akirby

Ok, from now on you reply to the even posts and I'll reply to the odd posts. :beerchug:

It shuts off fuel when you're coasting to improve fuel economy. It feels like you touched the brakes slightly. Easy to fix - just open another window. This debuted in 1999 on the Lincoln LS (which I happened to own). It disappeared when they killed the LS in 2006 and didn't come back for a few more years. It's on most Ford vehicles now. It isn't a substitute for a true manual and you don't really use it to shift gears per se - but it's really handy when you want to select and hold a specific gear for spirited driving or going up or down hills or to hold a higher gear for better fuel economy.

His point was to measure those cars that consume less gas while idling. Hard to do that if you're denominator is miles driven.

Could be marketing or CAFE or limited supply or a dozen other reasons. Tuxedo black is nice but to me it doesn't fit the Mustang like the regular black does.

It's cool but those bars sticking out on the side would get stuck on everything......

It's 5/60 on the powertrain. The dealer is an idiot. Find a new one or call Ford.

I didn't bother to check the specs, but is it possible that the weight of the global Focus was actually increased to meet the U.S. crash standards, therefore the global Fiesta would be closer to the U.S. weight than the European weight?

Of course! I mean - it worked out great for Pontiac with the G8, right?

There seems to be many more issues on the Focus and not so much on the Edge and Explorer. Something is different or so it would appear.

Exactly. There are a lot of (mostly) young people who want a sporty driving vehicle and don't really care about utility - those are the ones buying Fiestas and Mazda2s, etc. The family haulers or single people who aren't into driving dynamics are the ones flocking to the Fit and Versa. The Fiesta ST is coming. I rest my case.

Not unless they change the U.S. crash standards.

17-Year-Old Girl Lived on Chicken Nugget Diet for 15 Years, is Rushed to Hospital

The Fit is more of a utility wagon like the B-Max rather than the Fiesta sedan or hatchback. Some people value room and utility and others will value sporty driving. For some reason all of these reviews focus on utility rather than sportiness and I'm not sure why.

I think you must have cracked your head somewhere along the way too.

I don't advocate grants - but if you give out loans to businesses without a reasonable expectation that the loans can be paid back then they should be called Grants, not loans. Yes, and you must keep the default rate as low as possible and you do that by not making risky loans to companies without good business plans. Back to topic - Carbon Motors did not have a good business plan therefore the government's decision not to LOAN them money was the right one. It's purely a financial issue, not a political issue.

That was his point - they should have been left optional.

Honda just lost a class action suit on Civic hybrid fuel economy. Owners got $200 and a discount on a future Honda. Attorneys got $6M. That says it all.

I will if you will.

Me, too. Is that redundant?

I think Focus or Fusion I4/Hybrid or Escape I4/Hybrid would be the best bets right now for resale down the road.

This. ^^ You can just cut staff and budget across the board with no other changes. Or you can eliminate redundant or unnecessary functions, eliminate products and/or services, increase automation and change processes and as a result, cut staff. The first one gets you temporary cost savings. The second one gets you sustained, permanent cost savings.

I agree - however those are called GRANTS and there is a separate part of the budget for those. If you start up a program and fund it for LOANS then those LOANS should only be made to companies with reasonable ability to pay them back. Otherwise they should be called GRANTS. You can't get funding for a LOAN program and turn it into a GRANT after the fact.

What about the other 5 or 6 posters who said you were full of crap? Are they all me too? Just let it go.

The big deal was that the loan had to be written off and I as a taxpayer expect the government to be judicious when they loan out MY money and only LOAN it to companies that can be reasonably expected to pay it back. If they don't expect it to be paid back then it would be a grant, not a loan. Either way I call it a good business decision, not politics.

Could be limited supply of the engine. Plus they're pushing the Flex more upmarket from the Explorer. Same reason the explorer doesn't get the 3.5L EB.