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If you have a great design, the material used is seldom noticed. but a poor design will make the cheap materials scream out loud.

I try to be well informed on GM, Ford, FCA, Navistar, Isuzu, and DTNA as a part of my profession. I post here because there are some very knowledgeable contributors on these forums.

I have no doubt I'd be impressed. I know EV's have instant torque and knock-your-head back acceleration, but I don't spend my driving time drag racing. The past two days I've spent my time driving through 4" of sloppy, wet snow. Difficult, slow driving in below freezing temps. Lot of tire spin and white knuckle driving. These are not the best conditions for a BEV vehicle. Battery range is going to be reduced, probably significantly. ICE vehicles are just more of a sure-bet to most folks who drive in these conditions. EVs are indeed the future, you and I just disagree how fast it will happen. In rural areas, such as where I live, acceptance will be slow. Probably much faster in urban areas.

First off, about these new 10 speed automatics: According to what I have been told, the light duty 10 speed RWD automatic was a JV between Ford and GM, with Ford taking the lead in development. The JV resulted in the Ford 10R80 and GM 10L80 and they are each manufactured by their respective users. Ford based their new 10 speed Torq-Shift 10R140 on the basic 10R80 design, but it is 'scaled up' and has significantly higher capacity. Many of the components are identical in design and function, and only differ in size and strength. The new 'Allison' 10L1000 is GM designed and manufactured, and not a version of the Torq-Shift 10R140. However, it is very similar in many respects to the other 10 speed automatics particularly in power flow and holding devices. Best way to describe the similarities is to think of the old Ford C4, Turbo-Hydramatic 350, and Chrysler TorqFlite: All three were 2 clutch/2 band Simpson geartrain 3 speed automatics. The older Allison 1000 series is a 6 speed and not related to the 'Allison' 10L1000.

The 7.3 gasser is a great move on Ford's part. With diesel engines becoming more complex and expensive, not to mention the higher price of fuel, having a capable V8 gasser is a must. A diesel just doesn't make financial sense if you aren't towing heavy regularly. I tow about 13k lbs of fifth wheel, and if I were to replace my truck today, I'm not sure if I would go back with the 6.7L diesel or the new 7.3L gasser. I don't NEED 1050 ft-lbs of torque, but dang it sure is fun and makes towing easy!

Now that the kinks have been fixed I have to say I am thrilled with the Edge. Comfortable and the safety features are a plus. ?

My reasoning is: The things that buyers see all the time should be different to the Escape, otherwise the whole point of a baby Bronco is lost and would struggle to command a premium price over the Escape.

I've only used comfort mode in the Nautilus, really haven't driven it enough to experiment. I learned to drive in a 73 LTD Country Squire wagon, if i could put that one through the twisties i can put anything through them :)

how many times are you going to post the same post lol

Mark Phelan rated the Ranger first, the Jeep Gladiator second, the Silverado 2500/3500 third. https://www.freep.com/in-depth/money/cars/mark-phelan/2019/12/29/free-press-truck-year-ford-ranger-loaded-value-features/2731686001/

Leave the black seals in the early ones and they are all wet clutches. He probably has input seals leaking anyway. The trans case seals to the back of the block so well that I've removed some and caught a pint of fluid escaping with no signs of leak externally. The early clutch performs pretty well with fluid all over it and the latest software. If the latest software was available at launch, and the trans was introduced properly at time of sale, we would only be talking about TCM issues and not clutch shudder ones.

Cargo cabovers are a possibility, but consider cabovers are still a small percentage of the medium duty market and here in the U.S. and there are very strong competitors. My guess is a platform consolidation. The 450 and 550 as basically part of the regular F series Super Duty product line, while the much lower volume 650 and 750 are unique. Maybe Ford is thinking along the lines of one medium duty platform from 450 up, borrowing components from the Super Duty platform as much as possible. "Med Duty as you know it has a short life" could mean a lot of things........

But it sure is fun!

the young lady holding the headlight has REALLY hairy arms...

