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“Active” is a stupid name for the lowest trim level.

Don’t forget Farley came from Toyota. When you reward managers for meeting dates and cutting costs and ignore quality you shouldn’t be surprised when you get poor quality. Managers always make decisions that benefit them. Remember the Focus DCT? Engineer says it won’t hold up to the torque of the 2.0L engine. Middle managers had to decide to keep their mouth shut and make their cost and date targets knowing there would probably be problems down the line or throw the red flag and fix the problem which would have taken months if not a year and driven up costs significantly. They chose the first option, collected their bonuses and raises and were off to some other project by the time the shit hit the fan. No consequences. Had they chosen the latter option at the time they probably would have been dinged quite heavily for missing dates and cost targets. Contrast that to a new policy that says hiding a known problem or potential problem is a firable offense and that your bonus is tied to quality KPIs not dates. Under that policy you don’t ignore or hide problems. Thats the change Farley made and that’s why this has a chance of working.

Vger is on it's last leg of the trip from Hangzhou China to Columbus, Ohio. Today, he boarded a convoy truck to go from Flat Rock, Michigan to Columbus, Ohio. Once my 2021 Corsair buy back is done and the dealer installed options are completed I should have him in my garage by this time next week!

FTFY

A couple of thoughts, and it's not meant to be an apologist, but 1) Ford is hardly the only company to have invested billions in EVs with little to show for it.....I think where Ford gets dinged is that it decided to purposely break out EVs in their results, whereas competitors just have it in their overall numbers.........which looks better for you? Ford made $2.59 billion overall OR Ford Blue made $1.17B, Ford Pro made $2.56B, but EV lost $1.14B. 2) Changes should've been made earlier for quality purposes, but at least changes have been made that seem to be paying off so far. I'll agree that Oakville is a bad mis-step, and how can you blame him for the VW move when that was done by furniture man (can't even remember his name)?

I like to say Nissan is the kinda company where the loans last longer than the cars 😆.

Exactly this.

I'd like to see Ford hire a 3rd party company to evaluate their product development and manufacturing processes to find solutions to this stubborn problem. I don't think this can be fixed internally.

My explorer was recalled to replace the clips on the roof rack covers. Meanwhile, Honda is in the corner whistling while civic engine blocks crack in half, and transmissions give out.

This is a neat little detail. Huge improvement over the Celestiq styling wise.

I've been saying for some time that Evos would make a good indirect Fusion replacement (because of the hatch). It seems as though all US brands are having difficulty in China, though Lincoln and Buick I think are doing well?

There are two other Ford Pro “white space” commercial vehicles in development that will be built at the Dearborn EVC and the OHAP EVC. The next gent F-150 EV “Lightning” is going to BOC.

What’s the driving factor in Ford changing it processes to avoid recalls? A. Public embarrassment…………Bssst B. Fear that customers may never return………..Bsst C. A $2 billion enema every quarter that destroys profit………….Ding Ding Ding. Seems like Ford only changes when the pain of financial loss is so incredibly overwhelming. That applies to Warranty costs, bad product investments and failed projects/business ventures. All we can hope for is that Ford gets on top of the root cause of those losses and stems the bleeding.

While price is a concern and people complain about the Mustang moniker, as a Mach E customer on his second Mach E (my Rally arrived this week to replace my 2021 Premium), one of the things that I appreciate most is that it's essentially an conventional car that happens to have an electric powertrain. While I don't have and would never have a Tesla product, I'm very acquainted with them due to various benchmarking activities that I participate in. If "EV" means "austere," then I don't want that type of EV, despite how many idiots are suckered into Elon's reality distortion field. If you try to re-imagine an EV to a "Smart" car, then I don't want it. Make it a car that I'd like anyway as an ICE, and you've got a winner. I love my Mach E. It doesn't do 100% of what I want out of a car, but there's not a car in existence that does. It's why I have, for example, a trailer tow vehicle and Home Depot runner and family road trip vehicle – it supplements the Mach E.

I should clarify, get those old school Toyota engineers 😆.

Dodge was dead when they switched trucks to Ram.

This is one of those absolute statements you don't like lol. Sure you can use physical controls without looking.....it depends on the control, though. Giant knob for temp or volume, sure. Smaller button in a row of buttons....eh, maybe not. I believe your setup has toggle switches for air temp? You're telling me, you can't reach down and find the only toggle switches there and change it without looking?

Agreed that they need to get on a shorter, more regular refresh cycle. Ford has a history of delaying updates and then wondering why sales dry up, and then leaves the segment (not suggesting they'll leave Explorer's segment, just that some of their issues are self-inflicted). I too preferred the Mountaineer. I think if it's permanently docked on the bottom, it's not as big of a deal, vs if you have to dig through 3 menus just to adjust the temperature and/or fan.

