V6 offerings make up 50% of retail Ford F-150 sales in April

Ford sold 45,435 F-150s in April, up 11 percent versus the top-selling truck's April 2010 totals. That's a solid month for truck sales with soaring fuel prices, but the finer sales details show that truck buyers are very mindful of prices at the pump.

Ford announced in its monthly sales totals release that V6-equipped F-150s accounted for 50 percent of retail sales, up considerably from the 40 percent mix in March. The 3.7-liter V6 offers truck buyers 305 horsepower and 23 miles per gallon on the highway, so it's not surprising that some owners are opting for the smaller mill.

But the more popular V6 offering is the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, which boasts 365 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. Ford says 75 percent of those V6 sales are of the EcoBoost variety, which makes sense, given the fact that the boosted mill accounted for 36 percent of all F-150 sales in April. The EcoBoost F-150 gets up to 22 mpg on the highway, which is still as good as or better than the other pickup trucks on the market.