rmc523
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Posts posted by rmc523
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So when are Ford expected to release Q2 2007 Results?
Edit,
Sorry - Read in the link it's Thursday.
I read somewhere they would be released friday
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that would change if someone brought something out that LOOKED ok...........I would go so far as to say what if the Edge was the Explorer replacement....styling sells the car at least initially.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's and f'in awful door pulls don't....face it changing light clusters on a vehicle ALREADY long in the tooth does NOTHING to ingest excitement! If say they had completely revamped the explorer along the lines of something visually exciting ( aka Bronco concept ) sales NEVER would have tanked....styling, styling, styling...plain and simple!
I understand what you're saying, the styling needs to be different. You mentioned making the Explorer look like the Bronco concept, I don't think that would've worked either, I think it was designed to be a niche product, much like the FJ (which IMO is hideous). I'm not so sure the Bronco concept would've appealed to everybody. Maybe if you took some cues from the Bronco concept. I may be misunderstanding you though, you said something visually exciting, so you could just mean something that stands out (but not too much)?
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Considering what a big huge hulking vehicle the Navi is, I wouldn't be too worried about the absense of the "B" Pillar...the majority of the vehicles that will hit it, will probably blow up in the process. Although you COULD create suicide doors, while retaining the B-pillar. I dont think Fords efforts should be used on this, on a vehicle that is losing popularity by consumer tastes and high fuel.
What you WILL see is more Flex-like crossovers, classified as "light trucks" to increase their CAFE score. Thats where Ford is likely to focus their resources.
I know they wouldn't do it, I just thought it might be an interesting idea and wanted to see what you all thought
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A 2008 Ford F350 Superduty.
this could be a new ad.
The 2008 Super Duty
It can't be beat.
Built
Ford
Tough
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A 2008 Ford F350 Superduty.
hahaha!!
id like to see the vehicle that did squish it
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Toyota's marketing machine has it down, that's for sure. And of course the Tundra is the new novel thing, so that may soon wear off. However...
I know I'm opening a can of worms here -- but I see a lot of talk about all this cash on the hood of the Tundras. I did a (very) quick look at carsdirect.com and the F-150 has $3507 in rebates and the Tundra has $3500 -- so things are equal there. Both are offering 0.0% financing in lieu of rebates, so that's equaL as well. What am I missing here? Is the short period of time between introduction and rebates what's driving all of this talk?
But you have to remember the F-150 is a 3-4 yr old design right now, the Tundra is brand new
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Ah, the Navigator. To me, suicide doors seem like a losing proposition. They're certainly possible to engineer into the design, but the result is a horribly floppy chassis. The Element and original Continental suffer from body flex more extreme than a Tijuana stripper, not to mention TERRIBLE crash test results, since there's no B-pillar to brace against the hit. My 1996 Thunderbird has the same problem of a large space between the two pillars on the side, which is solved with a gigantic steel beam in my door, weighing the thing down and making opening and closing difficult.
-Optional LCD gauge cluster
Thats why I said to keep the b-pillar.
The gauge cluster on the 03-06 was LCD, why'd they go away from that. I read a review of the (07)Navi the other day and it was criticized for not having an LCD type display like competitors did
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Pretty good considering they seem to be selling well.
If "selling well" means putting $5k on the hood out of the box, then yes, they're selling well.
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It's all puffing until it comes to market!
True, but we all know that if Ford or even GM would get it to the market first, it be a small, last minute report on any news channel, but if Toyota were to do it first, it'd be headline news
ex.
Toyota developed a plug-in hybrid :bowdown: "It's a revolution!! Nobody's ever thought of this stuff before Toyota!!!"
Ford/GM developed a plug-in hybrid :reading: "Oh, thats nice"
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i'd like to see rmc's chop only with the 427's headlamps. that would look pretty sweet. igor, how'd you get so close? where are those headlights from?
How's that? Sorry they don't fit on well, that's the best angle of the headlights I could find, plus, I only spent a few minutes on it
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http://www.leftlanenews.com/avis-adding-altima-hybrids.html
I thought it was interesting that they will be selling the Altima hybrid alongside the Prius in the "Cool Cars" category, also the Prius is sold in the "Fun Collection" category!?!
I would hardly consider that car "fun." -
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...E/70725003/1024
Toyota is developing a plug-in hybrid, Prius based.
I liked this sentence: "The Plug-in HV closely resembles a stock Prius .... " Since that car looked so good to begin with!
I guess the article says Toyota beat Ford/GM to the punch b/c they're road testing and Ford/GM aren't?
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Yeh, but they should not have contoured the license into the bumper cover. I've been risking driving my Fusion without a front plate because it's not molded in and the plate takes away from it's visual appeal!
Do they require front plates up there? Here in FL, they dont and I'm glad, it ruins the look of 99% of cars (euro tags dont look bad)
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No, sounded like you had experience in that area..
Why do you all have to argue so much? It was arguments like these (although worse) that shut down the Autoweek Combustion Chamber. I'd hate to see BOF shut down (I don't know if it would happen) because of meaningless arguments.
This is in no way a personal offense to anyone if it sounded like one. :unsure:
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I would imagine it has a LITTLE to do with fuel economy. I'm understanding that the PowerShift will eliminate a lot of the friction associated with automatics, and therefore, improve fuel economy. The manual-shift capability is going to be nice.
Do any other companies offer a PowerShift like option in this class of vehicles (if so, I'd think not many offer it)?
