Leaderboard

Haven't seen any other powder coated all black Nautilus wheels so here they are 😀! Had the calipers done too, figured now is the best time ever while the calipers are at the cleanest they'll ever be and wheels off the car! Unfortunately a very gray day here and probably will be for awhile so kinda a dark pic..

Mullally wanted to kill Lincoln, Fields had to convince him it was worth saving. I'm not a Fields apologist (anything but), but he's the one that defended Lincoln when everything was on the table for cuts or elimination.

You can keep features while cutting costs through lean design, Tesla is particularly good at this. They've significantly reduced part count costs through software and a single user interface. You just have to be onboard with touching the screen instead of using buttons. Tesla doesn't even use a rain sensors, it uses the camera and AI. The 2019 Escape is a pretty good example of emergency cost cutting that did not benefit the customer's Botton line. They redesigned the LED taillights to a single halogen bulb, eliminated the steering wheel paddles and CD player, and cut some of the standard equipment on Titanium, and actually made the car more expensive by reducing incentives and leasing residuals. That's mainly what drove sales down for Escape, although Hackett explained it as customer prep for a more expensive 2020 Escape. That's partly true, but I'm sure it had more to do with diminished margins in that segment. Until Mach E, I was complaining about Ford's lack of new amenities in their all-new products, I'm hoping we get back to a Ford that is less about removing stuff and more about adding stuff (like the Mullally years). I've been watching some reviews of the latest Hyundai Sonata and it's weird and annoying that I'm envious of their clever toys.

November estimated sales of Ranger was 10,568.

We need fair and Honest elections with one member, one vote for ALL IUAW positions. I will also advocate that any Member being moved from the plant to the IUAW, MUST have a vote from the membership of the plant in order to be taken. We the membership know best if so and so did the job or screwed us blind. For far too long people have been moved up the ladder due to ass kissing. It has to stop!

They could get just as much buzz with a $70K base price and it's easily justified by the performance. They might lose a few sales but it wouldn't hurt profits. This low base price might hurt residuals and resale value though. They just seem more concerned with sales volume than actual profits as evidenced by all of their decisions over the last 30 years. Just GM being GM.

Why pay new car money to downgrade to a worse truck?

Allot of the de-contenting is in areas like this, where you don't notice it. To me it's the worst part of the process, it makes the cars lower-quality with no reduction in cost to the consumer.

I'll keep buying Ford stock at a (fairly) guaranteed rate of 6+% thanks.

The Explorer and Aviator's problems are multi-faceted, but re-engineering the entire plant mid-stream certainly contributes to the disastrous on-the-fly problem solving they were doing while trying to minimize disruption to the Explorer's inventory. It was really the perfect storm and I kinda saw it coming a mile away, but I was hoping Ford had cracked it. Ford is so damn predictable once you know them. It also doesn't help that Explorer and Aviator were launching simultaneously with countless new systems and technologies that basically created a ton of fires to put out when they least needed the complications. It was overly ambitious and aggressive for a company that has long struggled to iron out their launch process. But as always, Ford solves the problems eventually even if they seem to forget their history (or disregard it). But if you want to be first in-line, you're just asking for trouble. On the other hand, Escape and Corsair are shockingly trouble free so far. Admittedly this is a MUCH less complicated new car launch than all the factory-gutting launches they have been doing recently. But like Explorer, this is the only Escape plant so there isn't much room to slowly stage a launch. The fact that this launch seems so trouble free is just awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the problems show up eventually in the product through recalls, but so far I'm not hearing about huge batches of faulty cars ending up in Ford's corporate fleet or stacking up to be fixed. This could be the first smooth Escape launch. The moral of the story, manufacturing engineering is super hard.

If anyone see's this on Craigslist, it will be 3 of us,,,, HRG

lol, are you kidding me? For a quick example, this brand would beg to differ.....

And, I'd add, don't underestimate the impact that regulations have on the marketplace: Government regulations on automobiles are almost entirely targeted at manufacturers. Consumers do very little heavy lifting when it comes to compliance. Make no mistake, safety regs, emissions regs and fuel economy regs have overwhelmingly altered (and largely for the better) the products available for purchase, and that, in turn, has driven changes in buying habits.

