AGR

I can tell you what I did: I bought a used 2018 Fusion Hybrid. I wasn't quite ready for a new car when my old one threw craps at 226K miles. I hope to get at least 5 years out of this car. If Ford hasn't changed their tune by then, I'll buy from their new partner VW or from their old subsidiary Mazda. Of course, there's no chance I'll buy a Toylet, Yawnda, Pissan, or Stupidru. Glass House parroters, fire away and tell me how wrong I am.

In the grand scheme of things, their score isn't all that much worse than some of their luxury competitors. And for some reason. I'm skeptical of a quality survey that has Dodge on top...

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/06/25/2021-ford-f150-revealed/ https://www.autoblog.com/2020/06/25/2020-ford-f150-hybrid/

In this article, the Ford spokesperson gave a flat out denial. Usually when a model is on the chopping block, the PR minion says something like "Ford does not comment on future products..."

Is the source TTAC? If so, why wouldn't we just call BS and move on?

I'm well aware of the VW lineup. As a kid, VW was my favorite car company, they're still my 2nd favorite. The Caravelle and Multivan are passenger vans, the California is the camper. After VW split ways with van converter Westfalia Werke, they took the camper conversions in house. VW is dropping the Sharan and Touran vans, the aforementioned trio will be it for VW passenger vans.

The Transporter is not the equivalent of the Transit, it is approximately the same size as the Transit Custom(and thus not a one ton van). And there is a disconnect between the Ford slide and the article that I linked. The article described an all-new Transporter on a VW platform. Maybe the Crafter name is going away in favor of a Transporter "Max"(?) to take advantage of the long lived iconic model name.

The next Transporter will be a VW, not a badge engineered Transit Custom: https://www.motor1.com/news/427616/volkswagen-t7-trasporter-spied-alps/ I was going to argue and tell you that you're loco, but now I don't have to... The Transporter is a VW icon, going back to 1950. There's no way VW is going to badge engineer the Transporter.

My '18 Fusion has a dial shifter. After several decades of using console levers, I'm still getting used to it after 3 months. But I like the dial shifter and prefer not to go back.

A large lithium mine in Northern Nevada is about to go online: https://www.ktvn.com/story/38989830/nevada-mine-could-produce-25-percent-of-worlds-lithium

In other words, what I already said in my post : (I did forget the word "times")

The premise of the thread, and the Autoline Daily quote that inspired it, are faulty. When the public collectively decides to go electric, the switchover of the new car market will occur in a relatively short timeframe, something like 5-7 years from single digit % to a majority. And it will continue climbing from there. This will occur when pricing, range, and charge converge to an acceptable point. What that point is, is the big mystery; no one has a crystal ball, least of all us. Sure, some market segments and geographic outliers will still be mostly ICE, but those will be increasingly less common. Eventually, ICE cars will end up like tube TVs: yeah, they still work, but hardly anybody will want them. Classic cars? Many will still use ICE, but there's already a cottage industry developing EV powertrains to retrofit old cars. Volkswagen has one from the factory to retromod their classic RE air cooled cars and vans. Myself, I'd rather see a Deuce Coupe with an EV powertrain than a Chitty small block. For those who doubt this, just remember that you're an enthusiast. The average Joe or Jolene puttering around in their Camcords and RavCRVs are nowhere close as wedded to ICE as you are.

I subscribe to SiriusXM. The commercial free music, and news and sports(when there are sports...) are worth it IMO. I could use iHeart radio and/or one of the streaming services, but I would rather use my data for other things. Yeah, I have "unlimited" data, but we all know how that works. And as CKNSLS noted, sometimes service is spotty or nonexistent out here in the boondocks. Even though I bought my Fusion used in March(it's an '18), SXM gave me a 90 day free subscription. BTW, I do have about 4800 songs downloaded to my phone, so I'm set for music in the car. I can either choose my own or let the SXM folks decide if I'm not in the mood for any group/singer in particular.

Forbidden fruit? You may not be able to get certain engines, but at least you can get a Ranger.

PDL does have a bit of a grudge towards Tesla. He's peeved that a Silicon Valley startup got the modern EV ball rolling instead of an established automaker. And that Silicon Valley is getting the "credit" despite all the "auto industry veterans" at Tesla. Also, PDL is a fuel cell guy. About 15 years ago, he tried to float a Hydrogen Racing League and got no takers. Now after Tesla has come around, most automakers have put fuel cells on the back burner or eliminated FC research entirely.