swenson88

Everything rear of the front doors needs to be completely redesigned. The front = good. Side view = flat out ugly. Rear = so-so. If this vehicle is supposed to do anything for Lincoln I feel sick.

I just don't see any reason why anyone would buy this vehicle over some of the much better crossovers on the market, including the GM triplets. Of course, I find the Taurus X to be entirely outclassed as well, but that has more to do with being a station wagon trying to pretend to be a "crossover". This vehicle is so late to the party, yet does nothing new and is visually very bland. I think ChryCo has lost it's mojo (not that it was ever that great anyways).

Huh, I already ride public transportation to my job. Much cheaper than driving in everyday, sitting in the traffic burning gas, and then paying $30/wk to park. $59/mo for unlimited bus/train use is a much better deal. Then I still have my car to drive wherever I need to after work or on weekends. I've been nothing but happy with my public transportation, not to mention that this time of year you're always apt to get to sit next to some very attractive females on the bus/train, much better than just honking at them while driving

I think you're right to an extent, but I think the whole fullsize sedan market functions that way. Aside from the true big beautiful beasts like BMW 7-Series or MB S-Class, fullsize sedans are generally popular with the older more frugal customers. They keep them forever and maybe hand them off to a teenager in the family or something along those lines. While this doesn't lead to great sales numbers if the Taurus and siblings can hold up well from a reliability standpoint then they can at least help Ford's reputation. And from the looks of the 500/Montego/Freestyle data the reliability seems to be pretty good. None of the fullsize sedans are really hot sellers, the LX sedans are still doing pretty well and the Impala is a great deal, but glorious Toyota doesn't move that many Avalons a year and Nissan's Maxima is pretty slow-selling. The Fusion really hits the heart of the sedan market, the Taurus is bigger but will sell in much smaller numbers.

Well in this country the biggest factors in resale value simply seem to be whether there's a chrome "H" or funky "T" on the hood.

Jesus, you just love spewing nonsense left and right, huh? Come on, this is ridiculous. You really think healthcare is the reason people get sick? That's funny, seems to me as healthcare gets more advanced the average lifespan just keeps on getting longer. Sure, a hundred years ago no one had significant healthcare, and they also had a life expectancy of probably 50-60 yrs. So what'll you think will happen if you have no health insurance and you get an operable cancer? Or you're in an accident and suffer broken bones and internal injuries? The out of pocket costs for things like this are amazingly high, that's where insurance comes in so that you pay a small amount pooled together with everyone's small amount to afford catastrophic events. What you're doing is burying your head in the sand and saying "It'll never happen to me". Just like the government doesn't allow you to drive a car without auto insurance you shouldn't be allowed to not have health insurance, it's as simple as that. It isn't some government conspiracy or secret plot to ruin your life, it's in everyone's best interest. So far healthcare has completely failed to function in the competitive marketplace like other businesses, the capitalist system for healthcare is a joke.

Ecchh. I'd be pretty pissed, too. Myself I'd rather have a nice brushed aluminum wheel than gaudy chrome anyday, but if you're going to go chrome aftermarket is the only way to do it, nothing factory looks worth a damn from any manufacturer. But, to be charged seven hundred big ones for glued on chrome afterthoughts, that's a kick in the junk.

