American Truck Simulator Road Trip: Mustang, F-150, Bronco or Crown Victoria – which Ford suits you?

With Road Trip: Ford, SCS Software has not simply released four similarly designed passenger cars. The first vehicle package for the new Road Trip system deliberately covers quite different areas of American automotive history.

Included are the 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback, the 2023 Ford F-150 Lariat, the 2023 Ford Bronco Badlands and a Ford Crown Victoria from the model generation that shaped the American streetscape between 1998 and 2012. This makes the package range from a classic muscle car through a pickup and off-road vehicle to a large sedan.

These differences are exactly what makes Road Trip interesting. Unlike with a classic truck DLC, you are not just choosing between different cabs or engine options of the same vehicle type. The basic idea behind each of the four Fords is already different.

1967 Ford Mustang Fastback: The Classic for the Open Road

The 1967 Mustang Fastback is by far the oldest car in the package and, at the same time, probably the one with the greatest nostalgia factor. In recreating it, SCS paid particular attention to capturing the appearance and character of the historic vehicle as authentically as possible.

This includes numerous paint jobs based on period factory colors such as Lime Gold, Acapulco Blue, Dark Moss Green, Silver Frost and Candy Apple Red. The interior also offers different contemporary color combinations and seat variants.

The Mustang therefore particularly suits players who understand Road Trip as a classic drive through the USA . Route 66, winding roads through national parks or long stretches through California simply feel completely different with a car from the 1960s than with a modern pickup.

In an earlier gameplay preview, SCS showed the Mustang, for example, on a drive from Carson City toward Yosemite National Park. This scenario alone sums up the car's role within the package quite well: less utility vehicle, more classic American road-trip feeling.

2023 Ford F-150 Lariat: The Pickup Between Work and Travel

The 2023 Ford F-150 Lariat is completely different. Instead of sitting in a historic sports car, you are in a modern full-size pickup here – and this vehicle class probably belongs more strongly than any other to today's American streetscape.

The F-150 is particularly interesting within the package because Road Trip also offers smaller delivery jobs. Which jobs can be offered partly depends on the respective vehicle type. A pickup naturally offers different possibilities for this than a classic Mustang.

SCS already showed the F-150 in detail in a gameplay preview before release. The drive first led through the traffic around Redding, California, and then onto unpaved roads.

This puts the vehicle's character somewhere between a normal road car, travel vehicle and workhorse. If you not only want to visit sights but also make greater use of the new courier jobs, the pickup is therefore a fairly obvious candidate.

SCS also put a great deal of effort into the model itself. Reference data for the F-150 was collected, among other methods, with the help of 3D scanning. Several paint jobs based on the real model series are available.

2023 Ford Bronco Badlands: For the Rougher Roads

The 2023 Ford Bronco Badlandstakes yet another position. While the F-150 is still clearly recognizable as a pickup, the Bronco is a modern off-road vehicle.

SCS accordingly describes it as a vehicle for adventure and drives away from classic paved highways. The Badlands trim belongs to the sixth generation of the Bronco and thus takes up the name of a Ford model whose history reaches back to the 1960s.

For Road Trip, the Bronco could be particularly interesting if you do not want to cross the ATS map only on Interstates. Many states have smaller back roads, unpaved sections and more remote viewpoints that fit the new focus on exploration especially well from an off-road vehicle.

However, one thing is important: Road Trip does not suddenly turn American Truck Simulator into an off-road simulation. Rather, the Bronco expands the selection of vehicle types with which the existing game world can be explored.

So if you are less interested in the classic muscle-car road trip and instead like to include smaller roads and more remote areas of the map, you will probably feel most at home in the Bronco.

Ford Crown Victoria: Everyday American Life on Four Wheels

The most unusual vehicle in the package may be the Ford Crown Victoria. It is neither a classic sports car nor a pickup or off-road vehicle, and yet it may still be one of the best-known American cars of all.

For many years, the Crown Victoria particularly shaped the image of police vehicles and taxis in the USA. Even people who know little about American cars are likely to recognize its silhouette from films, TV series or street footage.

For the game, SCS created a civilian variant based on the later Crown Victoria. Specifically, the developer describes the in-game vehicle as the 2006+ Base Crown Victoria, meaning a civilian-oriented version with a 4.6-liter V8 and four-speed automatic transmission.

This creates a rather unusual road-trip vehicle. While Mustang, Bronco and F-150 each convey a very clear image, the Crown Victoria feels more like a piece of everyday American history.

That also makes it exciting for players who want to drive through cities and along highways as credibly as possible. A Crown Victoria in front of a motel, on a freeway or somewhere in an American downtown almost seems self-evident.

For the vehicle, SCS even collected reference material and sounds from a real Crown Victoria Police Interceptor in Germany. The actual in-game model, however, is not simply a police car but the civilian version.

Four Vehicles – But Not the Same Gameplay Four Times

With this first Ford package, Road Trip demonstrates quite well why different vehicle types are relevant in the first place. The difference is not merely which model you see on the screen.

The Mustang particularly represents classic road-trip atmosphere and historic car culture. The F-150 combines normal travel with the character of an American pickup and therefore suits smaller transport jobs well. The Bronco is aimed more at players who also find side roads and rougher routes interesting while exploring. And the Crown Victoria brings the typical American everyday car of earlier decades into the game world.

Even so, you should not derive a fixed ranking from this. Road Trip has only been released for a few days, and which vehicle feels best for someone depends heavily on what they actually want to do with the new mode.

Someone who wants to raise their Courier Rating as quickly as possible will probably view the vehicle selection differently from someone who simply wants to drive through Nevada or California for two hours without a job.

Individual configuration is another factor. The cars can be purchased through the new Car Dealer and then managed and customized in “My Cars”. Paint jobs and other configuration options differ from model to model.

The Ford package is also only the beginning of the Road Trip system. Additional vehicle packages are intended to bring more brands and vehicle types into the same mode. As a result, the differences between individual cars are likely to become even more interesting in the long term.

At launch, the four Fords already cover a surprisingly broad range: muscle car, pickup, SUV and large sedan. Anyone who has tried Road Trip since release therefore really has to ask not only which car looks the best – but which one best suits their own tours.

Which of the four Fords do you currently like driving most: Mustang, F-150, Bronco or Crown Victoria – and why that one?