Leaderboard

You haven't presented any evidence that Ford is accepting lower margin by selling to fleet. You haven't presented any evidence that GM is growing the truck margin by focusing on retail and ignoring the 40% of the market that Ford and Ram are not ignoring. The only thing we know is GM is still spending more on incentives than Ford to achieve less sales in fullsize trucks. That implies exactly the opposite of the theory you keep floating. When you are a volume player in the segment, you don't maximize profit by not selling to the biggest buyers. That's a classic mistake. A volume player in an oligopoly market should only deploy the strategy to maximize marginal unit profit when you are production constrained and/or when your competitors cannot respond to your higher prices. Absent those condition, you are just bleeding sales AND profits. Fullsize truck market is a classic oligopoly with 3 dominate players each holding roughly 30% of the market. GM is not production constrained on fullsize pickup truck and Ford and Ram are more than capable or taking away sales from customers that GM is not interested in selling. In this situation, you can't maximize profitability by restricting volume... you are just spreading your fixed costs over fewer units. This is different from luxury cars or midsize cars where it is not an oligopoly and GM is not a major volume player. In those markets, GM can restrict output and try to maximize profit. In another word, GM can find a niche and try to stay out of the way of dominate players in those segments. In fullsize trucks, GM can't stay out of the way of the dominate players because it is one of the dominate players.

Apparently that is changing: https://www.motor1.com/reviews/355250/2020-ford-explorer-first-drive/

I agree that Cuautitlan could replace the Fiesta production for the Puma since the platforms are all B-based, so investments should be low. The same goes for Camaçari/Brazil. That plant could "easily" make Puma alongside Ecosport and Ka, in my opinion - similarly to Craiova.

No their end result is being able to use a hybrid system over multiple platforms. The A10 with this system is going to be used in the Bronco, F-150, Ranger all down the road and make money off it. It will improve MPGs but not as much as a regular hybrid, but it also won't be limited like other makes either. Toyota says not use the highlander off road-the Explorer Hybrid can still do that.

That's about the only angle it looks good from IMO

Thanks to all for the answers. For the past month I have been the proud owner of a ruby red Titanium Edge. The turbo is pleasant to drive and gets good fuel economy and also power when you need it.

Explain to me why Ford's rebates are lower then if Ford just wants to ensure highest volume possible. Seriously? Have you never been to a campground, or even on a highway to see all the Super Duty and Ram HD trucks pulling big fifth wheels?

Fixed that for you.

Nah, it'll be a W16, and this will turn out to be the whole point of the VW fling.?

They should turn the power up to 850hp

Except Ford has the fleet sales AND the high trim trucks sales.

Multiple the problems/vehicle by the number of vehicles sold. If each sold 1,000,000 vehicles, then it comes out to 630,000 problems vs. 1,300,000 problems. There you can start the see the difference a seemingly insignificant number represents.

omg.. the front of that truck in that video shot is just... Ughhhh.. I swear the media tries to use the ugliest versions of the truck as advertisement lol.

And at the end, he was urging it to make the finish...that was painful. I know that hill well, the last 8th of a mile is indeed very steep. The Ranger crushed that climb - they held it back per their own ground rules, as they do with all Ford Ecoboost engines. Fords are the only trucks that can actually exceed the speed limits consistently with max load on that beast of a climb.

I noticed that too. It looked like he was really fighting it.

If you are buying a Gladiator to tow a trailer, you are buying the wrong vehicle....

We are repairing them at flat rock.... a lot of issues with the explorer