cass

Ford installed 85,000 bad transmissions in the last f series and recovered, not to mention the 6.0 problems, or the early 2001 5.4L engines going south. Toyota hasn't blown the launch, really all that matters is how they handle the problem. The larger and more american toyota gets the more of these problems they will have. I know several folks with camry sludge engines that were replaced free of charge that had in excess of 150k. Toyota has been building some of the worst engines for a while now... V6 truck engines total junk... 1997-2001 camry 4 cylinder .. more junk. celica 4cylinder... bad oiling system, junk. Somehow they have handled the problems well enough to maintain some customer satisfaction. The biggest problem with Toyota and their truck is that nothing american has the horsepower or refinement or MPG to compete... 2 valve pushrod engines went out in the late 1930's, and cast iron crankshafts went out with them. Fords 3V Hack job with nodular iron crank is no competition to anyone. Its cheap and runs ok but thats all you can say for it, and thats all the taurus had going for it the last 10 years of its life cycle(yeah I know but the new taurus is the 2nd coming). Ford should have shouldered way more of the blame over the explorer tires... any idiot would have known 26psi tires on a 4600 pound vehicle was trouble waiting to happen after a few pounds leaks off.

Uh... No you are not even close. "fully loaded" is a dead misnomer. Car options are so inclusive/exclusive anymore you have to know whats in it, "fully loaded" only applies to guns. Right now, looking and the Honda website there are 10 different EX models of Honda Accord's. Would you call a 4cylinder, cloth, manual tranny "fully loaded"? Or would you call the ex, v6, auto with sat linked nav, leather, and an automatic "fully loaded"? If you think hondas trim level naming scheme makes sense then try deciphering SE/Special Edition/VP/Value Package Which seems to change every year. Americans have infiltrated high levels of every car company and poluted the names and trim levels to the point of insanity. A lot of the trim levels are just marketing gimmicks.... They build cheapos to get the "starting at" price down, and then the build some "value/special" editions to have ad fodder for compteing models concerning price points for power amenities options. Don't even start with Camry, at least with a Honda EX you know you are getting a sunroof, with camry LE you can have cloth, wheelcovers/aluminum/nav/nav/leather/sunroof/hardtop/manual/auto/any radio.

Butt ugly slab sided short windowed 300c copy with a straight rear axle and a small block racing engine. Excuse me while while I wipe the snot off my face from laughing so hard. Why not just cut the fenders off and mount tractor tires and call it big foot 2k7? Its really bad when your concept already has less HP and less features than your competitions Production vehicle. I doubt very seriously if your are going to see a Manual tranny in the beast, because I doubt ford (or anyone) has one that will stand the Weight/power involved, and fit a car.

Without 4 valves and variable valve timing it will just be another 1950's remix ford, chevy, and dodge have been pushing off on people lately. I mean it really ain't hard to figure out.. caterpillar went to 4 valves in the 1920's and have been there ever since. Most of the rest of the world is moving on to 5 valves for the top stuff. Domestic brands don't seem to have the initiative or technical ability to design a new engine. We really should be able to buy an engine that puts out 100hp/liter and has reliability. But it is simply more profitable to stamp out nodular iron cranks and massive cast iron blocks that produce 50 - 60 hp/liter with anemic performance and bolt on massive catalysts and classify them as trucks to reap emissions allowances. It used to be that road tractors had basic simple engines compared to cars, but now road tractors are ahead. I know most all have 4 or more valves with variable timing and computer controlled direct injection. Without a competitive engine, its just a matter of time till Nissan or Toyota or Honda figure out how to make a full size long bed truck and put the sleeper hold on the truck market with a superior powerplant. The Chevy duramax will probably be the wave of the future in truck engines anyway.... engines designed and built by foreign engineers and technical knowledge. They just need to call the "new" engine "Recycled Outdated Underpowered Steel Hunk" - ROUSH.