aneekr

BlueOvalForums Community, My name is Thomas Robinson. My uncle Nicholas "Sneeky" Robinson went by the screen name aneekr on this site. It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let the BlueOvalForums Community know that Nicholas passed away on Friday, August 5 a few months shy of his 74th birthday, due to complications from cancer. Uncle Sneeky, as the family always called him, was always interested in things automotive. He held many jobs related to motoring including mechanic, bus and truck driver, and fleet manager among others, both in the civilian world and when he served in the U.S. Army. Uncle Sneeky also started several small businesses related to fleet management and heavy equipment leasing and rental, which he later sold. In addition to his own businesses, he invested in motor vehicle businesses large and small across the globe. Uncle Sneeky was an auto show aficionado too. He particularly liked the Chicago Auto Show. I still remember the first time he came with my parents and me to McCormick Place in 1979 when I was five. Uncle Sneeky challenged us to visit every automaker's exhibit. We didn't let him down. Beyond auto shows, Uncle Sneeky joined several automobile related clubs and sites online, but BlueOvalForums was the one that he enjoyed the most. That brings me to why I came to this site and posted this announcement: last week as Uncle Sneeky's health worsened, he gave me his login to this site and told me, "Thomas, I know I don't much more time left in this world. Please go to BlueOvalForums and tell everyone there how grateful I am for the joy I got from that site in my last days. They are the most genuine online community of automotive enthusiasts I've ever met." Uncle Sneeky also asked me to look at this link: http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums/index.php?/topic/59439-straight-six-vs-v6/page-3. When I came to this site and read through this topic posted almost exactly a year ago, I shed some tears when I got to message number 54 and all the replies that followed in which you offered your thoughts and prayers to Uncle Sneeky. I'm the nephew that he mentioned in that message. He sold me his manual transmission Ford Fusion last year, and I passed that car on to the newest drivers in my family. From my family, thank you to everyone at BlueOvalForums for the friendship and support you gave Uncle Sneeky. We are very appreciative to all of you for making this online community for Ford Motor Co something he held so dear. Thomas and the Robinson family

Well said. GM (and other OEMs) may be better at serving retail consumers and shareholders, but Ford NAFLRO is the best run fleet operation among the major OEMs in my experience working as a fleet manager in years past. I've seen a lot of Ford vehicles in rental, commercial, and government fleets around the Midwest in the past few months, so it looks like Kevin Koswick and his team at Ford NAFLRO are doing a bang up job.

Q5 is the Audi's "premium compact crossover" (which is what I said in a previous post); Q3 is the brand's "entry compact crossover". The MQB based Q2, when it comes out in late 2016, will provide Audi with an entry in the "mini crossover" segment to compete with Opel Mokka/Buick Encore and Mini Countryman. Yes, I know Audi Q3 exists.

Audi's Q3 and Q5 are both compact crossovers, covering opposite ends of that segment in terms of size. Q3 uses VW Group's PQ35 platform and is about the size of a Volkswagen Tiguan, which uses the same platform. Q5 uses the MLB/MLP platform that debuted with the Audi A5 and A4. MKC slots between Q3 and Q5 in size, though it's closer to the latter (MKC is about 7" longer than Q3 and about 3" shorter than Q5). MKX is about 8" longer than Q5.

I don't have any experience with NX or A3, but I did drive an Audi Q5 back in 2013 (Q5 is the brand's entry in the "premium compact crossover" segment). As Blue Oval Forums members know, I'm not a fan of crossovers in general. With that context, the Q5 is among the best I've experienced in terms of ride, interior design, handling, build quality, and powertrain refinement. As a passenger, the main demerits were: 1.) Ride quality: way too much harshness was transmitted through the suspension and chassis, with frequent side to side motions on bumpy Chicago streets and some of the rougher stretches of Lake Shore Drive. The resulting head toss was really fatiguing for an old geezer like me! 2.) Seat comfort: Poor thigh support was the main issue here. The Uber driver encouraged me to use the power seat adjustments as desired, but they didn't help much. After the 35 minute Uber ride, my legs were aching. Beyond that, MKC was a decent vehicle as I mentioned before, but certainly not one of the better compact crossovers. Regardless of its merits otherwise, MKC can't be considered a legitimate luxury vehicle with these flaws. More plebian "Uber" cars I've experienced like Camrys, Accords, and Subaru Foresters (to name a few) were notably more comfortable for me as a front seat passenger.

Yes, i was a passenger in a 2016 Lincoln MKC 'Uber' vehicle recently in Chicago (I am not able to drive due to medical/health restrictions). This MKC was decent, but not a bona fide luxury vehicle.

Page 11 of the GM Q2 2016 earnings deck states, "GME returned to profitability and recorded its second straight quarter of break-even or better results."

The first of McCarthy's "Four Ps of Marketing", namely product. Product is the most noteworthy lacuna in Lincoln's recent attempts to position itself as a luxury brand. While some elements of the brand may be considered "luxurious", at this point Lincoln lacks a full range of legitimate luxury vehicles.

People aren't happy about the lunacy behind CAFE, either. As Bob Lutz once said, the standards are "like trying to fight obesity by requiring tailors to make only small-sized clothes."

That's a good summary of the issues affecting Ford Focus in the U.S. market. To a certain extent, these issues also existed with the Mk1/Mk1.5 (C170 platform) Focus during its decade long run in the U.S.

Every month in 2016 is "Chevy truck month" for dealerships participating in GM's "Standards for Excellence" incentive program. GM has a stair-step program for calendar year 2016; the bonus payouts for dealerships that hit 120% of their Silverado sales targets are substantial. Automotive News describes the program as such: "New for 2016: a built-in monthly stair-step program that will pay up to $1,000 for every Silverado to dealers who surpass a factory-set sales target by 20 percent or more. Dealers who hit 100 to 119 percent of their objectives get smaller per-vehicle bonuses. (All dealers must hit their year-over-year increase in overall sales to qualify for the stair-step bonuses.)"

In addition to its famed presence in South Texas, King Ranch also has operations in Florida. They're the largest producer of orange juice in the USA, and a leading producer of sugar cane and sod as well.

The best way to do that as a consumer is to buy whatever products and services best meet one's needs and desires, ignoring country of origin for those products and services.

Just as nonsensical as the assertion that Toyota Tundra and Nissan Titan are Japanese trucks.

Tundra and Titan are no more "Japanese" than Ram 1500 is "Anglo/Dutch/Italian". Every LD full size pickup truck offered for new retail sale in the U.S. market is an American product, regardless of HQ locations for the respective parent companies. A better analogy would be Tiky drink: This is a product of Guatemala, and is specifically bottled and distributed in that country. The parent company that owns the TIky brand is Coca-Cola. That doesn't make Tiky a U.S. product.