...well, I’d guess that they aren’t mind-bending or they would. You can find the reason why all over the internet on boards just like this one with people crapping all over EVs without ever having lived with one. I don’t know of a single person who bought an EV who went back to ICE. Ford has begun the media work to change the minds they helped set-up to distrust EVs in the first place. I own a TM3P. I also have a reservation on the Mach. I want to see Ford succeed, here, because despite protestations, the EV market is the future. If Ford fans would step up and try one out, they’d find out how great living with one can be...and they’d help their company transition into the new marketplace. It is kind of telling Ford’s own employees won’t eat their own food and points to how ingrained anti-EV sentiment is within the company.

I'm thinking Ford is being proactive by offering the 7.3 V8. There might be increased pressure to regulate/tax diesel engines/fuel in the near future. Having a capable and solid gas alternative might mean a great deal.

The implications are obvious. If Autopilot was in use, here we go again. If not, what sort of braking tech does Telsa have? If this was an accident that the Tesla should have prevented, what went wrong? https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/12/30/telsa-rear-ends-fire-truck-indiana-killing-arizona-woman/40911551/

Vehicles are not necessarily produced in sequence by the VIN numbers. There are a lot of different commodity issues that can cause the scheduled production of a vehicle to be pushed back and commodity issues/restrictions can vary by region. Trim (XL, XLT, Lariat, etc.) wouldn't cause a delay nor would the powertrain. There has to be a particular option on your order that caused the scheduled production to be pushed back due to a plant constraint, supplier problem, etc. Your Dealer should be able to tell you why your vehicle status changed. If they don't know they can contact their Ford Zone Manager or the regional scheduler for the answer.

For anyone curious about the approximate breakdown of F Series sales, my research leads me to think that a 72,000 sales month would be roughly: F150 ~50,000.....60% EB, 30% V8, 5% 3.3, 5% Diesel F250 ~8,850.......60% diesel, 40% 6.2 gas F350 ~4,450........90% diesel, 10% 6.2 Gas F450 ~2,300........100% diesel F550~4,250.........100% diesel F650~1,950..........25% diesel, 75% 6.8 Gas F750~200..............Unknown By no means 100% accurate but I'm comfortable it's close enough for discussion purposes. F450 to F750 fairly accurate data, F150, F250 and F350 are approximate sales splits. I hope this helps with moving conversations forward, don't have much color on the GM twins except for 2/3s 1500, 1/3 HDs but i suspect that they would follow a similar pattern to Ford. Love to know people's thoughts on how the 7.3 V8 will transform sales and whether Ford will be forced to make more "production room" or will we see some shift away from the 6.7 diesel

Ugh, that's disappointing I wish there was a physical button to just turn the screen off instead of having to flip through the menus to find it. The old Escape had one and it was awesome. I used it every day on my home from work.

And this is why I’m thinking two things here, 1. The original premise of the F650/F750 was flawed and biased towards maximising F650 gas sales. 2. The arrival of the F600 threatens to undermine the F650’s 2,000 odd per month gas sales. Clearly Ford letting those buyers choose which they want. Surely Ford wouldn’t spend funds on new gas engine in the two MDs to then undercut them, it must be expecting an overall increase in sales even if the numbers are a rebalance thanks to the 7.3. Bottom line, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, the MDs aren’t going away but how and when is Ford going to change them. We probably won’t get any intel on that until the F600 has time in the market and the data is in.

Just a FYI - you unlock it by just grabbing the door handle.

For sure-in particular the 9 L motor. As for F-750's low numbers, I think the 7.3 in a couple of months will help that. But I understand you STILL can only get air brakes with the Power Stroke . What logic could possibly support that -other than Ford's constant quest to keep ATP up. In any case put the 9 L in it and that would be a big help-be it a Cummins or the Turk Duratorque.

I had a 2011 Escape Limited and to be honest I liked it's interior design. The dash had sort of a baby F-150 look to it. Material wise my '19 Ranger has nothing on that Escape. Of course the '08-'12 Escape is still my favorite generation of that vehicle. Hopefully the new baby Bronco will appeal to the group that liked the boxy SUV style.

this is the big Bronco's headlight. Here's baby Bronco's grille insert. You can clearly see the headlight assembly from this thread wouldn't fit properly in this insert. Similar style to keep the family look, sure, but not the same setup:

Here are some stats on the pre-orders from Ford: https://www.autoblog.com/2019/12/30/2021-ford-mustang-mach-e-pre-order-stats-facts/ 80% of pre orders opted for the long range battery (300 miles RWD; 270 AWD) - I'm not surprised by this 55% opted for AWD 30% were for the GT 25% of orders were from California Colors: 38% were for Carbonized gray 35% for Grabber Blue 27% for Rapid Red Those color numbers don't make sense because they add up to 100, and there were other colors like white and black available, and I doubt there are zero of each of those.

