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I got to attend a Focus group that I'm pretty sure was for Rivian a couple of weeks ago. They never said for sure but they only showed one video and it was about Rivian. It was for both Trucks and SUV owners but I only got Truck questions. We saw exterior paint samples and pictures of the interior trim samples and packages then answered about 50 questions - most of which was choosing between 6 different BEV pickup configurations from multiple mfrs including Rivian, Ford, Land Rover and a couple of others. Nothing Rivian specific - just different combinations of bed sizes, battery range, cost, drivetrains (number of motors, 2wd vs 4wd) and you had to pick one. Then some questions about how much we would pay for certain features. Only 3 of our group of 16 were asked to stay for a followup session - I assume they got to see the SUV since most of the ones who were dismissed were pickup owners. It was pretty cool and they paid $150 for 1 hour of work. Was hoping to see an actual vehicle though.

So you INCORRECTLY did a tuneup, causing a miss bad enough to pork the cats and that is the van's fault??? And please explain how a muffler can cause a check engine light.

His complaint about seat discoloration is why I will never ever EVER own another car with seats that aren't black ever again, I don't care what kind of car it is or what material it is.

Well, through some sneaky mind altering finagling, and reverse psychology I got my wife to agree to upgrade from F250 to F450. Boy is this a big truck. I am only worried about hitting things with the wide rear end . bye bye 2014 F250 Platinum, hello 2018 F450 Platinum! Now when we go shopping for fifth wheel campers I can now virtually pull ANYTHING! Before I was limited to 15,900.

I know what you are thinking. Yes, He has destroyed other Fords in his reviews (like my poor Ranger) and I’ll be honest, he is pretty critical of the Explorer in this review. The difference is, he really likes the vehicle as a whole, but hates a lot of the individual features (and he is never going to like the 10 speed in ANYTHING). Whatever, watch it for yourself, I can’t fault it that much as much of it has been parroted here. He gets into the Ford politics in the quick (rushed) plant switchover at the end.

I like the direction Ford is taking with the "wagon" concept. Nothing wrong with variety.

Yeah I get that, but rather play it safe then sorry.

I appreciate what you guys do, but with all due respect I thought that was about as civil as you could get.

May be ford should consider not buying train depots and consider investing in something like this inner urban people mover...it actually makes sense

It’s always this way with settlements, the lawyers get paid first and their clients get what’s left. The only up side to this is that Ford will either keep fixing fiestas and Focus until customers are done with them or buy them back as trade ins on new Fords

Such a key point-and how often have you ever heard a reviewer bring that up. I think that is a huge factor-but I'm afraid Ford -as well as GM and "Mopar" will all be loosing that edge. How many young buyers today have grown up in households that have had nothing but Toyotas, Hondas etc. Me? I'm 76 and I recall a story of how my grandfather was so pissed at his Model T he made a sweeping motion with his hand in frustration that he damaged the radiator! Brand loyalty is built over time. I've always said, you could paint a pile of dog shit Cat yellow-or Deere green- or Ford blue -and guys would stand around and say.."isn't that the nicest pile of dog shit you have ever seen?" (pick your color?)

You won't get them to buyback a car that is outside of the factory warranty and at this point anything pre MY2016 is probably going to be out of warranty, and anything made after that don't seem to have as many issues by many accounts.

I think that's what I like most about him. He does pick them apart but he makes it clear it's his opinion and he doesn't take cheap shots. He's brutally honest and (as the end of the Explorer vide illustrates) he's not afraid to speak some hard truths.

Thanks for the suggestions!

November of last year. Looks like the same car from back then. https://fordauthority.com/2019/10/ford-fusion-replacement-spied-as-tall-riding-wagon/

Whatever that revenue stream happens to be it doesn’t go to Ford it goes to the shop doing the repairs.

I realize this is just a mule but it seems like a step backwards. The old fusion is so sharp.

What car does this guy like? I’ve only watched the videos of the ranger and explorer that were posted here which were negative, so I quickly scrolled through his videos on YouTube and based off of his titles, it seems like he doesn’t like any car ?

Pretty accurate review. My wife has an xlt and loves it (besides the transmission cooler repair lol). As for the interior, he’s pretty spot on. It does seem like the design is a bit unfinished. It’s good enough for us. I think the silver trim looks better then the wood trim and the 8” screen looks better too. I haven’t noticed any bad viewing angles on our screen either. I don’t have the B&O sound system but the regular speakers sound just like any other car to me. Transmission has been fine for us. I wish the console between the second row seats was a bit better. It just looks kind of cheap to me. The only thing I really didn’t like was the gas pedal. I’m used to gas pedals coming out from under the dash, but it feels like the pedal in the explorer comes up through the floor. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the angle is a bit different so it just felt weird for a few days until I got used to it. forgot to mention that we are a ford family and have never owned any other brand, so he nailed it on that point too lol.

Stories like that are why I'm researching dash cams for my cars.

Well after reading all the horror stories about all the ongoing issues at CAP, seems like a lot of that gives credibility to this guys report. Of course the best manufacturing plant in the world with the best workforce can only build the best product if the design is good. The fit and finish issues? How do you justify that? He is probably right about this vehicle being okay for us Ford boys. Guys like me who have never owned anything but. Case in point, pissed off the wife big time today because one of my daughter in laws wanted a Suburban then I got involved. Long story short they bought a 2019 Expedition Max tonite. His last point about shit rolling down hill? Sounds like he took a direct shot at Ford's direction. And to me that is clearly directed at the guy who was so successful at building office furniture. Apparently Hackett's definition of "fitness" does not translate to "fit and finish". And the comment about the second string engineers or however he referred to the engineering effort, has to be a result of cost containment (head count) while at the same time he orchestrates a total plant makeover coupled with a complete product make over. I know nothing about heavy manufacturing but IMO, sounded like a very tall order IF you had the most experienced people handling it-and with realistic timeframes. In any case SG DID give it good marks as to its "truck like roots" in a world populated by "carlike" suvs being cranked out by the rest of the industry. So there is some hope.

That backup camera is terrible omg

Yeah but I'll still take it.?

It's a company that hosts these locally (Atlanta) for all sorts of products and services so once you're in their database they send you notifications for anything they think you'd be interested in/qualify for. The first one I attended there was to look at and comment on the exterior of the about to be new Camry ( I think it was the 2012 model) before it debuted. We all owned a competing vehicle of some kind so they may have pulled it from vehicle registrations. For that one we got to look at the exterior for about 10 minutes and then had a group discussion and answered questions. Nobody liked it. The best thing we could say is the wheels were nice and the new headlights looked a lot better. For this one I originally answered a long survey with about 25 different questions about your future purchase intentions, current vehicle, whether you were part of the media or a blogger, etc. Originally they told me my demographic quota was already filled but a week later they called back and helped me modify some of my answers to get me in (I guess they were low on participants). Back in 2002 I was invited to a session at Chateau Elan where we were shown 3 vehicles, answered questions and then got to drive all 3 back to back and answer more questions. One was an Acura MDX, I think the 2nd one was a BMW X5 and the 3rd one was the new Lincoln Aviator debuting later that year. It was obvious it was for Lincoln since that was the only preproduction vehicle. That was a lot of fun. No idea how I got picked for that one either - just assumed it came from Ford's customer database. We ended up buying a 2003 Aviator at the end of that model year.

No, no open doors. The vehicle is at the dealer. Apparently they had to reprogram an onboard computer (no idea which). Hopefully they really know that that will fix the issue. We shall see!