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Youre not buying a 10-15 yr old vehicle without all those electronics any more. You need a 77 F100 with a carburetor.

While I agree with sum of what you’re saying, we need to separate Musk the manager from Musk who gets on late at night texting or who gets hurt because people criticise him. To the first point, Ford would kill to have someone who could make decisions and bet the farm on calculated guesses. That's what really speeds up decision making and keeps costs down by limiting the amount of cooks wanting to add their five cents worth….a big issue with a corporate like Ford where normal decisions get bogged down for weeks and months because the Ford bible says you can’t do that. To the second point, Musk’s character flaws are well known but the biggest one is his ego, surrounded by people who always agree and tell you that you’re right never ends well. Equally, working at Ford and having every decision questioned and micromanaged is also a soul killer, so many talented people just give up and do what the boss wants so as not to be yelled at for having ideas. On topic regarding an affordable compact BEV, Ford keeps circling the airport on this one and unless I miss my guess, different people within Ford want different things. Ford Europe clearly has a desire to evolve its C2 platform into affordable BEVs (E-Max). Ford brass and North America would have none of it and signed up VW MEB architecture deal, Hackett called it job done but then after he took his golden parachute Ford realised that it was paying a big price for something it should be able to engineer internally. Now we’re back to a skunkworks doing an add on development of GE2 but for smaller vehicles….Ford groundhogs day.

My son noticed we spent the bulk of our time at Ford. Stellantis skipping the show was a boon for Ford. The Wrangler driving course is always popular. This year they got everyone in Broncos instead. The GTD is gorgeous. I want a Switchgear. The Lightning Platinum Black shows fingerprints like mad. The Green/Gold appearance package on the Mach-E looks good in real life. The Mach-E Rally is wacky. The new Ranger looks great, especially Raptor, though the interior looks dated. The Explorer is underwhelming. The Expedition is a dinosaur. No Lincoln!! Would have thought they’d have a Nautilus at least. Elsewhere: I really like the new Landcruiser. I don’t see how it doesn’t just replace the 4Runner. Lexus GX is pretty nice too. Nee SantaFe is impressive. VW Bus is really nice too. Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX look ok. Would hate to get a model based on a platform from another manufacturer that the brand doesn’t intend to use going forward. The “Chicago Drives Electric” area was popular too, and featured BEV from virtually all the manufacturers. Including Tesla. Was surprised to see Tesla participate. They had a Cybertruck there. It’s every bit as ugly in real life. The show seemed to be half the size it usually is. (Was only in one side of McCormick Place).

I think quite a bit of that is probably due to the "Bean counters "...those buggers arent exactly the life of the party...

That's where I see a lot of potential with Ford, it seems like this team Edison group isn't bogged down with the layers of bureaucracy that the larger divisions in ford have. As far as the ego of leaders goes, it sounds like Farley is genuinely a decent person, like he wants to hear that different idea, or he wants people to come to him with problems rather than trying to hide it. Ford's weakness is they can't stick with a plan for more than two seconds. If they can actually commit to new products and get them out the door rather than canceling or rebooting programs constantly, I can see them doing quite well in the EV space in a few years time. They just need to get out of their own way in that regard. Interesting comments on GE2, how that platform and CE1 are both pivoting to smaller EVs. I'm curious to know where that cut off lies. The mach-e is quite compact for a crossover, so one would think developing a second gen mach-e would count as one of those smaller EVs Ford is working on. Yet Farley is also saying he wants to get away from two row crossovers, which would include things like the mach-e, as well as the bronco sport, and escape. Their strategy seems quite confusing at this point in time if I'm being honest.

No comment....

Having used the park assist in my Expedition I can say that the reason people don't use it is because it is a pain in the rear to use. It doesn't always detect open spaces, requires you to drive slowly to attempt to find them, and then once it does, it takes forever to park. It is much faster for an experienced driver to just park it themselves. It is a "Gee Whiz" feature that has had 0 development beyond getting it to do both perpendicular and parallel parking (I had the parallel parking in my '12 Explorer and used it maybe a handful of times). The concerning thing is Ford brings features, and instead of improving them to make them more useful, they just sit back and wonder why no one is using it.

I disagree, it's just a matter of learning a new way to do it and it involves hooking a computer up. Things are a lot easier to figure out and maintain now if you take the time to learn what the computer is telling you - it's way easier and less complex than using vacuum gauges/timing lights/reading plugs/changing jets/and essentially guessing if you understand what it's telling you. Youtube university will tell you how to do almost anything if you're repairing a stock vehicle.

