What is the best pick up?
Stats Project
Jacob Helm, Jacob Larue, Dakota Soderlund, and Carissa Wentz
Every manufacturer of pickups claims that they make the best pickup. They claim they have the highest torque, horsepower, can tow the most, and the greatest payload capacity. We are testing these claims to see who is actually correct and who has the best value for customers.
For our statistics project, we decided to study the four most common American pickups (GMC, Dodge, Ford, and Chevrolet). We wanted to find out which pickup was the best value. We decided to compare horsepower, torque, maximum towing, and payload capacity compared to price. We were going to include fuel economy, but Federal Fuel Economy standards mandated by the federal government do not apply to vehicles over 8,500 pounds gross vehicle weight rating. We used the generic features of a 2010 pickup with a crew cab, standard box, and a 4x4 V8 engine powered by gasoline.
These terms will help you to better understand our project:
• MPG – miles per gallon; miles per driven per gallon of fuel
• Torque – the amount of thrust driving through from the engine to the wheels
• Horsepower – the common measurement when rating an engine’s power; one horsepower equals 550 foot pounds per second, which is the power needed to lift 550 pounds one foot off of the ground in one second
• Payload capacity – gross vehicle weight rating minus curb weight (vehicle weight)
• Maximum towing – the upper limit of the maximum weight of a trailer a vehicle
To gather our information, we sent out surveys to eight dealerships (two of each type of make). We also used the internet to gather information.
These are our central tendencies and measures of variance:
| Mean | Median | Range | Standard Deviation | |
| Torque | 384 | 380 | 42 | 19.03 |
| Horsepower | 350 | 360 | 90 | 40.99 |
| Payload Capacity | 2073 | 1954 | 380 | 541.88 |
| Maximum Towing | 11716.7 | 11900 | 2400 | 1055.3 |
| Price | 42410 | 42320 | 8720 | 3874.94 |
Z Scores:
| Dodge | Chevrolet | GMC | Ford | |
| Torque | 1.21 | -.21 | -.21 | -1.00 |
| Horsepower | .98 | .24 | .24 | -1.22 |
| Payload Capacity | .95 | -.22 | -.22 | 1.29 |
| Maximum Towing | -1.11 | .93 | .93 | .17 |
Calculations:
To statistically figure out which pickup is the best, we followed this formula for each pickup:
z(torque)+z(horsepower)+z(payload capacity)+z(maximum towing)
price
We got an extremely small number so we took it times 10,000. This way it was a lot easier to understand the number. Our results are:
1. Dodge 2500 = .43
2. Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD = .18
3. GMC Sierra 2500 HD = .16
4. Ford F-250 = -.20
Conclusions:
Since Dodge has the highest figured z-score, it was the best pickup for the price, by our calculations. Ford, while it was the cheapest, was the worst pickup you could buy. It had extremely low torque and horsepower, which are two important features when buying a pickup. The Chevrolet and GMC pickups were exactly the same, but cost different prices, which is why Chevrolet had a higher z-score.
