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It's one thing to drive a competitor's product, it's another to state publicly that you don't want to give it up. Too much information shared that should be.

If I said something like that publicly I would probably be fired. The double standard is ridiculous.

I know looks are subjective...but to me theres just WAY toom much going on in teh way of too many colours, same can be said of the Limited Heritage interior...holy smokes batman....dont get me started on teh Bronco Sport with the rainbow on the sides...Who the hell signs off on those disasters ? the same guy that choreographed the Paris Olympics opening ceremony? same for the Freewheeling package....yikes...may be just me, but I totally prefer understated...no need for 4 or more exterior colors on one sole model ( or in the Limited Heritages case 5 or 6 interior colors )... total overkill

Ford’s problem is cost which is high due to warranty costs plus mismanagement of platforms. They solved the latter starting with C2 and seem to be on track to solving the first one but that will take years to pay off and requires consistent effort.

I'd argue well thought out got to have it factor endures. Still love my maverick hybrid over 2 years later. Unless it becomes an absolute dumpster fire to own, which doesn't seem likely based on the data we have, I'm still gonna love it in 5-10 years. The cybertruck's wow factor wore off quickly because it's not a well designed vehicle. It's not a good practical truck, it's not a good ev. The only good thing it has going for it was the wild exterior. But they took too long to release it. The racial and bold feel wore off, and once it did, all you were left with was an ugly, poorly engineered truck. If your got to have it factor comes from stupid gimmicks, it's gonna get old fast. If it comes from having a good design and features, it'll appeal to people for years to come.

Here are September results (figures in the above post/Ford's release are for the quarter): Comparison charts for major truck players and Ford/GM EV trucks and vans for Q3:

You guys are overlooking one important thing - the market. No matter how interesting you make a compact or mid sized family sedan (and I would argue the 2013 Fusion is still the best looking one) price is still king of that market. It’s like trying to sell hot dogs off a food cart with 8 other food carts. You might be able to upsell a few unique items but the bulk of sales are plain old hot dogs and nobody is paying a premium for yours when they can get it cheaper 100 feet away. Yes you can still make a little money that way but you must keep costs super low. Amortize the hell out of your platforms and powertrains with minimal changes over decades and sell globally for volume. Ford mismanaged their global platforms for decades so they don’t have that luxury today, although C2 is a big step in that direction. And maybe CE1 will do that on the EV side. Ford’s wheelhouse is F series, Transit, Explorer, Mustang, Bronco and Expedition. And those are uniquely NA/Australian products that won’t sell in any volume in Europe, Asia or South America. They found a niche with Maverick and Bronco Sport and those could go global at some point. It would be stupid for Ford to cut resources to those programs to heavily invest in cars globally or invest in smaller vehicles for Europe at this point. Had the EV market not demanded such big investment then they could put more resources towards global vehicles but that’s a done deal at this point.

Thats fine as long as the playing field is level. But nobody should trust China to play fair with the U.S. and that’s the problem.

Then there are all the people in North Fla and South Georgia who may be without power for weeks. You can fill up 5 gallon cans and transport gasoline from surrounding areas. Or get gas stations up and running on generators.

They have a perfectly good plant in Canada. That already built it. Not that long ago.

To be fair, I don't think any manufacturer really knows what buyers want - there are other brands with a variety of EV models and they're not flying off the lots either. Definitely agree with you that the successful "warp speed" process that brought Maverick was thrown out the window for whatever reason. Why not follow that same process with another model? Or even a new Escape?

I believe we all called this one except for rperez.

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2024/10/15/2025-ford-bronco-stroppe-special-edition-honors-the-original-baj.html Looks pretty sharp! Two door only

Ridgeline is for Honda owners who want a pickup. Keeps them in a Honda instead of a Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Ram or GM. Any appeal other than that is gravy.

The American Truck Historical Society (ATHS) had its annual show in June at the PA State Fairgrounds in York PA. A total of 898 trucks were on display from all over the US and a couple of foreign countries. Of the top five, Mack had the highest representation at 185, with Peterbilt second at 146, Kenworth third at 124, Ford fourth at 58, and International fifth at 55. Not surprising that Mack, Ford and International did as well given eastern location. Closer show is held closer to west coast, Paccar rules. Nice to see the ATHS show issue of 180 pages had this "two story Falcon" on the cover. Company that owns this also had a beautiful LT 9000 at the show and both are still used moving equipment. Note cover refers to this as an LTL an obvious error as it is a CLT

I think what some people, both in this comments section, and on other discussion boards aren't realizing as much as they should, is new cars have gradually transitioned from a need, to a want item. Wind the clocks back 4-5 decades and people genuinely needed new cars. Cars didn't last a very long time, you had to replace them frequently, often with a new car. You bought a new car because you needed to get into something dependable. Or because your wife was pregnant and you needed something more practical. These days, you still see small issues, but catastrophic strand you in the side of the road issues are significantly less common than they used to be. Your car will generally last a really long time if you take care of it. So there's less need to upgrade to a new car, the car I already own is perfectly fine, why spend the money? That's why it's really important to make more emotional, exciting cars, the kinds of things you've always dreamed about owning. That gives you an incentive to buy that new car where there's no practical need to. Some may doubt Ford's strategy, but appealing to people who genuinely love cars seems like a brilliant strategy moving forward.

It’s only a priority when it starts affecting sales and/or the bottom line.

comparison vs the 2004 movie I, Robot lol

And I don’t want to hear how cheap entry level cars creates brand loyalty. It doesn’t. Those buyers will buy whatever is on sale at the time regardless of brand.

Well duh it takes time to put all new vehicles and processes into production. But considering there are apple, Tesla and Rivian alumni all working together there is no reason to think they won’t have some great new ideas and innovations.

