mackinaw

Not going to happen. It's behind a paywall, but the visible headline says it all: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2022/02/18/ford-ev-ice-spinoff-no-plans/6844852001/?gnt-cfr=1

Remember that Farley answers to the Board of Directors, which includes three members of the Ford family.

Old saying on Wall Street: Buy on rumor, sell on news.

And especially at sub-zero temperatures where you lose 25%-40% of your driving range.

My local dealer, finally, got a Maverick. Saw it parked out front. It sold within two days.

Very well put.

Interesting article in today's Automotive News, about the urban/rural divide regarding BEV's. No subscription required to read. https://www.autonews.com/retail/biden-automakers-face-cultural-divide-us-push-evs

Kwame is actually living someplace in the south, though he did make a quick visit to Detroit a few months back.

It's Crain's, not Crane's. At least get the spelling right.

You may find this interesting. The writer makes the argument that most states are pursuing the wrong business model. "Knowledge-based" jobs are much higher paying than "production" jobs. For example, Ford's Corktown Project (knowledge-based jobs) is much more important to Michigan than giving incentives to land a new GM BEV and battery plant (production jobs). Lot of facts and figures that I didn't know. And being a Michigander, it gave me pause. https://www.crainsdetroit.com/voices-chad-livengood/why-fords-corktown-project-may-mean-more-future-next-battery-plant

The last bullet point explains it, ambient temperature is anything but moderate. High temps have been from 5-15 degrees the past three weeks. This morning it was ten below zero.

The stop-start icon will light up, but there's a slash mark over it showing it's disabled. And this is with the engine totally warmed up and foot planted firmly on the brakes. It seems that the vehicle can sense bad weather (snow, ice). At least that's my guess right now, maybe I'll learn more as the winter goes on. Actually I'm impressed that it can do that.

You talked me into to giving it a chance a few months back (Bronco Sport). I guess I use it about 50% of the time. Now that northern Michigan is in the midst of an old-fashioned January (lot of snow and very cold), I find that it automatically disables itself (without me touching the button) when the weather is bad. Some sort of safety feature i guess.

May be, but he's right. Consumer demand isn't driving BEV's, governments and politicians are.

I love this:

I never have been a fan of the sharp-edge Cadillac styling, but this actually looks okay to me.

Probably because of emissions and fuel economy requirements. The 385 series was designed in the late 60's before the 1970's oil embargo, which changed everything. A pity, the 429/460 were great engines, capable of massive amounts of horsepower with those free-flowing, canted valve heads.

It was Bunky Knudsen who approved the 1971 Mustang. He had just come over from GM. The Mustang was too big , too heavy, and ungainly. Sales weren't anything special either. The Mustang II gets no respect, but at least the Mustang returned to its compact roots. Sales increased dramatically too.

Plus I think it would help that Flat Rock actually made the Fusion a few years back.

Looks good. Nice stance.

It's nice to see such a nice underbody with no rust. This thing should haul ass when done. Back in high school, a buddy had a Ford engineer as a neighbor who let him borrow his 1969 Mustang Mach-1 with the 428/C6 for a weekend. My buddy had no idea on how to drive it, he just put his foot to the floorboard and watched the rear tires smoke. He returned the Mach-1 to his neighbor with the back tires nearly bald.

And the last Mustang on a dedicated platform. Future Mustangs will probably be based on some sort of common skateboard used by everything.

Are you having any problem charging in very cold conditions? I read something last winter about Tesla owners in Winnipeg (I believe) unable to charge their batteries in -20 weather. The batteries wouldn't take a charge at those temperatures.

Old guys, like me, are going to love this tailgate.

I suspect this is correct. I also suspect the clown truck struck out with many focus groups. The twelve year olds may like it, but the people who actually buy trucks don't.