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Hey guys, I figured I'd share my latest Ford acquisition with you all - a blue '67 Mustang GT with white racing stripes. Took a few photos of it next to my 2018 GT for you guys to see Enjoy! Hehehe.

As you may have heard me mention a time or two (or ten), the leased Cruze my wife brought into our relationship was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect woman. The *long* lease term is finally up next month, and we took advantage of a weak market to upgrade her last night. A close cousin of mine is Sr. G.M. for a family owned chain of 15 dealerships around central Ohio, and his office is based in the brand-new Ford spec building a few miles up the road from home. Last night, we brought home a very gently used 4WD Explorer XLT in Magnetic with black leather interior and seemingly every option box checked save for the Pano roof. She couldn't be happier, and neither could I. She really warmed up to driving my Flex over the last couple years, but likes the higher seating position and "more nimble" feel of the Explorer. I finally traded in my '08 Fusion that's been a glorified driveway decoration since I got the Flex, and with a small down payment we are paying considerably *less* than she was for that awful leased shitbox Cruze. Interestingly, as we were finalizing the numbers he told me that the Ford lot has been absolutely swamped with new car sales in the last 2 weeks. They're working under minimized staffing due to the "Safer at Home" rules, but each of the sales associates are juggling 2 or 3 deals at a time most evenings. In the last 30 days, this one lot alone is down by 145 inventory units. He's been told not to expect significant deliveries to begin for another 6 to 8 weeks at least.

I just signed the paperwork on a new 2019 Flex SEL. I'll take pictures when we aren't getting hammered with 5 inches of snow. Goodbye 2008 Focus, you served me well but it was time to move on.

It’s funny because it’s true!

Why is it that we have to choose sides on every issue and the only 2 choices are the extreme left or extreme right? I think it's a combination of fake news and confirmation bias perpetuated by social media. If you think the states should reopen with precautions you don't care if people die. If you think we should take a vaccine you're just trying to track me. It's ridiculous and needs to stop. Somewhere in the middle is all the common sense we seem to have lost along the way.

Mine has the premium package. The tires and wheels with the panoramic roof really spice it up.

There's a very good reason I've been relatively quiet lately, especially regarding the Bronco Theres a BUNCH of stuff I could say but I'm not going to because I don't want to deal with the consequences.

