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I have seen blockheaded plant management with a good workforce, zero cooperation between management and the union workers, good management with a so so workforce, and a general do not care attitude on both sides. The worst situations were when I was called in due to a major system or press being down. Panic on the management side and apathy on the workforce side made my life difficult, and a union leader telling me I could not do this or that just made the downtime longer.

In all of this discussion, I have an observation. In working as a supplier of production machinery to the automakers I have been in many stamping and assembly plants across the US and Mexico. If it was up to me, I would prefer to locate a plant in Mexico mostly due to the workforce. In US plants I often ran into the attitude of "we cannot do it that way because we always have done it this way". And many times this ended up causing problems and delays that ended up costing multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the Mexican plants the workforce was more open to new and better ways of doing things.

The future in the US for automotive is affordability. And the domestic manufacturers are behind the 8 ball. They have been going upmarket for years, leaving the entry level to the Koreans. In electrification they are going after the premium market, neglecting the lower end of hybrid cars. Even pickups have gotten stupid expensive. The big danger to the domestics is if an offshore manufacturer hits the sweet spot of an affordable vehicle that has a reasonable level of equipment and decent looks. Chinese building in Mexico is a serious threat, but would be a welcome option for a large part of the market.

I would consider an EV when there is one that would fully replace my current car or pickup. In range, capability (for my pickup that means a true 8 foot bed) and cost.

To a degree. Give the grey hairs the time to properly train a younger crew to replace them. I have done it twice - it works.

Another oddball sighting - a Ford Cargo with a grain body.

On a side note - the other day I saw a Ford LCF platform body on the road. I have not seen one of them in years.

Charging stations need the same kind of regulation and standardization that gasoline and diesel fueling stations have. They must be inspected periodically to make sure you are getting what you pay for, prices must be posted so you know the cost before you start charging, and there is to be one connector standard (a gasoline nozzle will fit anything from a 72 Gremlin to a 2023 Rolls and a diesel nozzle will fit everything from a 53 KW to a 2023 Mack). Otherwise things just degenerate into a total mess.

For years I worked next to a Roadway terminal. Ford "C"s everywhere, even some with tandems. Even before that I remember Roadway Mack Bs with the trailers emblazoned with "ROADWAY" in 5 foot high letters running on the OH and PA Turnpikes.

On Ford pickups I have installed trailer brake controllers on I have used the Ford cable that connects the trailer brake controller to the vehicles wiring harness. Connect the cable to the controller, and then plug it in. A dealer parts dept should have the cable or be able to order it.

In the engineering world (soon to be 50 years in it) we use pound-foot for torque and foot -pound for energy. I worked mostly in the SI (metric) world and used Newton-meters for torque and joules for energy. When I was learning the ropes it was explained that torque was a force (the pound) acting over a distance (the foot) and that potential energy was the distance (foot) that a weight (pound) was above the ground plane surface. I do not know how torque got switched around in the language, but when you are doing calculations it can make a difference, as I have seen some people believing that torque = energy since both are stated in foot pounds.

Super Duty availability seems to be tight. At a state highway depot I go by regularly the Super Duties being cycled out are replaced with a mix of Chevy and GMC. Interestingly, they still have one old Ranger regular cab in regular use. Also, at the local level, PUIs are being replaced with Durangos.

Selling an assembly plant to a prospective competitor? Might not be the best move for the future.

A Ram dealer near me has at least 30 Promaster cutaways sitting on the lot, the most I have ever seen there. They usually have 2 or 3. I would assume that they are waiting for cube bodies.

Hello Bob, I spent many years on the supplier side at many Ford facilities, not direct.