Does Honda sell body on frame pickups or commercial vans? Do they sell a Mustang competitor? Are they developing an entire range of hybrids, phevs and BEVs? Do they have a Bronco or Baby Bronco competitor? Accord/Camry/Corolla/Civic have been the cash cows for those companies globally and they've built up a huge loyal customer base over the last 30-40 years. So that's where they focus their resources. Ford has different cash cows and Ford has different market opportunities that they're pursuing like Bronco, Baby Bronco, BEV F150, etc. that other companies either can't or have chosen not to pursue. Which strategy is better won't be clear for several years but with the move to electrification and the increasing popularity of crossovers I think Ford's strategy here is sound. And the key is that they don't throw out the capability to make cars so if the market does shift back they can respond.

Mach-E styling, for one. Before he and Hackett told them to start over it looked like a Bolt. Not sure but he probably also directed them to make a high performance version and not just a long range version. Bronco/Ranger. The idea and design may have started before him but the final design and execution are all Hackett. Baby Bronco. Ecosport replacement CUV and Trucklet. Rivian Platform BEVs. Mustang GT500? Explorer/Aviator - he restarted the stalled CD6 program that Fields put on hold. All the stuff we haven't seen yet. Of course he's responsible for the poor launch. It was a calculated risk to limit factory downtime without spending as much as they spent on F150 retooling that backfired. Again I think that goes back to diverting all available funding to new stuff.

You don't need to understand the nuts and bolts of the car business to be a good CEO. You need to hire the right management team and change the business processes and creative mindsets. Changing the way new products are developed and approved is a big step in the right direction. The focus on higher profit margins has allowed the designers and engineers to design and build better vehicles faster. They're not just doing the same old things and trying to squeeze out tiny profits on commodity vehicles. Look at how Mach-E changed just because Hackett and Farley gave them the green light and marching orders. Changing the product development process and mindset is probably the best thing he's done to date and that helps no matter what you're building.

Sorry, I'm a package deal.

I owned 2 Rangers - a 90 and a 95 and I can't think of a single thing the old one did better. Not one. Styling is subjective but calling it eurotrash when it looks like every other American Ford and it was designed in Australia is ridiculous.

I remember a quote (can't remember who said it) that said they were using 15 different wheel hubs across the entire lineup.

Diesel smiesel, put the 7.3 in there,,,,,

You get what you manage for. In the wake of the disastrous Escape/Focus launches, Ford promoted Jim Padilla, who was something of a stick-in-the-mud when it came to new product designs, but was also fanatically committed to quality. One of his stock lines was, 'The customer sees the problem. Why can't you see the problem?' After he retired, the company relaxed that focus, and the first hiccups were the Focus and Fiesta launches, not the CD4 Fusion.

I've posted it here before, but here's a sketch I did a while back:

I hate CUVs because they're ugly, inefficient, ill handling vehicles that dominate the market because the buyers think that jacked up station wagons with body cladding are somehow more expressive of their personal style or rugged individualism than the wagons, minivans, and SUVs that they replaced. The whole world is driving AMC Eagles and they're oblivious to how stupid that is. I hate them because manufacturers like Ford are pushing them on consumers who don't want them because they can't compete in the segments that those people want. I hate them because manufacturers like Ford are stupid enough to believe that this isn't a fashion trend that will swing on a dime, just like it did with minivans, just like it did with big SUVs. "But they can always bring the cars back," say the apologists. The last time Ford let their product mix get this far out of wack it took a decade to fix and they had to mortgage the company. All the attention to saving their asses in that moment meant that they still couldn't fix the systemic problems that leave them unable to compete in those segments that they worked so hard to fix. So less than a decade later the only treatment that they can think of is to amputate. Now they take on the Japanese and Koreans as the one legged man in the ass kicking competition. But they're confident that the corner that they've backed into is safe and they can always get out of they need to. All of that said, people are free to buy what they want, just as I'm free to think that their choices are foolish. I'll shop with the makers who serve the segments that I'm interested in. Someone here responded to a similar remark with a "Bye, Felicia." That's pretty funny in a forum dedicated to a manufacturer who has been loosing market share for decades. While you're being flip, get comfortable with these. "Sayonara, Totyota." "Ciao, FCA." "Annyeong, Hyundai."

Maybe they should have....

Personal responsibility is a thing of the past fatso