My dad has recently had his truck in for service, and he wound up getting a loaner vehicle - a 2020 Escape SE. I know we've all seen pictures, read reviews, etc. of it - good and bad - but I figured I'd take the opportunity to see what the real deal was and took it for a short drive around town. First a couple of pictures: The overall exterior design is nice looking, though perhaps not necessarily "exciting". I personally like the back end more than the front, which is a bit bug eyed - other iterations of the European front ends look better. It does have some nice curves and surfacing that may not be evident in photos. Being an SE, it is missing some nicer trim pieces, but I don't think I'd say it looks cheap. Moving to the interior - it's mixed. Some people have said it's ultra cheap/low rent, and I'll disagree with that assessment. It's not anything extravagant (I don't think higher trims change drastically aside from the silver piece across the dash becomes a wood look piece and the digital gauges), but it's not horrible either. It is, however, missing some of the nice detailing and trim pieces that I've seen in photos of the competition. Upper pieces are a nice "rubberized"/squishy, while lower parts are hard plastic. Switchgear is mostly Ford parts bin stuff, but I don't see that as a problem - the switches and everything works just fine. The lower center console area where the shifter is is a sort of textured plastic. In an odd obvious cost cutting move, the center air vents have a nice looking silver accent on 2 of the 5 slats, as well as an accent around the bottom of the vents. The outer vent doesn't have those same silver accents, which gives it a cheaper look. I'm not sure if higher trims resolve this issue. The standard gauges.....when I saw them in pictures, they look very cheap. Seeing them in person, I do agree that they look out of place in a modern car without some more detailing (even just some chrome rings around the speedo and tach would dress it up some), but they aren't as bad as photos suggested. The small color screen in between them is nice to have, as well. The door panel design also leaves something to be desired. The front doors are better than the back, but the little cutout accent things look like what they are - filler to have some sort of "design" in an otherwise giant expanse of soft touch plastic in the front and in the back an even bigger expanse of hard tupperwear like plastic. I still don't understand the complaints on the rear seat legroom. I'm 6'0" and have the front seats set how I'd sit, and while I do have the rear seats all the way back in the photo, there's plenty of room in that setup. If the rear seats were set all the way forward, my knees would be against the chairs, but when you can slide the seats, unless you had to, I don't see why you'd have them in any position but as far back as they go. One each of a USB-C and USB-A port are in the back of the lower center console for rear passengers. Now for the driving part..... First, for some reason, the tilt feature on the steering wheel/column was not working on this model. I even looked up the order guide to see if it another cost cutting move and whether it just didn't have it, or if it wasn't working. Well, under the standard equipment, it lists the tilt/telescoping wheel, so it wasn't functioning here for some reason. Going into this overall look at the new Escape, after having read reviews of how sluggish and slow and noisy and terrible the 3 cylinder EcoBoost was, I expected to be vastly underwhelmed and as if I could go faster if I pedaled car Flintstone mobile style. With a Mustang GT in the garage, just about anything else will feel slow, so when driving different vehicles, I always try to judge the vehicle on what it is/what it's supposed to be doing/competing against and not a blanket "THIS IS SLOOWWWWW" compared to what I'm used to, as that wouldn't serve a purpose. I'm also not afraid to say if the powertrain didn't live up to expectations and underperformed, even if they were low to begin with because of the aforementioned reviews. So with that said, I 100% disagree with the reviews that said the 3 cylinder EcoBoost was a bad or horrible sounding engine. On the contrary, I was absolutely impressed by the little engine, and would've thought it was a 4 cylinder had I not known otherwise. I thought it performed quite well in this vehicle - it didn't feel sluggish at all.The only time I found some sluggishness was when I had to brake quickly for a car in front of me unexpectedly turning, and then quickly speeding back up, it took a second for it to "catch up". Otherwise, under normal driving, it worked great. I was also surprised to find the SE has driving modes including normal, sport, eco, and weather (I think there's a 5th but I don't recall). Sport model also wakes up the gearing and tightens the steering to make the driving even more fun. I found the ride to be smooth and relatively quiet. Upon full acceleration, the engine does make noise, but I didn't find it obnoxiously loud or harsh like reviews have said. I've included a video below for you to see. Guess I should've continued it down to idle to see a comparison, but oh well. I didn't observe fuel economy, because in such a short drive, had I reset it, the number would've been ridiculous and not at all representative of what it could get. https://i.imgur.com/MqKedDm.mp4 I should preface my closing thoughts by saying I have not driven any of the newest competition, nor have I been in them at the auto shows in a while (I need to make a better effort at that should Covid have not been the final nail in the coffin for auto shows - let's hope not). On its own, I found the Escape to be seemingly very competitive. It drove well, despite what certain other reviews have said. The engine has some pep despite being a 3 cylinder, and the selectable drive modes in even this SE trim help you further tailor the driving experience to whatever way you want to drive. The interior, while I'd agree is not as detailed as the competition and would benefit from some stylistic upgrades, it's not the horrid playskool level interior it's been made out to be. Interior space was great front and back and in the storage area. I think it'd be a great choice for anyone looking for a compact crossover.

Hey man, leave me out of this, I have absolutely nothing to do with these pictures 😂

Nevermind not touching this one with a 50 foot pole I told him weeks ago he was going to hate it no matter what

Because it has IFS and is therefore a failure at anything other than dry pavement?

Damn lawyers, ruining everything...

Looks like a lifted Flex to me.

My kids are all home indefinitely from school. Both my wife and I are working from home. If Coronavirus doesn't kill me they will.

My buddy has three of 'em...I have one. We were out one night and stopped at a coffee shop. The place was having an open mic night and a photographer snapped a picture that they now use for their FB page. Mine is the red one on the right...

