akirby

If a deer darts in front of you the extra 20' won't make any difference. Unless you're driving towards a cliff the only time it will make a difference is if you have more than 125 ft but less than 146 ft to stop and totally avoid a collision as opposed to having a minor fender bender. You people act like it's life or death. It's not.

How they can do an owner satisfaction survey and call it Total Quality is beyond me.

06 Fusion/Milan - 07 AWD, 09 refresh including a hybrid 05 500 - 08 Taurus new drivetrain, exterior/interior upgrades 06 Zephyr - 07 MKZ new drivetrain, AWD, exterior tweaks, 09 refresh The days of launch and abandon are over although all vehicles might not be on a 3 yr cycle.

First - what the heck is a break pedal? If you press it does something break? If it was the shifter mechanism then I'd expect that to happen every time. It sounds like an intermittent brake interlock switch. I'd take it to another dealer and have it checked, especially if it's still under warranty.

I don't get thrown in with anybody. I walk over to the loaner Lincoln that they pull around for me and drive back home. Like I said - I don't need to be coddled with marble floors and espresso machines (I get enough of that at the orthodontist). I'd rather shop at Costco than Neiman-Marcus. I guess that's why it didn't bother me to trade my Lincoln LS for a Fusion. The wife still has an Aviator that she wants to trade for a MKX.

My local dealer is F/L/M and we get great service on our Aviator - just as good as the L/M dealers that we used to use. Always get a Lincoln loaner for warranty work. Then again I'm not looking to be coddled - just to get the work done correctly and quickly.

Those are the 08 estimates based on the 07 vehicle. Is the Avalon getting major changes for 08?

Gearing.

Not exactly. The MKX has a $1K owner loyalty rebate for current Mercury Sable owners only, plus another $1K in mfr to dealer incentives (not mfr to customer).

Won't be on the 08 models but most likely will show up for 09. For some reason the CD3 cars only have 3 channel ABS and you need 4 channel for AdvanceTrac. It's a nice feature but I wouldn't let the lack of it on a FWD 4 door family sedan stop me from buying one. Or I should say "didn't". I have an 06 Fusion SEL.

It's a Ford sponsored TV show - they could have just been props for the show and the actual vehicles will be delivered later.

Extreme Makeover Home edition gave away a Taurus X and a Taurus Sedan on Sunday's show. That had to be taped at least a month ago so I assume they were pre-production units?

I see what you're saying now - that is entirely possible. But the car itself wasn't modified.

Stop exaggerating - it's not 8-10K more. It's 6K. I know - I priced both of them. My wife looked at the Edge and MKX side by side at the auto show. Hated the Edge interior - loved the MKX and the extra features. She has already said she wants the MKX over the Edge even if it's 5k more. She did the same thing with the Aviator - looked at the Explorer, Mountaineer and Aviator side by side and still picked the Aviator based on styling and features.

We all know they just bought the technology from Toyota......... Ford beat GM to market with hybrids, flex-fuel, natural gas and now hydrogen powered vehicles (maybe clean diesel - don't know about that one). Meanwhile GM gets all the attention because they show a concept car that won't work until they invent a new battery technology. C'mon Ford - ADVERTISE this stuff!!!

I know one of the engineers currently driving a MKS prototype (not the one that was photographed). It's real.

Dealers order the trim levels they think they can sell. Period. Ford can't force the dealers to order what they want them to buy.

A lot of drivers never exceed 50% throttle anyway, so it doesn't matter to them. My wife is one of them. She has no problem with speed (as long as she's driving) but if you try to accelerate quickly or take a corner fast she thinks you're about to have a wreck.

Curb weight doesn't include options like the Vista Roof which probably adds 150 lbs all by itself.

No, you're missing my point. I wasn't disagreeing with your statement, just showing you there is objective data to compare. There are lots of folks who can afford to buy gas for their gas guzzlers and they won't give them up even if gas hits $4/gallon. Expedition sales are actually up right now.

Look it up yourself: http://www.fueleconomy.org/feg/calculatorSelectYear.jsp 2wd Explorer V6 goes from 15/21 to 14/20. Combined drops from 18 to 16. By comparison, the Trailblazer goes from 16/22/18 to the same 14/20/16.

Having Ford and Mercury together will eliminate the need for rebadging Fords to keep the L/M dealers in inventory. If Lincoln has the right products then I don't think it matters whether they have stand alone dealerships or not.

That's what HTT said.

Styling, options, features, service?

How is that Ford's fault? They build whatever the dealers order, not the other way around. Your dealer must feel that he can only sell the XLs.