2006-2010 IMO looked great. 2002-2005 I wasn't crazy about the front end on it, too generic IMO same with the Expedition. The Taurus/D4 based Explorers I am not crazy about either they look way too chunky. The current I think looks great but the new 2025 one's grill I am not crazy about, I don't like how it gets wider towards the bottom or at least gives the visual impression it gets wider at the bottom. Though for me personally I think the 06-10 Mountaineer looked the best out of all of them. I loved Mercury's sharp headlights and grill during that era. I also loved the clear taillights. I just wish it got a more upscale interior vs just a different colored Explorer interior.

https://www.autoweek.com/news/a61687963/tesla-robotaxi-coming-roadster-entry-model I'm betting this will fail spectacularly

So Sorry to hear about your wife...that is rough. The 2002-2010 Generation Explorer and the 2005-2010 Mustang where the best looking and most timeless looking Ford products of that era.

IMO..How to ruin a good looking vehicle...put a toothy GMC look alike grill on it🤔

Love the car! Hate the name. Call it an Eldorado as it is the spiritual successor to it.

I was going to mention this exact point - GM typically has skipped refreshes altogether, so a drastic change is more necessary. Ford has done this on the past between new generations on F-150 ('04-08/'09-'14 comes to mind). While changing the door sheetmetal would be ideal, I don't think it'll be the dealbreaker it's being made out to be.

I agree that Ford doesn't have much to choose from at present. I found a couple of 24 Edge's but there isn't much if any markdown. This is an outdated, discontinued design for sale at MSRP. Why would I buy one when the competition offers updated models at a similar or better price? It seems like Ford is falling behind the competition.

Everyone keeps saying Super Duty buyers care about towing... I am not sure that is entirely true. I work on Construction sites daily and occasionally at industrial sites... While some trucks will tow in a trailer or equipment, the vast majority of time the truck is empty or has a large toolbox in the bed. This applies to the 1 ton trucks too. Most material and equipment towing is done by semis or Class 6/7 trucks. Smaller deliveries are done by 450/550 trucks, but those are typically within ~75 miles or less from their shop. A consumer buyer may be worried about towing range, but a lot of commercial buyers very well may not be... They know their use case and the monetary hit. If they can save money on fuel and maintenance, they will go for it. Also, do not forget every time a truck has to be pulled from service for an oil change that is dead time they never get back.

So finally got some time to take a look at Ford C2 sales in China and all it does is raise more questions in my mind about business choices there. The most recent entry I could find was 2022, which is useful because it includes the new products that came out: 60K Mondeo 26K Edge 15K Nautilus 10K Lincoln Z 6.8K Evos So roughly 118K in product spilt between 2 major top hats with an additional 2-3 changes per top hat-the Mondeo and Z are pretty much the same product with different bits of plastic, while the Evos, Edge and Nautilus have significant changes Meanwhile in the NA market-the Edge and Nautilus outsold the whole lot in 2023 (2022 production was limited by COVID issues) with a combined total of 130K units. I get the EV thing, but at the same time with some minor sheet metal changes you could have a new Edge and sell the Evos as a Subaru competitor for additional volume. Just looking at Ford's Chinese sales numbers, it makes me wonder why they stay there, but I guess their JVs sell much better then they do alone.

Guess some people need primers on the various electrification scenarios. BEV - Battery Electric Vehicle - Propulsion from electric motor, energy storage through a large capacity batter. Plug in charging only. FCEV - Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle - Propulsion from electric motor, energy storage in a hydrogen cylinder, fuel cell reacts H2 with O2 to produce electricity. Refuel at a hydrogen station. HEV - Hybrid Electric Vehicle - Propulsion from both a electric motor and ice either in series or parallel through a transmission or split front and back, energy storage in gasoline/diesel tank and small battery to capture regenerative braking and provide energy to electric motor. ICE charges the battery. Vehicle can operate off either ICE or EM or both at the same time. PHEV - Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle - Same as HEV, but with a larger battery that can be charged through a plug-in. EREV - Extended Range Electric Vehicle - A BEV with an onboard generator. All propulsion comes from the EM and battery. ICE generator runs to provided charge to slow depletion of the batter. Can be plugged in to charge and small gasoline / diesel tank filled to operate the generator. DEL - Diesel Electric Locomotive - Large gas turbines or piston engines (diesels) drive large generators to power electric traction motors. No battery, generators directly provided the power required on demand. When it comes to super duty pickups, the best technology right now would be (P)HEV or EREV. Medium duty and HD semi's could go the route of DEL (smaller, optimized generator that can generate constant horsepower while the electric motor provides the big torque) or FCEV (need hydrogen depots at freight centers or truck stops). Full BEV is available but the use case is more limited right now.

A lot of SD sales are to businesses even if they don’t go through fleet sales. My brother in law buys a new one every 2 years. I don’t think that counts as Ford Pro.

I believe 1 is BOF and is actually based on the next gen F-150 EV but it is completely different. Rumors are this is the F-200. The other is unclear. It could be BOF but I believe this is more of a unibody Van based vehicle. They are serious about Ford Pro and the products it will have especially since this part of FMC’s business is booming.