Okay, obviously you're working from strong bias, but trust me, as someone in the healthcare world you are way off base. I'll try and address your points individually and clear some things up. Overpaid? Depends on the field. "Doctor" is a very broad term that covers everything from your local family practitioner, pediatrician, hospitalist, surgeon, all the way to plastic surgeon to the stars. Saying all doctors are overpaid is ludicrous - work out what many small practice doctors make by the hour and it isn't much at all. Yes, exceptional surgeons live very well, and there's some other fields that do great due to demand. Lamborghinis? Maybe if you're putting tits into Hollywood celebrities, I've certainly never seen any Lamborghinis in the parking lot at any hospital in New England. Certainly lots of Lexuses, MB's and Beemers, but hell you see those at job sites. Again, look at the extent of training that doctors go through and then look at the compensation level compared to many other professional fields and it really isn't that different, not to mention the HUGE responsibility that comes with caring for human beings. Delegating work? Again depends entirely on the field. A local practioner does almost all their own work, they might have a couple nurses helping out in the practice to do menial tasks like take vitals and draw blood. A surgeon certainly doesn't delegate his surgical skills to any nurses. I assume you're referring to internists within the hospital, well if you saw what their day was like you'd change your tune. What makes more sense, having the doctor draw up all the drugs and wipe asses all day or try to figure out what is wrong with patients and how to cure them? Just like a manager manages, a doctor manages all the staff below them to get things done. A hospital is a team effort, not doctors lording over peons. And no, the standard nurse does not know more than I think. A nurse who has worked in the same field for decades probably does know almost as much as the doctor when it comes to standard problems, but the doctor also knows the very uncommon problems. A recently-trained nurse is miles below the level of a recently-trained physician. And the reason the doctor can't show up immediately when he/she is paged is most often because they're in the middle of treating another patient. Nurses care for patients in a localized area and carry very few, doctors may be in charge of caring for upwards of twenty patients each, all on different floors and areas of the hospital. I've seen nurses get mad that doctors don't immediately respond to their pagers, but say you're in the middle of draining the fluid in someone's abdomen, should you just stop to answer a page? No. And no, I don't think doctors are paid more than they are worth, at least the vast majority of them. Look, there has to be at least some incentive to get a smart college kid to give up their twenties to go into medicine. Yeah it would be nice if altruism was a huge motivator, but it isn't. I think those that go into medicine all have an innate desire to help others, but let's face it, money helps. That same intelligent college student could just as easily go into the business world and make a fortune, you start slashing doctor's salaries and you're going to lose some of the brightest of the bright to more lucrative fields. I for one don't think we should try and push our smartest students away from a field where they can do some great good. As it is med school applications have been steadily falling over the past decades, already an indication that we're losing some of our best and brightest. The average doctor does not earn a real salary until at least age 30, usually more like 31-32. Plus they are an average of $200K in debt at the end of medical school, not counting loans they may have taken out for undergraduate college. Many aren't able to pay off those loans until they are in their mid-40's. Tack onto that the normal life expenses such as owning a home and raising a family and I hardly think doctors are overpaid. And the thing about drug company lunches and kickbacks is a very broad generalization and refers to a few bad apples, hardly the majority. I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but your view of the healthcare world just flies in the face of all my experiences and is somewhat unsettling. I want to make sure that people don't take your words for truth.

???!!!??? Seriously??!! Seriously??!! Jesus, I thought you had some messed up ideas about the auto industry, but this takes the cake. It can take less than two years to be a nurse WITHOUT college, yet doctors must go through at least 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and then 3+ (usually an average of 4-5) years of residency before they can practice independently, yet doctors aren't skilled professionals???!! I never cease to be amazed on here . . .

Yeah, definitely some bias, but then again the Taurus isn't really a homerun, it's more like a double whereas the original 500 was a weak single. An improvement, but probably not going to knock the socks off of any mag reviewers or win too many mag comparison tests.

Wow. I don't even know where to start here. You really think doctor's salaries are why healthcare costs so much? Really? Do some research, you'll see that over the past few decades doctor's salaries have barely kept up with inflation, yet healthcare has gone sky high at sometimes triple the national inflation rate. Explain that. Look, the reason healthcare keeps skyrocketing is because we simply have MORE OF IT. Common diseases that no one received much treatment for are now being treated daily with expensive prescriptions and procedures. For one example psoriasis - fairly common, sucks to have it, but now one of the standard treatments is a weekly shot of a very high-tech antibody that costs $1100-$1500 PER WEEK. It used to be that people with psoriasis simply got some topical creams and maybe cheap steroids, costing maybe a couple bucks a week. Now we have a great medication that really does work well and improves a lot of lives, but it costs a ridiculous amount of money. Then there's real simple things like high blood pressure and Type II diabetes - there's barely a middle age American who isn't taking a prescription for both. People used to just get heart attacks and die - now we have expensive fancy diagnostic tests that warn of a heart attack so you get fancy expensive surgery that prevents a heart attack. Feel free to bitch about healthcare costs, guys, but they've gone up as our ability to save lives and improve lives have gone up. Lowering doctor's salaries will be a drop in the bucket. And for god's sake, lowering the standards to get into medical school?!? Jesus, if there's one field that should have the highest standards for it's practitioners it's healthcare. In America qualified foreign doctors can certainly practice, I don't know about Canada, but I can't imagine anyone would really want to lower medical school requirements just to save a buck or two.

Face it guys, we're going to have to have national healthcare at some point. Every year more and more companies eliminate healthcare benefits for new workers, and many are slashing the benefits of their current workers as well. My father has worked at his company for 35 years and he was told last week that he will now have to pay 100% of his healthcare premiums from now on. Up until then the company only asked him to pay 20%, they paid the remaining 80%. For him and my mother that now works out to over $1400 a month, money they most definitely do not have. It's only a matter of time before EVERY company eliminates healthcare benefits, then what do you think you'll do? Sure, it's easy to be against national healthcare when your company hasn't cut yours yet, but just wait. The tune changes very quickly.

I've been seeing a bunch over the past week here in Massachusetts. Maybe it's a regional thing.

