Moosetang

History nerd alert: This sort of criticism pops up frequently when the leader of a nation or movement dies/retires and their successor fumbles the ball. How many Kings of England, Emperors of Rome, Great Khans, etc have etched their name upon the land only for their successor to utterly crap the bed? It's a long list. After all these millennia, you'd think we'd accept the truth that there is no fool-proof way to prepare a successor, in the end no matter how well trained they must take the helm of the ship and prove themselves. Mark didn't make it, he may have gotten a bit of a raw deal and he also may have legitimately blown opportunities to keep himself in place, but I'm not going to tar Alan for picking the guy he thought could do the job.

Yeah that's basically where I was going.

I think there's less "one big reason" and more a case of: Some Wall Street and Board concern that he wasn't doing enough to diversify the company and seek new growth opportunities beyond the traditional new car market. Some Wall Street and Board concern that he was was neglecting the core business of selling cars in his attempt to diversify the company and seek new growth opportunities Some Wall Street and Board concern that his diversification of the company to seek new growth opportunities was moving too slowly, while core products got stale. Morale and quality problems seem to be ticking in the wrong direction Internal and External Political concerns Given all that, it would be hard for him to pitch a "stay the course" or "trust me, i have this" to Wall Street and the Board, even with the profits. My guess is he tried, they weren't persuaded, and this is the result.

While decentralizing might speed up local decision-making, it also has to potential to once again balkanize the company into warring fiefdoms as it was before Alan came in and put it right. A strong, smart CEO is needed to keep the overall company focused even if hey aren't micromanaging all the decision-making.

I'd be surprised if he's the long-term pick,unless he "hires himself" into it long term, Cheney-style. But even on a short stay I'm not particularly thrilled with the choice or the reasons.

Maybe I'm strange, but I don't​ hate the turbine wheels. I don't think I'd want them on my Navi, buy theb I'm pretty unlikely to be buying a huge SUV anytime soon anyway. But I don't have any problem with them and kinda look forward to seeing someone rolling around town with them.

Don't like the lights, but the rest looks pretty decent to me

A president may remove an FBI director with tremendous political cost and scrutiny, which is why removal is exceeeingly rare (has only happened once). The rarity of that removal also weighs on confirmation, since directors have to be considered in the light of being in place across administrations. The CFPB, being a new agency, couldn't have the same precedent weighing on and protecting the position without the the high bar for removal established by Congress. There are other examples of such "artificial" barriers protecting Executive Branch offices, such as the NRC members or the members of the CPSC, established to protect the positions from too much political tampering and to create a higher bar for the confirmation of candidates. Cordray's term expires next year, for the record.

If you take away the ability to oversee, or force some sort of "council of advisors" onto him/her, you essentially defang it. If you give the President unfettred ability to dismiss the director, you make the position slave to whatever political wind is blowing. There's a reason some of the most effective agency heads, like the FBI director, aren't easy to be rid of once confirmed by the Senate.

No, it's just the current trend in product reveals. Hasn't happened much in the auto industry yet, but other industries are increasingly turning toward independent events to unveil important new products rather than just doing it at all-industry shows. That way the new product doesn't have to share the limelight with everything else, and the company can better control the narrative for a few days rather than a few hours until the competition unveils something. The shows then become more about putting the best face on the current (for sale or soon will be) product line rather than what's next.

Yeah couldn't sit in the new Mustang in DC, nor the EcoSport for that matter. But at least in person it looked better than the stills had indicated.

Handsome, well-detailed, and bringing the Al. What's not to like?

No, sir, I don't like it. Seems like they tried to pull a Mazda and wrap the features down tighter to reduce drag, but unlike the MX-5 I'm not fond of the result.

Limited grille and those where the two bars thin out in the middle are working for me. Where's the mesh grile from the announcement?

nonsense, it's totally secure. Until it's more politically expedient to say it's not. Then it totally isn't. Which way is the wind blowing right now?

Sony wasn't a bad choice when Ford made it. Sony was a healthy electronics company that looked to be making a move to be a big player in as many markets as possible. Since then the company's had a few cycles of good and bad times and it's pretty clear automotive is no longer a priority.

It amuses me to still see Camaro people still not getting it. Sure, arguably the Mustang team was late to the party, but the Camaro people just don't seem to be learning the right lesson. They can raid the Corvette parts bin forever and still not get any closer to where the actual buyers want to be.

I gotta say, those are pretty dope pit crew shoes

This one goes to 500

Leases them, actually

When she took this job, she seemed to be on a trajectory toward higher positions in Ford. So she was either tapped on the shoulder or the tea leaves told her the next step up wasn't coming all that soon.

Phone autocorrect bot is not a gearhead, lol

Yeah, one hopes most buyers are intending to add their own brake/chassis upgrades over time as they have the time and money available. But at that volume you know there's at least a couple of these going to owners who cant or won't do anything to their pony, people near high school parking lots and local car shows beware.

OK, Shooting Break then.

The moment that really stood out to me, Jeff, was when I had a customer looking for a particular set of options on a CUV and none of the nearby lots had it. After calling around a second time, I asked the sales manager about walking the customer through an order. He shot down the idea in no uncertain terms and advised me to keep calling around every few days "until someone around here has one close enough that [the customer] will just go for it." I never did make that sale.