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Had my grill guard installed and am very pleased with it! Feels safer. It’s a beast. About 300 pounds worth.

'Fireside chat' part 3. Observations from Farley about how engineering within Ford has been evolved for a new era with EV design: Farley has a very interesting take on how Ford had to change in its approach. It's not finger pointing, it's recognized 100 years of having done things a certain way because institutionally most of those approaches had been learned over decades (but had to be changed for the EV era): Lastly, Farley revealed where Ford are in their design generations for EVs and the upgrading of their EV architecture in each generation:

Moved the rear seat forward 3", with that it gives plenty of room for much more gear. Also added a modified and reinforced little safe for safe keeping when needed. No extra holes or modification of truck, everything can be put back or removed. There may be weak links, but not in my material or modification....the truck could barrel roll down a mountain and fly apart from the centrifugal force, but the rear seat is not budging!

Ford does have a way to go to move the 2024 Explorer into the must have category. Does anyone know if it will have the new 2.3 ecoboost with the 102 mm stroke? Does this new 2.3 have two balance shafts??? Also would like to see a more refined calibration of the ten speed and the 2.3 liter engine. I have a 2021 MY 4WD and the calibration is not smooth with too many clunks up shifting and coming to a stop. I do not like the skip shifts, why have the gear if you’re going to skip it in normal driving? Chassis dynamics is very good but I would like to see the double wishbone front suspension used on the Aviator become the design for the 2024 Explorer. Trim could be improved . Power and acceleration from the 2.3 is great but NVH levels are too high fir this vehicle especially under normal acceleration. If I had a choice, I would rather have a naturally asperated 3.3 V6 maybe with cylinder deactivation , (the middle two). and avoid the problems I4 engines bigger than 2 liters have. edselford

I'm in the exact same boat. According to the dealer it was built that week, but nothing has changed since. It sounds like a hold for the software update mentioned in the articles.

Interesting observation about Tesla in Norway and echoes what many of us have been saying. Once you go from boutique mfr to mainstream long term mfr you have to start doing things that incur a lot more cost. Farley’s comments show he understands how Ford needs to navigate this new journey while taking advantage of their inherent strengths.

More from the 'fireside chat'. Farley looks at Blue as a carefully constructed portfolio of products/services: I bolded a comment above: "They are segments that probably won't go electric immediately". In the context of F150, I think this is a very important comment. I think Farley seems to be implying that Ford recognize that there is a tremendous amount of ongoing revenue potential in the ICE F150, and Ford will not walk away from that any time soon. As upcoming quotes will indicate, Farley sees incremental growth and market share increase from BOC (and a new/different customer to Ford). Expectations for future sales and the composition of those sales (and market growth):

A lot to unpack from the 'fireside chat', most of which has not been commented on here. Points of interest: Farley believes the Direct Sales Model (Tesla) will be forced to change as a critical mass of their vehicles are on the road in a market: At the same time, Farley reiterates that Ford must move closer to the direct model via its dealers:

No doubt. As I said before, Farley was pursued by Mulally as he was perceived as a marketing genius-at least I think that was the reason. Along the way he convinced Bill Ford he was the solution to Ford's problems-as did Hackett before him. Again, seems to me Farley has bet the farm on an all out EV future, and that made him look good to the financial media ... As for the recent "press call", seems like a lot of BS and I would like to see someone make a logical summary of all of that BS. No Kool Aid please, just a concise summary that this dumb old blue collar guy who flunked out of engineering but managed to get a business degree will understand. Again, something that jumped out of that "call" was the statement that while the electric 150 is such a success, the majority of the people that are shelling out big numbers for that vehicle are first time pick up buyers-not the base that made the 150 the number one selling vehicle for how many years? And while we will see another big cut in manpower to "cut costs so the ICE side of the business can continue to fund the success of the EV side", everyone thinks the F1 rabbit hole makes a lot of sense at this critical time?

The problem appears to be the use of hot air for heating regardless of source. When you open the door you lose all the heat. radiant heat doesn’t go away like that. Same reason in floor radiant works so well in houses.

Ironically, the premium prices being asked by Ford are actually making buyers pay for Ford’s own inefficiencies. Buyers have been doing their part but it’s clear that Farley has been asleep at the switch for years, all began under Jim Hackett and his cost cutting. It’s been that long since anyone spoke about quality because they, the Ford Executives all knew to a man that quality is the first thing to suffer under cost cutting.

There was a call with dealers today; Tim @ Long McAuthur did a quick video on some of the content. He specifically talks about the OKTB situation and says they were told late Feb/early March - "any day now" is expected. He talks about this just after the 1:00 mark. Video:

Not surprising after Ford having the most recalls in 2022 (at least in North America), they just had another recall that involves the Ford F-150, Mustang, Explorer, Bronco, & Lincoln Aviator, and it's only the second month of 2023. On the EV side, Ford had to pause F150 Lightning production because a Lightning's battery caught fire during its pre-delivery quality check. Hopefully this is isolated and won't cause any recalls. There are many issues that don't extend to Ford vehicles built outside North America but it does affect the image of the blue oval every time it come up on the news. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps the Pacifica (a Chrysler exclusive platform/model) contributed to its low ranking?

Pick one….

Where are you located? When did you order? I just hope mine gets released soon. I was in a car accident last month in my '22 Hybrid. One of the parts is on indefinite backorder. It will be a toss up as to if my '23 gets delivered before my '22 is repaired.