Not to mention can these new highly-advanced diesel engines even run on the homebrew stuff? Yeah a thirty year old MB is an easy convert, as are many diesels from the 80's and 90's, but the new crop of diesel engines that are meant to run on the ULSD fuel, can they even tolerate biodiesel? Wasn't there a post just a couple months back about a guy who ruined his 2008 SuperDuty by running biodiesel? If that's the case, then biodiesel is going to have to go through the same refining as normal fuels to make it suitable for modern vehicles, thus raising the cost anyways.

I for one actually like the Nitro. Well, certain models, not the obligatory cheapo ones with black plastic bumpers, those look like crap. But the body color ones look nice. I don't care much for the interior, but considering I drive a 2001 Cherokee, the exterior styling of the Nitro works for me and I would venture that the interior isn't much worse than what I currently have. I'm not planning on buying one for sure, just figured I'd toss in my $.02.

You know that saying about rose-colored glasses? I think your glasses are shit-colored. You should go to LensCrafters and try a new pair.

Exactly. Per capita doesn't mean squat considering both India and China have >1 Billion population each. Yes, we pollute more with less, but imagine what they'll do when they ramp up to our standard of living which is what they're aiming for.

Fair? Yes. The Fusion can be had in either 4-cyl or V6 form, the Aura can only be had with V6's. Therefore the only true comparison is to compare the cheapest V6 Fusion to the cheapest V6 Aura, not the 4-cyl Fusion. In that case the prices are very comparable and the Aura is a very worthy competitor to the Fusion/Milan.

Jesus. Like that's a useful survey, check out the groups organizing it - one is an environmentalist group, the other is called "40mpg.org". Jeez, does that affect the selection bias of who takes your survey? Hmmm. Besides, how many people that responded to the survey currently drive anything getting 40mpg or more? How many vehicles even AVAILABLE get 40+mpg????? Especially considering we're about the get realistic mpg ratings from the EPA for 2008, exactly what vehicles could even be on the market for 2010 that would get 40mpg? Even if it's an average, that implies that half of all vehicles would get GREATER than 40mpg. The Prius, which given the demise of the Insight is the most fuel efficient vehicle and will only have a rating of something like 45mpg combined. The Civic hybrid may be able to break 40 for 2008. As far as I know there aren't any other vehicles that will. That REALLY narrows the consumers choices if these whackos had their way. Yeah sure, I'll say it would be great if cars drove on happiness and smiles and put out love and peace as their only emissions, but I also realize reality is mildly different than fantasy land.

It's funny how this thread started, cause I think out of all the Focus models only the hatchback was even remotely good looking. The sedan and wagon were as dowdy as dowdy can be. Granted, I don't think the hatch worked as a 5-door, but the 3-door was a great looking little vehicle, and could look pretty sporty given the right treatment.

If the Edge keeps selling more than 12K units/month then it is already selling at a 150K/year pace. So much for "bombing". Good for Ford. I hope it gets continuous updates and tweakings for the better to maintain its momentum.

While that would go a long way towards making us energy-independent from the Middle East, it would take a very large amount of energy to form large hydrocarbons on a mass scale. The laws of physics are pretty clear cut - the energy required to break atomic bonds (which is what happens when we burn large hydrocarbons like gasoline and result in CO2 and H2O) is exactly equal to the energy required to form atomic bonds (which is what you are suggesting by taking CO2 and H2O and bonding them to form something like gasoline). Yes, a "free" source of energy like sunlight or wind would be great, but the reality is it's not free, it requires very expensive investments in either photovoltaic cells or wind turbines, respectively. And when you consider the amount of fuel currently required to keep our vehicles running the investment required would be MASSIVE. I'm not trying to poo-poo change, it's just the reason we use fossil fuels is that nature already put in the energy for us to turn CO2 and H2O into a fuel source, that's why they're cheap. All you have to do is collect the fuel from the ground and you're basically ready to go. Every proposed source of fuel other than fossil fuels requires huge inputs of man-made energy and simply cannot compete with the economics of fossil fuels. That may change, but what that means is that fossil fuels also become extremely expensive.

I agree. Unlike fossil fuels, which only need some refining to get to our cars, we have to MAKE hydrogen by investing a large amount of energy to split water (the current favored method). So what about the energy put in to making hydrogen? I don't see how hydrogen is going to be the future because it takes so much energy to get the hydrogen so you can then use hydrogen to make energy at a different point.

I just hope Ford is able to be the first to market with a 1/2 ton diesel truck. From the sound of it Ford is going to be dropping Navistar at some point in favor of in-house diesels, so most likely Navistar might be returning the favor by shopping around for new customers.

To me this implies that the Corolla is goin to grow AGAIN. God the thing's going to be the size of a Fusion next time around. And if they do put the 3.5 in I'm sure it'll be a limited edition hi-po model.