More like executives hopping from one home run opportunity to another while ignoring the solid defense and singles and doubles hitters.

Who is going to pay $30K+ on a subcompact car like the Bolt and Leaf? Subcompacts are DOA in the NA marketplace with C being the smallest reasonable size for the general market.

Sounds like your kind of guy……

I’m amazed that this feature only costs $60 yet ford probably charges thousands for it. Wonder how much they jack up the price on everything else?

Going to have to go back a few more years to get to points, those have a scary electronic ignition system! ?

Mercedes did pioneer the 48v system, and did take advantage of it to provide mild hybrid functionality. They powered all the accessories that are normally belt driven using the 48v system and had an integrated starter/alternator that could provide low end torque at the launch (mild hybrid) as well as an electric supercharger. But yes, the interior electronics were all 12v because that is the standard that all suppliers use.

My problem is - today it's park assist, tomorrow (or rather also today on many models) it's the keypad, next it'll be heated seats, etc. and they'll continue to pull away features while not decreasing the price

I just don’t like to see people giving Musk and Tesla more credit than they actually deserve.

Okay, I'll be over here watching Farley follow in Tesla's footsteps while some of you praise him but say Tesla didn't do anything new at the same time.

And hopefully can respect where Tesla is miles ahead and realize Ford is trying to catch up in certain areas without disregarding or trying to discredit every comment that mentions Tesla. It's clear some can't. There's a reason they're #1 in EV and making money doing it, and Farley says as much pretty often.

I ordered my 2024 F-350 on July 18, the day after the order banks opened, and yesterday finally received the email that it has been scheduled for production the week of Feb 19. Fingers crossed that the production date doesn't get pushed back but at this point I'm just happy to have a VIN# and not be stuck waiting to see if it ever gets scheduled at all. F-350 King Ranch 6.7l Diesel Crew Cab, Long Bed FX4/3.55 EL Axle All weather floor mats 5th Wheel Prep Clearance Lights Spray in bedliner

Ford hit a gold mine with this idea of a mustang sub-brand, and then they just let it die. I remembered when the mach-e was revealed, a high ranking Ford employee, I think his name is Dave Pericak or something, he was the head engineer on s550. He got really giddy about future product plans pertaining to the expansion of the mustang sub-brand. I remember being like, I can't wait to see whatever he's talking about, and then it never came. Just like I recall being excited to see what the Shelby version of the mach-e was gonna be like, and it never happened. There was apparently a mach-e dark horse planned at one point, but I don't see that happening now.

Puma looks like a great compact car/SUV, just a bit larger than Peugeot 208, e-208, and similar competitors which also share gasoline and electric variants. New Puma specifications indicate they are all initially mild hybrid with 1.0L EcoBoost engine, 11.5KW Belt Integrated Starter-Generator, and tiny 48V 8Ah Li-ion air cooled battery pack. You’re correct in that Ford has replaced pure ICE with mild hybrid. Anyway, the point was that for anticipated low-volume BEVs, manufacturers can share a vehicle between ICE/HEV and BEV to reduce investment. Importing an electric Puma to NA may be a way for Ford to offer a lower-cost compact BEV ahead of Tesla Model 2 (while Ford finalizes a more efficient and sophisticated architecture which could take years) assuming Puma BEV costs are low enough, and also that Ford has enough excess manufacturing capacity. Puma seems much better suited for America than electric Fiat 500, Mini, and a few others that are too small.

would be nice that as the Chinese Nautilus you could use the passenger side panel to display the Navigation. also, wouldn't be a nice idea to offer a v8 in the new Navi? I know the 3.5l EB has more power that the Escalade 6.2l but I always read that people comment on that specific subject when comparing the too.

It just means they weren’t hampered by current processes and organizational beurocracy. Clean sheet especially when it comes to manufacturing. Nothing legacy to support or worry about.

I think Evos would give them an entry into the "sedan" market BUT they'd be able to charge higher prices over a sedan because it's a liftback, which aligns better with their profitability goals. Not sure if it's slightly too tall vs. the Mondeo sedan, which is effectively a sedan version of Evos. Zephyr would also be a good choice - I think one good entrant in the segment would be fine for both brands (no need for a Continental size model, as sales taper off there too much to justify the cost).