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Many great points in this discussion A few notes: Without a few *major* course corrections that Hackett made, I honestly don't want to think about what we'd be discussing on this page today. The iceberg was within site yet the captain kept talking about his plans upon reaching New York. Bad, bad, bad. Worse than most will understand for a while. The lack of a comprehensive portfolio strategy is why we saw Freestyle come out as it did, Explorer left to die, Expedition kept languishing, and Flex quickly abandoned. For the first time in my fandom of the Blue Oval, there is a legitimate, comprehensive *Portfolio* strategy in place that is helping better allocate investment, talent, and attention. They are NOT going to force entries into every segment. The segments they do enter, they're expect to commit to and own. The Mustang, Bronco, and F-Series sub-brands are three areas we all should be particularly excited about. They are getting the attention of Crown Jewels... as they should.

And how much of that has contributed to the bottom line? I'll help you out. None of it.

Sport reservations are fractional to those of 2dr 4dr... but how many Escapes were reserved prior to production beginning? CR-Vs? RAV4s? It's a very important product, especially given the market changes between its design and launch. Those I know don't have any doubt it will do for them what they need... and neither do I.

Outside of limited use case scenarios, Autonomous cars are the biggest piece of BS spread over the past 5-10 years. Its ALOT harder then anyone expected to be and it was being used to pump up stock prices of some companies. We will see 50%+ market penetration of Electric vehicles before we 10% autonomous cars in the market.

But Elon promised it this year, for sure this time ?

Clearly you haven't played golf!

As of right now I honestly think the Coyote can remain relevant until the gasoline engine is largely replaced by EVs. The Coyote currently has zero issues competing with and outperforming it's 6.2-6.4 liter domestic competitors. It makes 460 HP in the Mustang GT, with just a GT350 intake manifold swap it will make 480 HP in the '21 Mach 1. With minor changes 500+ HP isn't an issue at all. The Coyote certainly hasn't been surpassed by similar capacity V8s from competing overseas manufacturers like VW, Toyota, etc. That may change if GM comes out with a large bore spacing 5.5 liter 4V V8 and makes it widely available, on an architecture with headroom for displacement. But as of now the Coyote is plenty competitive with headroom to spare. Have you seen how easy it is to take the 5.2 Predator over 1000 rwhp with minor bolt ons? There's clearly more in that engine combo than even Dodge's Redeye/Demon mod for mod.

That's fine and all, but all we've seen is vague promises for the future, and several different versions of it at that. Nothing concrete. At some point sooner rather than later this needs to turn into more than just watercolors and presentations. You can't just keep dumping millions of dollars into anything indefinitely.

He was brought in to correct Mark Fields' mistakes and get the company headed in a better direction for long term success. Raising the stock price is every CEO's goal, but in a company like Ford it's not that easy. You either make business decisions to make short term stock gains (which usually means big expense cuts) which kills you long term or you make the best long term decisions and hope the stock price eventually goes up based on continued success and good outlooks and that boils down to products. While he definitely had some mistakes and confused some people, I think he has positioned the company well for the future and should get a lot of credit for that. Especially the Bronco program. It may have been late but it looks to be a huge winner right out of the gate. Without Hackett I'm not sure they would have made that huge investment up front at the expense of other programs and we wouldn't have all the bells and whistles and models and accessories, etc. That's where Hackett's philosophy of owning the segment is really paying off.

Despite all the horror stories I've heard about how insufferable Farley is as a person, I'm just glad to have an actual car guy in charge. I wish him all the luck in the world.

Not much as it was a supplier issue.

You do realize this is the continuation of Hackett’s plan, not something new.

The reason it was "enlarged" a whole whopping .2 of a liter is because they changed to a Spray Bore process.

Good post kyle sir. For Ford, successfully finishing the fitness initiatives that Jim Hackett started and "charging through the door" as Jim Farley said will be necessary though not sufficient for the company to survive in the next 5-20 years. Anything less means that Ford Motor Company becomes a relic of history. Jim Farley is a good businessman, I'm confident he can pull this off.