As frustrating as it is, be glad they scrapped the first few attempts. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Bronco is getting the same treatment internally as F-Series and Mustang. They know how good it has to be and they weren't satisfied until it was.

My wife and I officially rejoined the Lincoln family of vehicles today. We acquired a Ceramic Pearl 2020 Navigator Reserve 4x4 (monochromatic package and luxury package included). Drove it home today, washed it and put a coat of wax on. I’m ready to get out on a road trip!

I'm tired of being told I need to live in fear. At this point, if I get it, I get it and if I don't, I don't. It is what it is.

Decided to post a review of my new 2020 Escape SE Sport Hybrid after reading all the negative posts on here about its looks and interior quality. A few weeks ago turned in a leased 2017 Subaru Crosstrek Limited after 42 months of driving. Loved the vehicle, but really fell hard for the Escape Hybrid after local Ford dealer let me test drive a Titanium hybrid for 24 hours. Ordered a Velocity Blue SE as the Titanium model was more than I wanted to spend. A few days later Ford closed their plants. So after a couple weeks kept looking at this white tricoat metallic SE hybrid with the premium package. Not a fan of white, but the sparkly white with the black roof, grill, lower cladding, and 19 inch Bridgestones with gorgeous alloy wheels really looked super sharp. So I bought it and got the 72 month 0% loan. Better than the $3500 in rebates. My Grades which greatly differ with many posters; Exterior Styling A Paint Job A Fit and finish. B Front seat comfort A Back seat comfort B Steering wheel B Stalks quality C Arm rest and center console A Instrument display A Infotainment system A Infotainment display. A Dashboard feel B Center stack switch gear B Upper door card quality B Lower door card quality C Stereo sound B Rotary dial quality A Fuel efficiency A Ride and handling B+ Road Noise A Engine/electric seamlessness A Acceleration/passing power B Cargo space B Panoramic sun roof A Quibbles: Miss the fog lights, side mirror turn signals, auto dimming mirror with compass on mirror. Other than that, this Escape is significantly better than the 2017 Crosstrek in just about every way. Also better than a brand new Equinox I drove as a rental for a couple weeks recently. Checked out a new Rav 4 hybrid before I bought this Escape and not being able to fill its gas tank adequately scared me off plus Toyotas knife edge styling. Overall, I give the 2020 Escape an A. Only unknown is reliability. Time will tell. The hybrid, especially the SE is the sweet spot, and the SEL with 2.0 is certainly worth a look. With $3500 being the average rebate it seems, every trim level offers potential value.

Hey Look! A Ford Flex! It is a boxy car and has a different colored roof!

Holy shit that’s a big engine. Finally ford has listened. None of this Ecoboost crap just gimme a V8 and an AM radio

I got to attend a Focus group that I'm pretty sure was for Rivian a couple of weeks ago. They never said for sure but they only showed one video and it was about Rivian. It was for both Trucks and SUV owners but I only got Truck questions. We saw exterior paint samples and pictures of the interior trim samples and packages then answered about 50 questions - most of which was choosing between 6 different BEV pickup configurations from multiple mfrs including Rivian, Ford, Land Rover and a couple of others. Nothing Rivian specific - just different combinations of bed sizes, battery range, cost, drivetrains (number of motors, 2wd vs 4wd) and you had to pick one. Then some questions about how much we would pay for certain features. Only 3 of our group of 16 were asked to stay for a followup session - I assume they got to see the SUV since most of the ones who were dismissed were pickup owners. It was pretty cool and they paid $150 for 1 hour of work. Was hoping to see an actual vehicle though.

What do you really expect them to say? "We're quaking in our boots hoping we don't lose all our mall crawler sales to Ford. That's one of the few things keeping FCA financially afloat!" "We're really kicking ourselves for using the Blazer and Trailblazer names on crossovers instead of bringing the international Trailblazer to the US. Maybe we can convince people to buy Hummers again, but they'll be electric this time!"

Told you there was nothing to worry about... (Same holds true for its big brother)