mustang84isu

I could see the current Mustang simply become a "Mustang GT" line, with a V8 only - and then the affordable EV Mustang would be on the CE1 platform. And IMO, the body of each vehicle should be differentiated from one another. I would love to see Ford use something like fox body heritage cues for the affordable Mustang, sort of like how Hyundai Ioniq 5 has retro cues but still is a modern package.

I hate the wheels, but I like the rest. It seems like they were trying to play off the turbine wheels, but it's not done very well and the all-white makes it worse. I don't mind the white badging, but I think the nostrils on the grille would have been better in the teal color. I really hope we see more color like this across the line at Ford. I was at a Ford dealership earlier today, and it was literally a sea of white, black, and gray - 90% of the vehicles on the lot were one of those three colors.

Ford at the executive level has been rudderless since Alan Mulally left. I had high hopes for Jim Farley, but he's been there now, almost 5 years? And the execution still is not there. The company is way too reactionary to the whims of the market at whatever moment in time and it doesn't feel like there is a truly a multi-year plan to improve and grow back lost market share. Lots of bad product decisions, including letting nameplates wither on the vine that used to be very competitive, and then finally killing them off with the excuse that it is the market's fault and not Ford's for failing to invest and keep it fresh. It's the same old Ford story, just a different decade. With the current political environment we are in, I think the CE1 program is going to be another uphill battle. Meanwhile, Ford continues to send nameplates like Escape to the dustbin right as buyers are looking for affordable vehicles to counter inflation. The current generation Mustang is not aging well and is too expensive. Ford is SUV heavy when sedans made a significant comeback in sales in 2024 as consumers are looking to scale down. GM has also been doing very well with the Buick and Chevy small crossovers while Ford will soon be MIA in that segment. Negatives aside, the one good thing Farley has done is monetizing Ford Pro and telematics. That is a very positive step to mitigate the normal automotive boom and bust cycle. So I will give him kudos for that, but everything else leaves much to be desired and I think many of us are getting impatient with the continued excuses for mediocre execution.

I'm not against the $7500 tax credit, but it should be based on income and perhaps step down and terminate once certain income thresholds are hit. It never should have been a blanket tax credit for everyone. Once again, Ford is caught between a rock and a hard place. They killed off all sorts of high volume gas-powered nameplates and now the EV rug is being pulled out from under them in the US after they have spent billions building out EV production infrastructure domestically, about 10 years too late. The incoming administration and a certain high-profile CEO will abuse the system to keep his car company afloat while every other automaker that has made significant EV investments will be cast off to fend for themselves in this new era of austerity.

Same, I'm not understanding the hate on this one. The blacked out tailgate forms the same glossy black shape as the front end and ties in well with the taillights. It feels pretty cohesive to me. Even then, painting it body color is an easy fix, but IMO that would take away some of the character. It looked pretty good in the video for the stealth package. The only place I would ding it a bit is the interior, and mostly just the dash interface at the doors. The combination of the two screens, the vertical air vents, and the overall dash layout feels a bit clunky. The interior feels more modern and less truck-y than I was expecting, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing, but I think the overall flow of the dash could have been thought out better.

The 2020-24 grille-to-light interface isn't great in photos, but I feel like it is less noticeable in person. The bigger thing for me is that the body of the 2020+ is more sculpted than 2011-19, and ditches the FWD proportions, so IMO 2020+ gets the nod for me over 2011-19. But I do generally like the 2016-19's, and IMO they have aged better than 2011-15 which always felt a bit too soft for the Explorer nameplate. IMO, the worst Explorer generation to me is 2006-2010. It was too evolutionary from the third gen, and I never liked the headlights with the circles and the chromed up grilles. It was designed during a period when Ford was running on fumes, and it feels like it.

I remember that redesign. I think it was around 2017. I used to go to Autoblog daily, and when they did the big site redesign I stopped going almost overnight and switched to Left Lane News. I can't remember what it was that I did not like so much about it, but I remember lots of people complaining on the site. The Autoblog website format actually improved in the last few years and I slowly came back, especially when LLN folded. The one thing I always liked was that the galleries had full size images. The new format under the new ownership threw all that away and we are back to tiny images that can't be enlarged and terrible formatting again.

I feel like the Autoblog decline began around the time that the AutoblogGreen sister website was launched. The quality of journalism started to decline as older staff members left, and then they filled space with "partner website" articles. Autoblog was my go-to for many years, but the last few years I tended to prefer Motor1, although I still went to Autoblog for the comments section (which is now gone in the new iteration). I'll have to try Autopian, since they have a much more active comment section than Motor1.

The guy that bought it is the founder of a small company called AI Marketing Solutions, so I think you hit the nail on the head.

Agree. I had a Navigator rental this summer and the blind spots were enormous. If the screen is already there, might as well make use of it. I think this feature would be useful to manually turn on even when not using turn signals. Seems like it would make the most sense to locate it closest to the mirrors to work in tandem with the blind spot monitor on the mirrors.

We're actually thinking about replacing our '17 Edge at some point with a 2025+ Explorer. What are your thoughts on the 2.3L in it? We have the 2.0L in our Edge and it's fine but nothing soul stirring. I'm spoiled with an Ecoboost V6, so driving them back to back always leaves me wanting more. But maybe the 2.3L in the Explorer feels better than the 2.0L in the Edge (300 hp vs. 245).

Edit: duplicate post

I wonder if this was a Hackett or Farley project. Not encouraging to hear Ford wasting years of time and resources on a project that would have been a bomb both design-wise and cost-wise. When the heck is this company going to figure out a path forward with R&D and future product...and then begin delivering. We've been hearing about products planned then s***canned going all the way back to Fields. Ten years of heads up rear ends over at Ford. So frustrating...

I'd rather not see Ford go the gigacasting route. It's great for the manufacturer's bottom line but not the consumer. Teslas are becoming almost uninsurable, especially the Cybertruck, due to the gigacast parts that turn a minor accident into a total loss.

I wish they would have added the integrated door handles that the Nautilus has and Continental had. They're more premium looking than traditional door handles, and it would have made the Navi look a bit sleeker. The front looks great, but I'm a little mixed about the new taillight bar / rear end. The execution feels a bit chunky, but it also feels like something that will grow on me over time once we see it on the road. The full-width screen doesn't integrate as well as the Nautilus. In the Nautilus, I like how it flows into the dash which then flows into the top of the door panels. Feels like they could have tried a bit harder. Overall, it's a good update and should help Lincoln cross back over the 100K US sales threshold.