akirby

Interesting. I didn't remember that quote. Give the powertrain mules we've seen so far I'm not sure I believe that beyond the general grille design and overall styling.

This is really simple. Ford's new hybrids are different than other hybrids because they can go faster on electricity alone. This is not due to Ford arbitrarily picking 62 mph. 62 mph is the fastest that the engineers could do with the new technology. The previous gen maxed out at forty something. This just means that the differences between the EPA test and real world driving is magnified. And as soon as the other mfrs catch up with Ford in this area they will see similar results. The EPA test for this new technology does not accurately represent the average driver's expected fuel economy. Throw in cold temps, a less than fully charged battery and winter fuel and the difference can be big. The same issue exists with the 1.6L and 2.0L ecoboost engines. They are super sensitive to throttle input. If you're very careful on the throttle and coast when possible you can achieve EPA results in the real world. I've done it with my 2.0L Fusion. They're great up to a certain point and then the turbo starts sucking more fuel than a NA engine would. Again - this is new technology that isn't unique to Ford. You cannot blame Ford for the advertised EPA ratings. Ford has asked the EPA to revise their testing and/or window sticker reporting formulas to address this issue. Reporting repeatable legitimate test results AS REQUIRED BY LAW is not misleading anybody. What Ford SHOULD do is tell customers up front that they have to drive a certain way which matches the EPA test scenarios in order to achieve the fuel economy on the window sticker. But that's it.

This wouldn't be quite so stupid if Ford wasn't required BY LAW to post the EPA test results on the sticker. And those test results are used for CAFE compliance so there's no way in hell any mfr would sandbag the test. The only possible lawsuit is if the vehicles cannot reproduce EPA results but knowing how careful Ford is about this stuff that's highly unlikely.

They didn't really have a choice. They had no backup plan when the original developers totally screwed it up. It was a lose/lose worse situation.

I'm guessing at least 2 mpg on the non hybrids - more like 5 mpg on the hybrids but that's just a guess. I lost 2 mpg on my old Fusion just by changing from Michelins (OEM) to stickier BFG super sports.

I suppose they could do a voluntary recall but out of those 724K vehicles how many actually have bad TBs that haven't already been fixed under warranty? If the failure rate is 10% and 8% have already been fixed, you'd be changing 700K TBs that are perfectly fine to fix the 14K that might still be bad. That would be incredibly stupid. The most they should do is extend the warranty.

Forget about fuel economy with the 19s. The looks are worth the tradeoff though IMO.

To lease or not really isn't the question. The question is how long do you want to keep the vehicle? If you only want or plan to keep it 2 or 3 years then leasing is the easiest way to do that. You can lease and still keep the vehicle longer in which case it's just another form of financing.

Who said the Atlas Concept had anything to do with the next F150 design? It was technology showcase, not a pre-production model.

There is no difference in circumference - the tire is still the same diameter - only the wheel is bigger. And yes you can swap them (for about $3K including new tires). I contemplated doing that myself but decided to get a Titanium instead with the H spokes and couldn't be happier.

Your dealer has access to the same info as LSC. If LSC knows you have a VIN then the dealer should know. If they don't then it's because they chose not to look or don't know where to look.

There are several ways to get a coupon - some come from Ford automatically (like mine). Requesting a brochure is another way that usually (but not always) works. Note that you don't need the actual coupon - it just has to be in the VINCENT system. The dealer can check this for you.

I can't help with this one. I don't think I've ever listened to an entire album at one time, much less in order.

I hate to see people who VOLUNTEER their own time to provide assistance outside their normal jobs be treated with anything other than full respect and gratitude. I don't think you understand how much of a burden this can become when you have 10 or 20 or 30 people wanting info at the same time. Cyberdman has rules so that he can provide updates efficiently without having to read 3 pages of posts every day.

Wow - and you complain about cyberdman being rude? You all should be thanking mkztracker for the assistance he's provided thus far, not complaining when he stops.

To me the front end is fine but I would redo the D pillars.

Styling is always subjective. I think the Camry is horrible but it outsells everything else. You can't argue with Escape sales volumes. Any speculation about the impact of a different design is just that - pure speculation. Until it actually happens and you can compare stats.

I'm pretty sure those are not Ford ads - they're either individual dealer ads or local dealer association ads. And Ford doesn't control which prices dealers advertise.

I stopped reading when I saw this:

Most 220V outlets are dedicated already so if you use this then that outlet becomes a dedicated outlet for vehicle charging. Of course you can't use the outlet for anything else while the charger is plugged in. But are there really a lot of unused 220V outlets? The only ones I know of are dedicated circuits for ovens, cooktops, dryers, etc. If you have a dedicated 220V outlet in the garage already then this would work fine. Although in that case it wouldn't cost much to have the charger wired into that existing circuit either.

You should have stopped at crazy. The over/under is 3 years before he becomes lunch. I'll take under.

Every dime they make is profit (minus the toll workers/equipment) because the bridge was probably paid for long ago. The idea is the same as raising sales tax or hotel taxes - get the folks who don't live in the area to foot most of the bill.

I read the same wiki but I guess I didn't read far enough. I assumed it was riding the same analog transmission therefore the power would be the same. It looks like they just allow separate transmitters on the same FM frequency - one with analog and one with digital - so there is in fact a big difference in signal strength. Did not realize that. In my area I get both analog and HD for all the stations I listen to.

Umm......the HD signal rides the same frequency and transmitter as the analog signal.

I normally listen to Hits, 70s, 80s, 90s and classic rewind. On FM I also listen to country and just this morning I added the Highway to my main Sirius presets. Go figure!