The absolute mad lad... not only do we know the leaker is of the Nordic power persuasion, but he also has access the the top secret square cubby storage room. Bless this man ?

It’s a safe bet to use MEB as a Euro based EV or group of vehicles, the rate of change with EV development is just so fast at the moment. I’d love to know exactly where all of the $11 billion is being spent....

Try this for the liftgate: Pick a spot about a foot from the center on either side and lift your foot straight up as if you’re touching the top of your foot to the bottom of the bumper. Don’t wave it back and forth. Works every time. Don’t bother with the keypad unless you’re trying to lock the fob inside. Just touch the top of the door handle to lock.

If so it’s bad news for ford. Coming from a 2013 fusion, the drop off in interior quality is very apparent in the new escape. Although I guess they are thinking escape buyers would be coming from a focus in which it would probably be the same quality.

Escape looks weak by itself, but Ford has more crossovers coming in this size including the compact pickup and the companion utility (whatever that looks like). I don't think Ford intended to sell as many Escapes as it once did because they seem to be hurting on margins and want richer customers. Their solution is not to make Escape more upscale but to make a different series of more exciting products. Escape to me seems like something designed to appeal to the car customer and previous Escape customer while designing an efficient package best suited for economy and a Hybrid. I actually think the best Escape to buy is the Hybrid AWD and I hope the adoption rate on that is pretty high. Ford has an extremely weak Utility range right now (the only company with declining utility sales), it's going to take a few years to fill it out.

I wouldn't call it the worse, but it could have been so much more. If Fords goal is to have the highest ATPs in the industry you have to give customers a reason to spend more for your product. It's a decent vehicle, but one that will need incentives and heavily subsidized leases to move off the lot once it ages a little just like the old Escape. If you want people to pay higher prices then you really need to stand out. Maybe they are hoping the baby Bronco can bring the bacon home and offer the Escape as a more of a commodity product. I guess we'll have to wait and see how that product stands out in the market.

the very first line of the review is a mistake, “the redesigned escape is good looking.” ???

classic case of buying parts from lowest bidder turning a good name to mud.

Directly from the site you linked. It's possible it's for F-Series only, but I would think it would be the same across all models. It's possible there is an issue with it reading the fact that the vehicle has EATC on the Ranger, so it's not showing up. It's really hard to tell since it isn't dark. I'll go out and check tonight, but it'll probably be over a week before I actually drive it to know for sure. It does have a brightness setting that I don't remember it having before, but it didn't seem to change much when I adjusted it.

Would be kinda cool to make a new 351 Windsor motor...

My thoughts are similar to yours; I'm not sure Ford can pull this off without glitches. I have a reservation and will hold on until I'm forced to make a decision. Hopefully Z plan pricing will be known at that point. The other thoughts are more about how we use our two vehicles. Our around-town car only gets 5k annually and we've had a couple of PHEV's that work very well (Volt/Fusion Energi) although a little more range would be nice. Our trip car gets around 15k annually and is presently a Lincoln MKZ Hybrid which works well. I don't know how a BEV fits in this picture. For limited local use it would be expensive and subjected to parking lot dings. For trips, the charging infrastructure it tied mainly to expressways and could inhibit our trips somewhat (time/flexibility). We're all set up with a Level 2 charger in the garage with separately-metered off-peak charging so a PHEV or BEV at home is no issue.. I am still able to lease management cars from Ford which is the easy way to go but of course the Mach E won't be available, at least initially. I really want to see the details on the Corsair PHEV next spring. With AWD and a decent electric range, that could actually fit the bill nicely. You're also correct that there are going to be a lot more choices in a few years. As the supply infrastructure is built up, the value proposition will improve. Batteries will improve in range and charging speed and, combined with more charging infrastructure, longer trips won't be a concern.

Its definitely more Brown. I like it a lot though.