Sounds ambitious and won't miss Hackett at all, nor will WS. Let's see how they execute, since Ford doesn't have the luxury of time on its side. The next 5-20 years (at most) of the auto industry is going to be revolutionary in more ways than the past 100 and will be interesting who survives the onslaught of the Chinese, move to battery powered vehicles and other obstacles.

They had to increase the number due to website problems that allowed too many to be reserved. Still sold out AFAIK.

Despite the age of the basic architecture, the only respect in which the Modular/Coyote lag behind Boss/Godzilla is in bore spacing. The Modular has proven over and over again to be one of -- if not the -- most physically robust V8 architectures ever mass produced. I can think of no other V8 architecture, domestic or not, that has been taken over 3200 HP on OEM cylinder head castings and OEM block castings like the 4.6 4V has. I would take a Coyote on a 4.2-4.4 inch bore spacing over any variation of Godzilla for GT500/Raptor any day.

Per the notice released to Ford Dealers this morning. We wanted to inform Ford Dealers and the Field Organization that stories will be posted in the media today announcing the Shelby GT350’s last model year is 2020. The stories will go live today Thursday, Oct. 1 at 6:00 a.m. EDT. “With the 760 horsepower Shelby GT500 now in full stride, we will finish production of Shelby GT350 and GT350R this fall as planned. This makes the way for new additions to excite our passionate Mustang fans for 2021 model year – including the limited-edition Mach 1.”

I started lurking in late 2001. P71 and OtisFordSucks. Good times

You need to factor in the exchange rate. Canadians measure a week differently.

I know lots of Tesla owners. After the novelty of using the Level 3 public charger a few times, very few of them actually go out of his or her way to use it. Most of them just plug in at night because it's way more convinent. You shouldn't buy an EV unless you also plan to install a 220V outlet in your garage. Tesla's supercharger network is a selling point for non-EV owners to overcome range anxiety but it's not a real significant benefit once you adopt to EV lifestyle. Eventually, there will be A LOT more CCS charging stations than Tesla so what is now a selling point may become a liability later when every brand can charge at common charging stations but Tesla owners are restricted to the properitory network. Ford lowered the Mach E MSRP because they are gearing up for a fight with VW ID.4. As part of Dieselgate settlement with EPA, VW agreed to build its own nationwide charging network (Electrify America), which ironically gave VW an advantage because it allows VW to offer 3 years of free charging to ID.4 owners. Ford can't match that so it is lowering the MSRP instead. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/new-vw-id-4-250-mile-range-3-years-free-fast-charging/ BTW, Electrify America is part of Ford Pass too... but Mach E can't charge for free on it like ID.4.

it was started in 1998 or so in its first form as fordworldnews.com https://www.wired.com/1999/09/blueovalnews-com-wins-in-court/ Seriously...LOL

I'm assuming it has to be in production before the end of the calendar year, thus its exclusion

People were saying the same thing in 2011, it wasn't true then and it isn't true now.

And I suppose the argument can be made that for those few road trips you (in the general sense) take, a ICE rental could be used, but that's also another expense tacked onto the trip. Bottom line is, BEVs aren't ready for prime time for most buyers yet. I'm sure they'll get there as tech improves, but not yet.

Spot on. The Coyote the best engine platform Ford has developed in house, possibly ever.

Why would you ever need to drive more than 60 miles a day in a golf cart?!?

I live in a golf cart community and chose gas cart over electric because of range. I had an electric cart for awhile and was lucky to get 60 mile range and last 20 miles was on reduced power. Gas gives me over 200 miles and maximum power up hills to the last drop. Also noticed electric range dropped in January on colder days. Great choice!! Love that color.

SHE'S THICCC

Thanks for your insight. I hope the new strategy includes a focus on better quality.

All of my Ford contacts have retired, but they still keep in touch with friends who still work for the company. Hackett did introduce meaningful, behind-the-scenes management and structural changes that have changed how Ford engineers a car. Witness the new Bronco, which is part of the new EPLM (Enterprise Product Line Management) system. We talked about EPLM's before. A game-changer if it works.

But they were still taking up company resources - manufacturing, engineering, marketing, distribution, warranty, etc. Just keeping nameplates alive has a significant cost in dollars and resources. When you have a fixed budget the only way to free up resources to work on new things is to stop old things completely and that's the difference between now and a few years ago.