This is an underappreciated opinion. https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/buying-a-car/people-spending-more-on-new-cars-but-prices-not-necessarily-rising-a3134608893/

Building and selling an affordable EV is one thing. Making a decent profit while doing it is something else entirely and this is where I think the skunkworks team will pay off big for Ford.

Yes. It's called don't get this package. lol

That was sarcasm because that’s not what Ford is doing.

the power console seems incredibly unnecessary

This move has to be viewed in context of what it was meant to do.... Ford was behind on EV tech, with looming regulations in Europe. This move allowed them to "quickly" (in automotive terms) get some Euro EV products out the door when they were behind. IMO, it was always meant as a stopgap plan until Ford could get its own (better) in-house products up and running, and that's what it seems like is happening.

2025 Ram HD Lineup Shows Beefy Grille And Split Headlights In First Official Photos | Carscoops

I seriously question those statistics. How do you determine that a particular fatal crash was survivable if the vehicle sizes were the same? In a lot of accidents size is irrelevant and the person would have died anyway. Way too many assumptions required to get that statistic.

The solution is to fix flatrock or open up Cuauatitlan for C2 production.

I totally agree with you on all of the above. I support this ban even though I’m a Canadian. Then again, America takes the lead and big little Canada follows!

Well, when you routinely discontinue or are working to discontinue vehicles and replace them with vehicles that there isn’t certainty that people want to buy, you likely end up with a lot of extra capacity. This rule is one of the few that I agree with regarding this administration. Never give a foreign adversary the potential to surreptitiously insert potential intelligence gathering tools or systems that can be utilized as weapons into your country. The exploding pager/communication device operation carried out recently is an example of how connected systems can be employed kinetically by an adversary.

What do you want, a Ferrari? 😂

My F150 gets 21-25 mpg depending on speed, has a 6.5 ft bed can tow 11k lbs and has 470 lb/ft. Maintenance is exactly the same as a Maverick. Only big compromises are price and size when parking.

I don't think we've seen any mules for the Dodge rebadges yet, so who knows if they're moving forward with that plan. I know what you mean about Chargers - maybe the saving grace there is they've made it able to have a ICE powertrain still? I thought the Airflow was a good looking model, even if generic. Odd that they'd have pushed it to production before realizing people didn't like it.

I was suprised with the performance too..I guess the extra 2 gears help with that. Its really not that much slower then the previous gen 2L Ecoboost in the pre 2020 Escapes

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fca-reports-q3-2024-total-us-sales-302265584.html Somehow they sold a new Dart last quarter.......yes, a model that was dropped 8 years ago. I want to know where this garage of old "new" models is that they have.

So 34% of teamsters are sharp as a marble, Harris / Biden have made nothing better , past , present or future. Fein is backing what might be the most stupid VP in history , the potato is not any better. Watch the fear when her teleprompter stops , comedy gold. https://t.co/287bSswwgS

Gov Kemp suspended gas tax in Ga to help with hurricane recovery.

If you really want to punish your eyes, check out the new Ram heavy duty front end. I won't share a photo of it here, because that would be cruel and uncalled for punishment.

Double edged sword with Lincoln - they seemingly don't want to make a bigger investment to grow sales, but sales won't grow (significantly) without a bigger investment.

Motor Trend speculates that during normal driving the generator will essentially be running the entire time, which means the battery pack can provide the extra power for faster cruising and mountain grades. The downside I see is that estimated fuel economy in case of this motorhome (similar to Super Duty towing) is not improved. However, if instead of a motorhome it was a Super Duty pickup, it implies that a similar powertrain would not improve fuel economy while towing, but could operate strictly as a BEV when empty and close to home. For owners who tow often, a SD EREV probably doesn’t make too much sense, but for those who rarely tow, it makes more sense by comparison, IMO.

Yes, interesting how advanced that BMW was 10 years ago, but back then most experts and governments were pushing BEV and not PHEV or EREV. Regardless, since you brought up an actual extended-range electric vehicle, it reminded me of a very recent Motor Trend article covering a Thor extended-range motorhome unveiled a few days ago, which has weight and size somewhat similar to a large pickup towing a mid-size trailer. Notice the RV has a 4-cylinder generator to supplement batteries, and what happens when batteries are depleted. Just sharing for your information. It confirms what I thought would happen, with MT covering it in more details than we had previously. https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/thor-harbinger-hybrid-electric-class-a-rv-prototype-drive-review/

It's interesting to me that no other automaker (other than Hyundai, to an extent) has brought a Maverick-fighter to the market. It continues to impress in sales.

The bits that VW are having problems with are the bits that Ford has changed - a better production line process that is way less labor intensive - replaced MEB battery with Ford sourced unit - replacing MEB motors, drives and control units with own design Basically, Ford has turned VW MEB into a quasi-Ford design. Amazing what Ford can do when it’s all about saving money…..

I don't think it's illuminated...

Twice, actually. It was supposed to be a complete rebuild from what I heard.

When announcing the proposed ban the US government stated there is already "ample evidence" of prepositioned Chinese malware in US infrastructure. This ban is needed and is overdue. China is most definitely not our friend.

And... this is why Farley is planning to restart vehicle production in India.

https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/redesigned-lincoln-nautilus-lands-highest-iihs-accolade?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR38918cDLngYUbPqI40uqdDWB7Tfbdoyi90lYoNutaS0Rf8JQfKt6Q6Hq0_aem_AZFPwORroao3M4Oi_0tiXb1N21vu0f37IpRYba0Tq8lHNHuGTVBeDgkSCzh6o0jna2CJ0XBn2I2jP7z6DsW4jttp And 2 years from now they’ll change the test and declare it a death trap.