akirby

Arrange your own financing with a bank or credit union before you talk to the dealer. Then just compare the dealer's rate with your pre-approved rate and take the lowest one. Treat the dealer just like another bank. The exception is if you can get an additional rebate from Ford. In that case you can let the dealer finance it, take the rebate then refinance it with your bank. I've heard there was a 3 or 6 month restriction on the refinancing but I checked my paperwork and didn't see anything so I refinanced at 6-8 weeks with no problems.

Exactly. 99 out of 100 buyers will think this is an improvement and you can't just throw away the Explorer name just to satisfy a tiny bunch of hardcore enthusiasts. That would be idiotic.

Good grief. Do you not understand the difference between a Wrangler and the other vehicles? Wrangler buyers are not going to buy an Explorer regardless of the platform. The only valid argument is whether Ford would make more money from a redesigned BOF Explorer or the new Unibody design, taking into account total sales and platform and engineering costs. This is what Ford looks at and by their choice the answer is obvious.

Registration itself is cheap. The ad valorem tax is the big item. When you buy the vehicle you pay the registration fee only. Then on your birthday you pay registration and ad valorem for the following year. Or look at it another way - assuming you always own one vehicle, you pay ad valorem tax once every year, on your birthday for the following 12 months based on the vehicle you currently own. So it doesn't matter when you buy the new vehicle except in the amount of the ad valorem tax you'll pay for a particular year.

Not necessarily. Mine is due on my birthday regardless of when I purchased the vehicle.

Fixed it for ya.

That wasn't the point. The Taurus SHO debuted with the 3.5l EB at the same time as the regular Taurus. If Ford was deliberately holding back on engines then the SHO should have debuted next year, not at the same time as the 2010 Taurus. No it wasn't. The current 3.7L in the MKS only makes 273 hp IIRC - nowhere near the 305 of the new 3.7L going into the mustang and presumably the F150. The new engine wasn't ready when the 2010 mustang debuted. Neither was the 5.0L V8.

So how do you explain the 2010 Taurus debuting with the brand new 3.5L Ecoboost engine. Same for the MKT. And I believe the Explorer will debut with the brand new 2.0L EB. I don't believe that Ford would deliberately hold back a new engine for 1 year if the engine is ready now. I just think that in several cases the vehicle was ready before the engines and Ford wisely chose to put out the vehicle and not wait for the new engines. If the engines in question were already available in other vehicles then you might have a point, but that's not the case for the mustang and F150 at least.

So his direct reports had more power than he did? I think he just accepted that it should and would work that way and he didn't realize there was a better way to do it. Or he didn't think he could force them to do it and he wasn't prepared to put his foot down and tell them it was his way or the highway. AM had no such qualms.........

More importantly - forcing Ford to operate as one company internationally instead of each fiefdom operating independently. That not only yields better products (Fiesta in the U.S. e.g.) but has to cut costs dramatically. Why Billy never did it is beyond me.

What makes Mulally great is that he forces the management chain to buy in to a new way of doing business and that should not only trickle down but should remain with the executives as they all eventually get replaced down the road. The changes he's made are permanent and will take a concerted effort to undo. It's a new way of doing business, not just a few key decisions made by Mulally.

Same way the NBA, NFL and MLB call their best teams "World Champions".........

I think he also said it on the new mustang and F150 - sent them back to the drawing boards.

Meaning the new one will share nothing with the old one. It did not mean that the new one won't share a platform with other Fords.

I think styling, new features, better ride quality and much better fuel mileage will attract at least 80% of the current explorer buyers. And it will also attract the majority of the import shoppers (Pilot, Highlander, etc.) which the current explorer doesn't. Anything lost from current customers will be more than made up for with conquests. And what's wrong with having 3 similar but vastly different vehicles as long as they share platforms, engines, etc.? That gives you 3 chances to keep a current Ford customer and 3 chances for conquests assuming you can sell enough of each one. The days of a single new model selling 400K are pretty much over.

The question is whether Flex and New Explorer combined will outsell Old Explorer and which will make more profits?

Must give credit for that one to Mr. Foxworthy.........

93, 97 w/new 4.0L, 99 Expedition and 03 Aviator. The minivan and BOF SUV markets are tanking and aren't going to recover anytime soon. CUVs are booming if you haven't noticed. The current Explorer platform won't support the lower volume. I expect a Honda Pilot type vehicle with more towing (I've heard 5500 lbs), more ground clearance and more aggressive styling combined with best in class Fuel Economy (2.0L EB) and power (3.5L EB). There wasn't much difference between the Explorer and Expedition as far as fuel economy so let them buy Expeditions if they want huge towing capacity or more off road performance.

If those diapers say 10-15 lbs let me tell you - that is ALL they will hold!

Having owned 2 explorers, an expedition and an aviator we switched to an Edge 18 months ago. Why? Fuel economy and much better ride quality. Never got better than 19 mpg hiway before the Edge - now we get 23 minimum and sometimes as high as 27. City went from 15 to 17. Edge and Flex are street only. Explorer will be much more aggressive with more ground clearance and more towing capacity. It will appeal to 90% + of the former Explorer buyers - most of whom left for Pilots or other CUVs before the Edge and Flex were available.

You act like Ford has unlimited resources and can build as many new platforms as they want any time they want. In order to build a new GRWD platform Ford would have to cut some other program - the new Focus, Fiesta, Mustang/F150 engines, etc. When you look at the business value of these other programs vs. a much lower volume and much riskier GRWD program the decision of where to spend the money is a no-brainer. If Ford was making billions in sustained profits then they could afford to go out and build whatever they want but they're not there yet.

S vs. SE base trim levels......

That's not something to worry about. Sync works fine and if nobody told you then you'd never know it was microsoft. It works great and it would be silly to delete it even if it was possible.

Name a competitive vehicle currently on sale that's $10K cheaper.

The current Focus certainly has room for improvement and we'll see that in the next version. Focus is a C-car like the Civic and Corolla. The Fiesta, Fit, Yaris and Versa are all B-cars which is one size smaller. As great as the Fiesta seems, there will certainly be some folks who prefer the Focus styling or simply want the extra room. I don't think anyone here would argue that the Fiesta will be a better car.