ram 1500 (878kg) and Chevrolet Silverado (757kg) offer more, and even mainstream dual-cab utes, such as the Ford Ranger – 966kg (kerb weight)/1010kg (min kerb weight) – offer better payloads.

If you’re looking for a decent towing platform, it’s likely an F Series is already on your shopping list. This F-150’s maximum unbraked towing capacity is 750kg and 4500kg (braked), Gross Vehicle Mass is 3315kg and Gross Combined Mass is 7365kg.

This F-150 remains on par with rivals in the 4WD stakes.

The Ford F-150 has not been fully tested by ANCAP, but the safety watchdog did award it a Platinum collision avoidance score of 81 per cent in 2025. This rating applies only to Lariat and Platinum grades, not the XLT.

Standard safety gear includes six airbags, front and rear parking sensors, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition, a surround-view camera, auto emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control and trailer sway control.

There are top-tether child-seat attachment points in the rear seat but no ISOFIX points.

In safety terms, the F-150 has a stack of gear onboard which keeps it competitive against rivals.

Great Wall introduced a five-year/150,000km warranty in April this year, which is good for a challenger brand but doesn't push the boundaries for the ute segment. There is three years of roadside assist cover as well.

There is no capped price servicing plan, but the Steed requires maintenance every 12 months or 15,000km (following an initial six-month checkup).

Concerned about problems, issues, faults, common complaints, transmission or engine reliability? Check out our Great Wall problems page.

The F-150 has a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and that’s pretty much standard for vehicles in the Aussie market.

Servicing is scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs soonest and the F-150’s 12 months of free roadside assistance is extended when those schedules are followed.

Ford’s five-year pre-paid service package for this vehicle costs $1968, working at an average cost of $393.60 per service.

Ford Australia has about 180 dealerships.

In ownership terms, the F-150 remains competitive against its full-sized rivals.