I have not been here in...forever. Anyway, after 3 years, and 5 (!) other vehicles, I'm back in the Ford family. I'd like to introduce my Bronco Outer Banks. I'd rather another colour, but I expect it to grow on me.

Thats possible but Ford has been building vehicles for over 100 years. I think it’s a case of losing engineering talent and experience, putting schedule and cost ahead of quality and squeezing suppliers too hard. The last two they can easily fix by changing priorities and realigning compensation and changing how they deal with suppliers. The first one will just take time.

Mine is sitting at the rail yards in Toronto Ontario. It is a 20 minute drive to my dealer, that is when it gets loaded on to a carrier. Been there for 3 days now.

That's great news you are going to love it, even with the screen black outs... Easy fix though.

I really don’t understand your obsession that the entire vehicle has to be completely changed. There has to be some changes to entice repeat buyers but a good or even great design should not be scrapped just for the sake of being different. I think F150 and Porsche 911 are perfect examples of great designs that just get tweaked every few years and are highly successful.

Cadillac Sollei is a striking electric convertible. It's also just a concept for now - Autoblog The Sollei is basically a convertible version of the Celestiq, a $340,000 limited-run sedan built on General Motors’ historic Tech Center Campus north of Detroit. They have the same length, wheelbase and electric propulsion system. “Today it is a design exploration,” Cadillac vice president John Roth said. GM’s head of design Michael Simcoe said: “This is a concept. Anything is possible, but at the moment this is just a concept.” He added it would be an “easy change” as an “expression” of the Celestiq’s architecture.

I had a recall for my Bronco that consisted of adding some plastic clips on the seatbelt to keep the attachment point higher up on the pillar to make it more convenient to grab. Not saying all of Ford's recalls are like that, but it can't be ignored that some percentage of them are for minor things like that.

2025 Ford Maverick Will Be Revealed On August 1st (fordauthority.com) Ford Authority is reporting that Maverick will be "shown" on August 1.

ST would make no sense on Expy. I guess they want to have all the crossovers/SUVs (sans Bronco) to have the same trim names. This is the standard for the segment for companies with entrants from regular and luxury brands. the GM triplets are the same between the front/rear clip. Nissan/Infiniti are the same too.

You keep saying RT1. I don’t know what that is. I think you mean R1T. I’ve owned a Lightning for nearly two years, and over 30k miles now. I do truck things all the time, including towing. The Lightning tows like a BEAST. It’s like there is nothing behind you, it’s awesome.

Exactly. I believe a BEV F150 (whether they continue to call it lightning or not) will continue to exist alongside T3, with the F150 BEV eventually (yeah, not soon) replacing the ICE F150.

I will say, while I'm liking this so far, as well as the restyled navigator, can someone tell me why the two always share the same basic exterior design? Yes, I get it, money, we all know tooling up for a new, and bespoke design is very expensive, tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars expensive. But it's always confused me how Ford can justify giving the better valued nautilus and aviator their own unique designs that look nothing like their Ford counterparts. Yet on Ford's more expensive offerings, they cheap out and use the same body molds for most of the body. You would think if they had to choose, the cheaper models would be the ones sharing body work, and the more expensive models would be the ones with exclusive, and separate designs, yet it's the opposite. Just odd to me, I'm sure there's a reason for it that extends beyond cost.

Most of Ford’s problems are engineering or supplier issues. Serious assembly issues are rare.

Something's wrong allright. Management is focused on things other than the manufacture of vehicles, poor quality vendor supplied parts, goofy engineering. Can't lay this on the assembly line people. Maybe the situation is improving? Hopefully. Check back next year. Until then no new Fords for me. Not buying any stock either. Who do you think is sabotaging the company? Farley?

That has been pretty much spelled out by the UAW contract with the people working on the Lightning having firs dibs for jobs at BOC. I don't see why the Lightning would continue with the new T3

Something's wrong. Sounds like sabotage to me.

And Explorer and Transit. First 4 are icons. Transit is the heart of Ford pro right now.

LOL actually I don't have to...bygones are bygones My wife wants to get a new car in a couple months-either a Bronco Sport or Escape and we are going to go there...but she buys off the lot so shouldn't be a shitshow.

Can't wait for GMI folks to talk about how Lincoln "copied" Cadillac's full width display.

Looking at many of the names on the list, there are quite a few scoundrels and opportunists. Originally from Pittsburgh, have quite a few relatives who suffered directly and indirectly from activities of the steel and coal magnates. I have benefited from Carnegie libraries, Carnegie Mellon University, donations to many cultural institutions and parks as well. Later on I benefited by working for a spin off from DuPont company, and eventually Ford Motor Company. Does it all "even out" with positives and negatives? I'm sure descendants of the Homestead Strike, or Rouge River Bridge will say no. Of all the mega wealthy on the list, Carnegie alone had donated the bulk of his wealth by the time of his death in 1919. Carnegie family members are by no means poor, but not "filthy rich" by todays standards. Buffett and Gates have acknowledged this philosophy. Will they follow through? If Bezos gives away $10 billion per year, in 100 years, he might just do it...