I'd say that's a Bold Move if nobody else or few offer a PowerShift transmission yet.
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Yeah, that was it. The SHOstar. I've tried looking for pictures of it online, but have had no luck. Back when I had my SHO, I was a member of the SHO registry. Used to get a quarterly magazine, and I know I saw one in there. Too bad I lost them all.
I assume this is the SHOstar you're referring to?
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I don't know if this topic would be more appropriate in the photochops section, but would it be possible to put suicide doors (keeping the B-pillar and the doors would be able to open independently) on the Navigator?
I would think it could allow for easier ingress/egress from the 2nd/3rd rows.
What do you all think?
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The Cologne V6 has always been a pig, posting similar fuel estimates as the V8 counterpart...It has for years in real-world experience. I see no point to why someone would want the V6 other than it's a cheaper entry point. The engine is somewhat reliable, and makes good power down low for the most part, but it doesn't offer much in efficiency and should have been shot years ago..the Duratec37 can't come too soon...
Ford knew well that the market was shifting, and went ahead and closed off one production facility. Consumer tastes are changing, and fuel prices will continue to go up. Considering it's BOF, you very well know that Ford is making quite a bit of profit from these vehicles even if they are selling at a lower rate. Ford could even hold out and keep the Explorer around for many more years with minimal improvements. In comparison to others, Ford offers a very competitive vehicle, with many toys for what it is. And even Nissan and Toyota will continue to keep their BOF SUVs because they are just simply cheaper to build even at low sale volumes.
And while the Explorer is probably 100-200K sale units under what it usually does, there's also a few other Ford vehicles introduced that will make up for that such as the Edge (120K forecasted), Tora-Sex, and Flex. So it's really not about doom and gloom, the market is just being fragmented with various vehicles, and the days of 400K+ sales for one model is becoming quite harder to attain save for 4-5 vehicles.
I don't think they would've lost as many sales had they put the more fuel efficient 3.5L V6 in the Explorer when the motor debuted, but as you said, the market is now more fragmented than it was, so Ford can make up for the sales lost to the non-efficient 4.0L V6 Explorer w/ it's new (more fuel efficient) products.
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I like the Fusion, I have one, but I've always thought the Fusion's styling was based of the last gen Mondeo's.
Notice the dash design and door panel design. Basically the same.
.jpg/800px-2006_Ford_Fusion_(US).jpg)
Same character lines and creases in the extact same places.
C-pillar exaclty the same, rear lights basically the same, body lines all in the same place.
The biggest similarity between the interiors that I noticed was the door panel, almost exactly the same.
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I bet it will lose the Audi looking grille treatment in favor of something like a cross between the 07 Expedition & 08 Escape. To me, the Explorer is kind of obsolete. It doesn't get much better gas mileage then the Expedition and has a smaller interior then the Taurus X. Also, a loaded up Explorer is not much cheaper then an equally equipped Expedition.
I think a unibody, RWD/AWD Explorer will do much better then the current one.
At this point , I think pretty much anything could help Explorer sales stop their slide.:unsure:
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:bowdown:
The Toyota brain washing machine is much stronger and has many evil minions working for it. muhahahahahahahahaha
Hahaha!!!
I dont think the $5k or whatever it is on the hood had anything to do with it
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Truthfully, based on style alone...I'd rather have the Nissan Titan. The Tundra is just too blobby looking and the dash and console is oddly styled. Both have had notable problems. Titans have been said to suffer from rear end failures and some electrical problems were reported early on and Tundras have had some engine failures to start with. Tundras still may sell somewhat, but when it comes to full size trucks I'd say its a roll of the dice to buy a Japanese brand.
Personally, for a half-ton, my first three choices would be either a 5.7 Dodge Ram, 5.4 Ford F-150 or a 6.0 GMC Sierra.
I'd probably take the Titan too, looks more normal. I wouldn't buy either though, I'd get an F-150.
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So in other words, as far as you know, there are only two manufacturers developing TT engines: Ford and BMW. :shades:
To my limited knowledge, yes.
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So exactly how many other manufacturers are developing twin turbo powerplants?
BMW has one (135i, 335i, 535i engine -may be in other models too) other than that, I don't know
Ford Explorer Falls from SUV Grace
in Explorer, Mountaineer, Sport Trac Forum
Posted · Edited by rmc523
Well IMO if that hideous Toyota FJ (and other cars such as Prius, Element, xB, etc.) thing can sell, I think just about anything could sell. I liked the Bronco concept, it would make a great competitor to the Wrangler and FJ (they could make a 4 door version ala Wrangler Unlimited - it could take sales from other Ford SUVs but would you rather have that customer trade in their Explorer and buy a Toyota or trade it in on a Bronco)
Now, on the Explorer, I think they did a good job with it, I personally think it looks nice, but they could have done more. Those door handles are kinda silly (they could even keep the door release handle where it is above the window switches, just the grab handle is in such an awkward place). They say the door is designed like that b/c of the safety bars (whatever their called), there isn't any room for the handle mechanism (no excuse for where the grab handle is) Who knows? maybe they arent able to put it somewhere else, given the door design.
They should've been more aggressive with the new Explorer design. Sometimes they can be so afraid to put something different on the market that they end up coming out with a "bland" (although nice) car. On another note, I dont like how Ford is putting the turn signal stalk on a 45 degree angle like in the Explorer, I prefer the almost 90 degree angle found in the Expedition.