The F150 has been making news during the latest gas crunch, losing its #1 spot to the Civic and then having the new model year released pushed back, but it seems that things might be turning around for the iconic American truck. ABG reports that the 2009 F150 will come in a new SFE trim, which stands for Super Fuel Economy. The SFE trim will boost gas mileage 1 mpg to give the trucks 15/21 mpg by the new EPA ratings.

This new SFE model is meant to compete with GM’s XFE models, which were recently expanded to some trucks and SUVs. SFE is slightly unfortunate, because it sounds so much like XFE, and because “super fuel economy” gives you the idea that “wow, this vehicle must get great gas mileage.” However, it’s a truck, and it while it might get good mileage for a truck, or compared to other trims, it’s definitely not “super.” I’m not hating on Ford here, but it would’ve been more accurate to choose a name with the connotation of “better” than “best.”

Setbacks and funky names aside, Ford has managed to match the fuel economy of GM’s trucks, and while trucks are definitely not going to be the way of the future for most consumers, they’re still the bread and butter of these two companies. And for my part, I’m not going to complain about anyone getting better fuel economy than they would otherwise.

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If you haven’t noticed, people aren’t exactly keen on driving trucks and SUVs these days. This isn’t just affecting commuters, but also city governments, businesses, and truckers. Just last month the F150 finally fell from it’s position as the best-selling vehicle in the US, and now it’s come out the Ford is delaying the release of the iconic truck.

Originally, production of the 2009 F150, a highly anticipated redesign, was supposed to begin production this month. According to Edmunds, however, that production schedule has now been pushed back two months until August and September. This is amid news from Ford that the company will be scaling back its production of trucks and SUVs while working on a more fuel efficient vehicle lineup.

Ford will be rereleasing it’s Fiesta subcompact, to be built in Mexico, in 2010. Ford also plans to update its popular compact car, the Focus, so that it is common with the European model. The 2011 Focus will not only be redesigned, but should get much better mileage as the company looks to compete with the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

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Coupled with GM’s news that the company will be closing plants and scaling back SUV production, the word that the F150 is finally not the country’s best-selling vehicle seems to put the final nail in the coffin of American gas guzzling. Sure, there are still tons of F150s selling (a lot of them to people who don’t really need them), but this change represents one of the biggest swings in the US auto market recently.

The numbers tell the whole story. Here are May’s top five selling vehicles:

1. Honda Civic – 53,299
2. Toyota Corolla – 52,826
3. Toyota Camry – 51,291
4. Honda Accord – 43,728
5. Ford F-150 – 42,973

Overall, most of the automakers were way down in sales, except for Nissan and Honda, with Honda posting an increase of 11%. Strong sales of traditional economy cars show that people are not just trying to save money on gas, but are buying less expensive, less powerful cars in order to cope with an economic slowdown.

So what does all this really mean? It’s hard to say. On the one hand, the Prius is the most searched for new car on cars.com, but hybrid sales are also slumping. It seems that buyers know about the fuel economy possibilities with hybrids like the Prius, but are getting scared off by the price premium and moving towards either no car or a small car like the Civic or Corolla.

The real question now is, will it stick?

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