akirby

Forgot about the weight factor. If the 3.5L EB is much lighter than the 5.0 then I could see it being offered as a GT350 - built for handling. But I still think you'd get more sales and PR out of a EB 2.0.

My point was it would have to deliver BIG fuel savings to make it wortwhile in a mustang. Enthusiasts certainly aren't going to give up a V8 just for 1 or 2 more mpg. 3-4 mpg - maybe. A few at least. But if you can give current V6 buyers a more fuel efficient EB 2.0 then they'd probably go for it, even if it was only 1 or 2 mpg. Most GT buyers aren't looking for fuel economy. Remember the EB 3.5L is currently only offered in vehicles that don't have a V8 option.

And that's why Mercury exists today as rebadged Fords. But the plan is to a - give Lincoln the products so they can make it with just Lincoln products b - combine with Ford dealers so there are no/few stand alone L/M dealers And if Mercury was just a rebadged Ford then there wouldn't be any difference between the Mercury and the Ford version that would cause someone to go to a Honda (or any other brand).

Mercury should only serve 1 purpose - to make money for Ford Motor Company. How could a Mercury possibly help to sell more Lincolns? That doesn't make sense. No, it's not. You have the cost of making and marketing a Mercury version which eats into additional profit. Put the money into the Ford version and you'll get the same benefit of higher markups on fully optioned models PLUS you'll increase the perception of lower end Fords like the Fiesta and Fusion. That's why putting the new Taurus up close to the MKS in terms of features and options is such a great idea. You don't want people thinking "cheap" when they think of Ford. If they want more than Ford offers - there is Lincoln. Umm......tell me again why the Lincoln buyer won't go into the Ford dealership to get a cheaper car? Why would they go to Honda? What does Honda offer that Ford cannot?

Ford has limited development resources - they have to focus on the biggest bang for the buck right now. And the Ford brand is where the volume - and profits - are. Ford has struggled for years with a half-ass product lineup while funding was diverted to Mercury clones and European brands. Look at what they accomplished with the new Taurus by having a "laser focus". The money and time saved by not having a Sable clone enabled the new Taurus to be truly best in class. Once the Fiesta, new Explorer and new Focus/Fusion are done, then they can turn to Lincoln. Lincoln will be the volume brand above Ford, just like Acura to Honda, Infiniti to Nissan and Lexus to Toyota. Lincoln dealers will have a full range of vehicles that buyers will want and that can be sold at a profit - just like Ford is doing with the Ford brand now. The dealers won't need Ford cloned Mercurys to survive. If it's the middle of summer and you're air conditioner, stove and dishwasher are all broken - you don't spend money fixing the dishwasher until the other 2 are fixed. In the grand scheme of things, Mercury is a dishwasher. Nice to have but not a priority.

Yes to the 3.7 and 5.0, probably no to the EB 3.5 (for 2011 at least). I think we might see a 2.0L EB as a base engine before we see the 3.5EB. The 3.5EB (in RWD form) will be really close to the 5.0L in power and wouldn't be needed unless it provided a big FE advantage over the 5.0L.

Having worked in a corporate IT environment for 23 years I can almost guarantee this is what happened. The database required to track and qualify C4C sales has to list each model separately because each one has different fuel economy. That's just the way the database has to be laid out. Now if you ask a DBA to run a report to show how many were sold, the default would be to count based on the model that's already in the database - which is how you get separate numbers for each model variation. What SHOULD have happened is the folks producing the original report should have done the roll-up by make and model, but they didn't. So Edmunds did the rollup for them. Was there a conspiracy behind not doing the roll-up? Perhaps - no way to really tell unless you were involved in creating and publishing the report. My guess is nobody thought about it and just published the numbers as they came out of the database. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one. Although I'm not totally discounting the manipulation theory.

The plan is to fix Ford first, then Lincoln. At that point any remaining L/M dealers should be sustainable on Lincoln volume only. At that point Ford either finds a niche for Mercury vehicles (not rebadged Fords or Lincolns) or they kill it. There is no room for 3 tiers of vehicles or for rebadging just for the sake of volume.

Your dealer is absolutely totally wrong. You are entitled to the rebates that are in effect when your vehicle is delivered - the dealer has no choice. The dealer can't keep customer rebates. Now if this is dealer cash then that's a different story - that's totally up to the dealer. But assuming these are customer rebates you'll get them.

Call the sales manager at each dealership, tell them what you want to order and ask how much over invoice they want and find out the amount of the documentation fee. Or just get a X plan PIN and buy it at your favorite dealer - the X plan price is the same at all dealers including the doc fee (capped at $75 with X plan). If a sales mgr won't give you a figure like $200 over invoice, $399 doc fee over the phone then forget them. There are plenty out there who will.

How hard it is to remove the wax means nothing. Clearcoat is just paint without pigment - texture is the same. Almost all factory paint jobs today are clearcoat/basecoat. One way to test is to use some mild rubbing compound in an inconspicuous area. If you get color on the rag then it's not clearcoated. But I'm 99.99% sure your cars are clearcoated.

For the 57th time - YES. It just means the rebates apply when you take delivery, not when you order it.

Wires and electricity? Seriously - all you'd need is a DC 12V adapter.

Six injured and one killed isn't BIG news?

Because the hidden agenda is to get them off the road to reduce emissions and decrease fuel consumption. Why else would there be mpg limits?

IIRC - Ford agreed to replace certain parts on the Crown Vic - intake manifold I think. For some reason his repair was not covered - most likely because he didn't follow the outlined procedure - and he's been taking it out on Ford ever since. The repair cost was a few hundred dollars. Or am I getting him confused with someone else?

Didn't they start this with the Edge/MKX - comparing it to a Lexus for noise?

I've heard of that for locking in the vehicle cost, but not the incentives. Doesn't make sense to me why they would offer that to small dealers.

That protection came from the DEALER, not Ford. The dealer can give you whatever price you want to negotiate. The dealer is betting the incentives will be the same or higher when you take delivery. If the factory incentive dropped by $1K then the dealer would have eaten the cost. Not that hard to figure out.

I got 99.9 avg mpg in my Edge on Monday over a 15 minute period. Of course the fact that we were descending a 5,000 foot mountain might have had something to do with it.

Nobody knows what the new rebates will be until they're publicly announced. The rebates always state that you must take delivery from dealer stock - which happens when the vehicle is delivered, not when it's ordered. It's been like that as long as I can remember.

You don't hold the brake just to cancel cruise - you quicky tap the brakes. Not a problem for people behind you. You can also simply hold the "-" button to coast, then hit resume or reset the speed. You're making a mountain out of a molehill.

They don't do recalls for paint problems.