PoorBob

Ron Paul is a pure Libertarian who has the support of Republicans in Congress because he votes for their leadership instead of being an independent. When he's run in Texas, most of his fund raising has come from a national network of Libertarian donors. I don't have anything against Libertarians (heck, it's nice to hear Paul and others point out the massive waste of time and money the "War on Drugs" has been). But don't assume he's even close to electable. If Paul gets even one primary vote, expect the airwaves to be flooded with his speaches against drug enforcement, his opposition to child labor laws and other extreme notions. Bob

Maybe people are waiting on pricing? Getting into a new engine is scary enough. Not knowing how much it's going to cost to get into it would be worse.

I drove a 1979 Fairmont station wagon in high school in Houston. The previous owner was an engineer and had designed and installed a homemade air conditioning system on it. I was the only Fairmont owner who had to turn a big wooden knob to get cold air. Not exactly a chick magnet in the late 80s, it got me to school and work every day and never broke down. Sure, it couldn't go faster than 60 m.p.h. unless I was flooring it going downhill, but it started up every morning... more than I could say for its predecessor, a 77 Olds Delta 88. Bob

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Interesting point Sixcav. I really wonder how much things like that influence buying decisions. About two years ago, I was shopping for a minivan. For nearly a month, I tried to convince myself that the Honda was the one for me despite being $8,000 more expensive than the Chrysler that we eneded up buying. The thing that I liked about the Honda? It had a beautifully easy-to-read IP, especially a crisp, vibrant display on the spedometer. I absoultely loved the way the numbers just popped out at me when I looked at the dash. For a piece of the car that doesn't really affect the driving experience, I absolutely loved that readout. But, I ended up buying the Chrysler because it came loaded with cool features (dual power sliding doors and liftgate, safety features that were almost up to the Honda's level, a 6-CD changer, those great fold-down second row seats) for about $8,000 less than the Honda. We made the right decision. The Chrysler's a great van, and its IP is fine. In retrospect, I can't believe that I almost threw away the extra cash for a good IP. I wonder if other people are drawn in by things like that. Bob PS -- The Ford IP on the Freestar was adequate, but the pricing on the thing was crazy. At Chrysler and Nissan, I could get a van with two power sliding doors, a power liftgate, side-curtain airbags and other bonuses for the $25,000-$28,000 price range. At Ford, to get those features, I also had to get leather seats, upgrading air conditiong, more chrome that I wanted, etc... driving the price into the $35,000 range (still the $30k+ range after X-Plan). The guys in Dearborn can complain all they want about the market, but their product wasn't price competitive at any point in the market. Kia and Dodge killed it at the low end, Chrysler and Nissan had better deals in the mid-market, and Toyota and Honda had better premium offerings.

Actually, I would say that the folly was not upgrading the Ranger to use the new platform when it upgraded the Explorer. If Ford had moved the aging Ranger (no major upgrades in a decade) to the sweet new Explorer platform, small pickup sales might not be so pitiful now. When it was moving 400,000 units a year (2002 and before), having a unique platform was very justified. This year, Explorer will probably move 185,000 units or so. If they migrate the Ranger to that platform, you might get 300,000+ Explorers/pickups per year... enough for a platform. If not, wasteful as swenson said. Bob

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HLA doesn't make sense for how most Super Duty trucks are used. The vast majority of road miles for Super Duty drivers are highway miles. In city driving, HLA improves fuel economy, but on the highway, all it does is add unwanted weight, thereby lowering fuel economy. If Ford's going to use the technology, expect it on the LCF, a vehicle built for stop-and-go city traffic.

Why would anyone want to compete with the Colorado. Chevy's sales have fallen from S10 to Colorado. The competition in light pickups is Toyota and Nissan and to a lesser degree Dodge. If Ford came in with a Sport Trac sized truck with two or three engine choices (a 4-cylinder diesel would absolutely kill the competition), a few bed and cab choices and competent design, and it would regain the front-running position in entry-level pickups in a year or two. Just my opinion, Bob

You can find better pictures here. http://www.plasansasa.com/default.asp Ford had one of these on display next to the Super Chief at the Mid-America Truck Show in Louisville earlier this year. Bob

Mechanically, it may be a simpler solution, but it will require more computer coltrols for the combustion process. I just hope they've got all of the bugs worked out of the software this time. That was the excuse they kept giving for problems with the 6-liter... software bugs. Bob

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Very few real news outlets take part in junkets. Those freebies tend to go to specialty magazines (not Car and Driver, more like Mustang Fanatic) and new Web-based publications. Newspapers and magazines tend to pay their own way on travel and lodging, specifically to avoid this kind of conflict of interest. And it goes beyond cars. News agencies actually pay a portion of the fuel for Air Force One when reporters ride along with the president. And don't think that Ford doesn't throw around the freebies. Check eBay right after a major auto show, and you'll see a lot of domestic automaker toys, press kits and other crap given away to leave good impressions. Hey, I'm not defending freebies. I'm just saying that everyone does it, not just the Japanese. And I'd also say that because everyone does it, they don't work. Bob

Several people asked Fields about Thai or other imports for the Ranger, and he said it really isn't an option. Even with platform sharing keeping costs down, there's not a lot of money to be made in compact-midsize pickups. Thai labor is lower, but material costs are higher, and by the time you get the vehicles shipped here, the savings disappear. To make money on imports, you need either a really small size to minimize shipping costs (Toyota's Scion line, several VW products, Chevy Aveo) or you need a fat profit margin (Range Rover, any euro luxury car, all of the Lexus line). The Ranger is too big with too thin of a margin to make sense as an import. Bob

All automakers place domestic content stickers on their vehicles because it's the law. The UAW and the domestics pushed for one version in the early 1980s, and they tacked similar legislation on to the highway funding act in 1992. In some cases, the stickers help Toyota by showing buyers that some content is from the U.S. In some cases, buyers seen the 0-5 percent stickers on some of the SUVs, it's a turnoff. Bob