Sure Hackett gets credit for some of the successes Ford's had recently, but he should also get faulted for the mistakes on his watch. I like some of his initiatives-but he talks in tongues and was brought in to help raise the stock price-something he clearly failed at. Like I said, I won't miss him but to Akirby's point-maybe he was the right person at the right time. This is Farley's moment to grab control of the company and really execute on his plan. I'm excited and hopeful he can kick the company into a high gear.

We're talking about very small, well defined areas not all public roads. And these are commercial businesses who can shut down in bad weather, etc. Also private campuses. It's a very narrow use case. The reason is represents higher profit margins is because it's not just an AV vehicle sale it comes with a management service and monthly fees. The jury is out on how successful it will be but there is certainly a limited business case.

Self driving vehicles won’t be driving on public roads for years - and probably decades. Hard to see Ford making an 8% return on these dollars.

Maybe some of it and maybe all of it, but Hackett never really explained his plan and hence WS wondering what was going on, and than all of the financial misses that occurred under his tenure. I think Farley has a much clearer vision of what the future looks like for an automotive company is going to look like.

True but don’t underestimate the styling appeal to pavement dwellers, especially females under 30. Around here they love wranglers and small Jeep crossovers.

Personally I think this what is going to happen: The 2/4 Bronco will have a very strong demand the first 2-3 years it is on the market then taper off...I think 75-125K units a year is realistic The Bronco Sport might start off slow, but will grow as time goes on. I don't see any reason why it can't hit at least 125K or so units a year regularly. It won't approach the number of Escape sales (200K or so a year), but will be a nice complement to it.

I never got why most people dwell on where to charge their car when most won't take it on a long trip anyway. I can't think of anything more convenient that charging it at your home. Imagine how much easier if you could pump your gas in the driveway with your current car.

A link to a report posted earlier on page 1 suggests that Ford is happy with the level of inquires regarding the Bronco Sport. Of course they couldn't say otherwise but I'm willing to wait and see how it goes, could be more of a grass roots model that sees growth once the vehicle is on sale and buyers have a chance to see it.

I started lurking around 2002, my senior year of high school. At the risk of getting things back on track... The Sport had damnwell better catch on. The way Ford has modeled it, it's arguably the most important component in their small utility strategy.

If the T-Bird returns, it should return as a 4-door coupe. Much more sales/profit potential.

They and Toyota are having a similar issue where the high profit upper trim sales have all but evaporated as this buyers went to SUV’s as well as CPO luxury sedans. Why drive an Touring/Titanium/XSE when you can have a 1 or 2 year old Audi/BMW/MB/Lexus for the same price. Maybe Honda is going back to have boring styling and Acura will get the style again. Short of the humungous badge the RDX and TLX look nice.

I do think another "easy" thing Ford could do is to have Ford dealers across the country add chargers in their parking lots for customers to use. Which would in effect be Ford's "owned" network. They'd "instantly" have a huge network that way.

It did not. To clarify what akirby mentioned, the 13,500 charging stations listed by FordPass are operated by other companies or individuals, not Ford. FordPass simply aggregates data for those charging stations to list which are closest to a customer's location, based on criteria such as distance or proximity to places like restaurants and shopping. To your point, only a small percentage of those 13,500 charging stations are DC Fast Charge using the CCS standard supported by Mustang Mach-E. By comparison, all Tesla Superchargers are DCFC.

No kidding; if one lives in an area full of retirees, then -what do you know!- a lot of retirees drive this or that. I live in an area that is young and active, and Teslas are thick as fleas on a dog's back around here.

Maybe your area. Teslas are all over down here, and not driven by just retirees.

Anyone who thought otherwise is an idiot. But I do think Bronco Sport sales will end up a lot closer to Bronco sales after a couple of years than some might think, primarily because of the lower price. After the initial pent up Bronco mania dies down of course.

Ford is swamped with Bronco orders which was the point of today's Bronco article. Some are estimating close to 200,000 orders and counting. Article compared it to Mustang debut 50 years ago or so. The Bronco Sport is ho hum in comparison.