F250

It' s not bad at all, more room than a Miata. I'm 6'1" tall and size 12 shoes. Not fat but not as thin as I used to be... But my wife drives the Sky mostly.

That was my point jpd80. GM I think tried to build a good roadster and saw no existing platform worked well so they designed the Kappa. And the vehicle was well regarded from the beginning. Very unlike GM kind of car. The 3rd gen Capri was "a good business decision" of using off the shelf front wheel drive platform parts to cobble up a roadster. In the U.S. the Capri was a complete failure. Style, design, certainly Handling and quality control not a "lovely car" at all. Funny, GM builds a good roadster and it's "Criminally negligent" Mazda builds one and it's a long running benchmark (according to the press).

Oh, I see the point but right out of the gate the Sky alone outsold the Mazda Miata MX5 not including the additional Solstice numbers and a few Opel GTs for Europe. I assume GM thought there was a place for an economical $20k-$25k & 28 MPG roadster. At least they did it right and built a great roadster and not something lame ...(I'm looking at you 3rd generation Mercury Capri). Kappas were good roadsters at the wrong time for GM.

"Criminally incompetent" is pretty strong. Regarding the Kappa platform? I assume you mean the business case for building such a fun vehicle. Well it was brilliantly successful compared to the first years of the Corvette which had astonishingly low sales: 1953 = 300 1954 = 3,640 1955 = 700 (first year for the v8 Personally I felt GM should have folded the Buick name and kept Saturn instead. But the Kappa lives on and is built in Spain now using GM V8 engines under the Tauro brand. http://www.tauro.eu/

White with black leather chrome wheels and rear spoiler options. All original no modifications. We took it for a little drive down the coast last Sunday.

I forgot, what was the topic? BONADD

It's a used 2008 Saturn Sky. Stop laughing its a good looking fun car. Just an addition to the fleet it was a good deal, low mileage great condition find. This Kappa platform handles good! Too bad it was cut short. To me its sort of what the original 1953 Corvette was before performance went nuts. Just a fun 2 seat roadster.

It has not replaced the E-Series because the E is still in production doing the heavy work the Transit can't. Last year the E sold 11,642 vs 9,751 for the Transit this year. Without the additional 6,204 cutaway E-Series this year full size van sales would be in the red if Ford had only the Transit. The good news is the two combined have moved total sales forward.

Ask Toyota about even simple drive by wire throttle control system liabilities... This reminds me. A few months ago I was riding my new motorcycle (2014 Harley-Davidson) while listening to the Eagles playing in my helmet through my phone/bluetooth system. About the time I was passing NALF Fentress in a rural area I heard a tone and my bluetooth system in the helmet, my phone and the motorcycle all shut down simultaneously. I had to pull off the road and turn all 3 separate systems back on. What the hell? I was the only vehicle on the 2-lane road as far as I could see and this was a one time only event. By the way Mr. Elon Musk, if your car doesn't need me then maybe you can program the damn thing to make it's own payment!

If you pay for a 365 HP Ecoboost then it's real hard driving it everyday and not using the power. There's where the mileage goes. Simple, whether the driver admits it or not.

You need to update your "current vehicle" info then.

I can understand where you're coming from but I don't think it'll happen. 20 years ago 70% of F-Series were regular cabs and you could still buy one with a manual transmission and manual locking 4WD hubs. That;s a past that just isn't going to return. How many F-150s today have manual windows and door locks? That said I think I'd like to find or restore a real old 1971 F-100. No computers, even point triggered ignition and carburetor. 300 straight-6 with a 3-speed manual trans would be fine. No air conditioner needed but I would like power steering.

And it would make sense if the new SD shares the cab with the F150 with a different front clip like the Ram. Same cab and interior would save quite a bit of expense.

ADD I tried to bring it back last post. The picture was posted, I liked it nobody else does. Some called it a Chevy. Biker suggested the Transit van cab be used on a truck frame. It got stupid. That's the recap.

I wonder how much actual net profit Ford brings home after they pay Chang'an Automobile Group their 50%.

MachoBoost ? EgoBoost ?

Once upon a time Ford (and other manufacturers) told their customers "turbochargers are the future, they will give us power with efficiency in a small displacement gasoline engine." And the customers said "but this is new and complicated are you sure it will work" and the manufacturers said "trust us...with your money." And so the forward thinking customers paid extra for the new turbo engines in the cars they needed to drive to work every day and to play on the weekends. And the new turbo engine cars broke down quickly and frequently. And the customers said "never again." This was the 1979 Ford Mustang and Fairmont. You can laugh that off now but if you put your money down on one of those Fords with that engine you would be cautious. It depends on how old you are to I guess. By 1982 Ford pulled the plug on turbocharged 2.3L 4-cylinder engines for these cars. They went back and engineered the whole thing adding multi-point EFI for the first time and even intercoolers and fuel octane selector switches for the SVO. Then the 2.3L turbo re-appeared for the 1984 Mustang and Thunderbird they were reliable and powerful as originally promised 6 years earlier. So I knew these new Ecoboost engines would be reliable. But look at the new '15 Mustang 2.3L Ecoboost. The standard no extra charge V6 engine is so good it competes favorably against the Ecoboost and runs on regular fuel whereas the Ecoboost 2.3L requires premium fuel to achieve the rated power. Still, if I had to order a new F-150 I might consider the 3.5L EB vs the 5.0L V8.

Supercab. Don't know the stats on that Courier but our supercab Rangers had a wheelbase 18 inches longer than the standard short bed. 18 extra inches of wheelbase equals a lot of stability in a small truck with a heavy load and the first one pictured was an extra short wheelbase I'm assuming shorter than the existing standard cab/short bed. That's why my initial reaction and comment. Are those drop-side beds factory options there or third party installed on cab/chassis trucks, seems popular in your region.

Yea, this is some of the crazy shit that passes for normal transportation in some parts of the world:

Oh, I see. My mistake, I thought you said you drove "something similar" but with a longer wheelbase/bed. And that it was "Something Ford Asia Pacific is working on in Australia, a shortie version of Ranger" for a specific market. But since they are not in production you have not driven a ultra-short wheelbase Ranger like you pictured. Apples to apples.

That's a 2-seat Polaris ATV, an RZR XP1000 EPS with a suicide door fiberglass body very cool. Umm sure jpd80 it would make an excellent Bronco and a real Jeep Wrangler competitor... It weighs only 1,380 lbs and carries 9.5 gal of fuel...very efficient. Of course maintaining 75 mph on I95 and passing safety regs could be worked out later.

Damn the Transit is a brand new design it had better offer something over the old E on the light side of the range. E-Series same cab and different chassis depending on rating yet built same plant/line. Back on topic it appears I'm the only one here that likes the earlier picture of the F250/350. Oh well, nonconformist I guess...

No "hissy fit" I'm just stating my options and you know everyone has one. You disagree with me? Good. It can get boring around here sometimes with all these cheerleaders. But don't throw up some asinine cartoon on every post I make becaise thats childish.

Put 1000 lbs in the bed of that thing and drive around an interstate off-ramp and physics will take over. Maybe you're right this is intended for limited use in specific markets. Markets with fewer lawyers.

The E-Series can handle any job from standard 1/2 ton van all the way to a 22,000 lb GCWR 176" wheelbase DRW cutaway, can the Transit? No, not even close. Yes, it was time for an all new E-Series no doubt. A new platform designed for this market to do everything the E-Series has successfully done for decades would have been preferable. Now Ford has to build two entirely different platforms for the job. That's almost government style efficiency.