2009 Chicago Auto Show: 2010 Ford Harley-Davidson F-150

What is it?
2010 Ford Harley-Davidson F-150

What's special about it?
We are normally skeptical about any co-branded car model. Maybe it just reminds us too much of past co-branding adventures such as the Levi's Gremlin or the Oleg Cassini AMC Matador.

But Ford and Harley-Davidson have been collaborating since 2000 and, you know, the connection makes at least some sense — American icons and so forth and so on. In that time Ford has released 14 models of these things, so somebody must be buying them.

At the 2009 Chicago Auto Show, Ford unveils the 2010 version, which is exactly as big and shiny and leathery as you might imagine it would be. The 2010 comes with a unique front grille, which Ford describes as billetlike. It comes with enormous, polished, forged-aluminum 22-inch wheels. Ford says that the addition of the standard deployable running boards gives the truck a lowered appearance.

And naturally the H-D model comes with a whole mess of Harley badges. The truck comes in black (of course) and Lava — a deep, brooding three-color metal-flake paint.

Handmade cloisonné badges are mounted to the seats and console lid. The seats are made to look like a biker jacket from the Harley MotorClothes apparel line. The seatbacks have ribbed leather treatments, engraved button snaps and map pockets featuring zippers from Harley jackets. Kinky!

You can have your Harley-Davidson F-150 in either rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive configurations. Either way, you can only get the H-D model in the SuperCrew configuration. It's powered by the same 320-horsepower 5.4-liter V8 that's available in the standard F-150.

Inside Line says:
This might be the best-looking Harley-Davidson F-150 Ford has ever produced. — Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit