bzcat

The writer didn't like the PHEV, describing the lack of smooth operation that's been noted in other reviews. But he was pretty fair in noting that you can just skip the PHEV and just get the 3.0 EB without the jerky hybrid action. High praise for Lincoln when noting the price as compare to a Mercedes and coming out ahead because it is a better vehicle.

VW is converting the Hannover plant where Transporter is built to assemble ID electric cars. So while it has not confirmed what van Ford will be making for VW, it is pretty obvious that it will be Transporter. VW also skipped an update on the Transporter. It was supposed to move to MQB architecture but VW opted for a mild facelift instead. So all signs points to the model on borrowed time. Crafter is only 2 years old and VW spent a lot of money on it, including the EV version which was the main reason why it was internally developed vs. the previous version which was shared with Daimler. It may eventually be replaced by Transit but it's not going to be for a while. Transit Courier is made in Turkey by Otosan. If Ford is going to build a rebadged Transit Custom for VW to replace Transporter, it will need more capacity. My thinking is that Ford will cancel Transit Courier so that capacity can be used to build the VW version of Custom. And in return, VW will build a small van (which it may have been planning to do anyway) to replace Transit Courier. Transit Connect is the big unknown. We know it is going to be build in Mexico for the US market so that means Valencia is losing a significant volume. Do you move that back to Turkey or you export it from Mexico? It's a key model for Ford in Europe so I don't see them walking away from it.

New 12.8" vertical screen with updated version of SYNC. Exterior changes are so minor I can't imagine anyone will notice. https://www.ford.com.cn/cars/newmondeo/#

So Bronco is now going after F-150? July or August?

Probably replacement for Transit Courier. VW is currently missing a B-segment van so it may have been working on it and Ford decided it didn't want to spend money on another Transit Courier. Or maybe Ford is going to rebadge VW Caddy to replace Transit Connect in Europe since the new Connect is supposedly more optimized for North America. Letting VW build replacement for Transit Connect in Europe frees up Valencia to build more CUVs.

You have to give Hyundai credit for keeping their models fresh. They have an industry-leading shortest 5 year model cycle whereas Ford has a industry lagging dead last longest 8 years model cycle. 2nd gen Edge Original 2015 - 2018 Mid cycle 2019 - probably 2022 Total 8 model years 4th gen Santa Fe Original 2019 - 2021.5 Mid cycle 2021.5 - probably 2023 Total 5 model years

Ford actually has 4 sub-brands if you include Mustang and Bronco. F-Series and Transit are both sub-brands that consist of multiple vehicles marketed under the same umbrella nameplate. F-Series: F-150, F-250, Superduty (250/350/450/550) Transit: Transit, Transit Custom, Transit Connect, Transit Courier (and their related Tourneo twins) Mustang: Mustang, Mustang Mach-E Bronco: Bronco, Bronco Sport Transit is by far the most successful sub-brand in the car business right now. It's a family of 4 vehicles, 15 (at least by my count) bodystyles, and sold on all 6 continents and a key reason why Ford is still in business. If not for the fact that 4 door sedan market has collapsed around the world (with notable exception of China), I would have expected a Mustang sedan. And I think if Bronco Sport is a success, we will see more members of Bronco family by next generation.

I have owned an Audi Q5 S-line, and a BMW 335i M-Sport. I've also own a Audi S4 and SQ5 and a BMW M3. It's easy to understand the appeal of the "#-line" or "#-Sport" concept for both car companies and buyers. It's easy to understand and easy to sell... you get the look but not the performance. ST and ST-line name convention is pretty straight forward so I think Ford will do fine. If you want to be annoyed, it doesn't matter what Ford calls it (indeed someone in this thread complained about "Sport" being too generic). The point is I don't really see any confusion here... ST buyers knows they are buying performance, and ST-line buyers knows they are buying appearance.

Backup camera has been required by FMVSS since 2016 model year. So since screen is required, might as well make it touch screen so it is more useful.

The 1st gen EcoSport swing gate is a concession to externally mounted spare tire that was originally part of the design - the whole rugged outdoor 4x4 look. Its European cousin Fusion had conventional hatchback and spare tire under the trunk. The faux 4x4 look continued with 2nd gen but when Ford tried to sell the car in Europe, the focus group laughed at the whole idea so Ford eliminated the external spare tire but didn't put in a proper hatchback to go with it. Just another half ass Ford thing that we've grown accustomed to over the years.

VW's version of ST-line is R-line. GTI is the same as Ford ST. And R is the same as Ford RS. Also, didn't Ford sell Fiesta ST-line in the US during the last model year of that car? So this is not the first time but it sure took them long enough to roll it out on a higher volume model.

The PHEV probably is based on the 3.0 V6 system because it is using the same 10 speed auto. There is no point trying to reinvent the wheel there... all the work was done upfront on the 10 speed auto so vehicles with longitude engines can all use the same system. The integration with 2.3 EB is new which I'm sure is what they really mean to say.

RWD in itself is sort of meaningless. Plenty of RWD vehicles can't go offroad. Can yo even buy a RWD Grand Cherokee? I thought they were all AWD like Bronco Sport will be. The point was that you can make unibody vehicles work offroad. BOF is not a prerequisite to making a capable offroad vehicle.

The original Venza was a competitor to Edge and Murano. This one is basically more snazzy RAV4 or cheaper NX, depending on your perspective. It is about the same size as VW Tiguan, Mitsubishi Outlander, Nissan Rogue, or Buick Envision, four of the largest compact CUVs on the market now.

Right... Venza is more like semi-lux RAV4 than it is Escape. But the two-CUV strategy is the same. They just have a slightly different take on how to divide the market. Actually Toyota is going for a three-CUV strategy in the US because they will launch Corolla hatchback based CUV soon as well - their version of Focus Active. Supposedly the Matrix name is coming back for that one. Matrix-Venza-RAV4... urban-family-rugged 3-CUV attack of Farley's dreams.

Actually E-Pace ripped off Harrier. This was the previous 3rd gen Harrier which came out in 2013 before Jaguar. You can see the new 4th gen was just an incremental evolution. 3rd gen Harrier 4th gen Harrier/2nd gen Venza

The first two generations of Harrier was rebadged as RX in the US. The 2nd gen Harrier was replaced in Japan and parts of Asia by Vanguard, which was rebadged as RAV4 in the US (different than the rest of the world RAV4). Vanguard was in turn replaced by 3rd gen Harrier in 2013, which is based on 4th gen RAV4 platform (as well as NX). 4th gen Harrier is still based on RAV4 and now will be rebadged as Venza for the US market. The chronological timeline of this model series: 1998-2003 1st gen Harrier = rebadged as RX 2003-2008 2nd gen Harrier = rebadged as RX 2008-2013 Vanguard = rebadged as RAV4 in North America 2013-2020 3rd gen Harrier = not rebadged although based on RAV4 2020- 4th gen Harrier = rebadged as Venza in North America Think of Venza and RAV4 as Escape and Bronco Sport and you get the idea. Ford better get its act together or Toyota is going to clean Ford's clock soon in the compact SUV segment.

They are not necessarily making that much on cars either but they are growing their SUV business and emerging market a lot faster than Ford... which has been looking down at its shoes mumbling to itself since Mulally left. Ford has basically turned in a big goose egg on growing the business since Mulally left in 2013. The China business went to sh!t. Hyundai ate its lunch in India. Toyota and Honda have overtaken Ford in South America. Southeast Asia and Australia has been a mess after the divorce with Mazda with no vision or leadership. For a family controlled business, the obsession with stock price seems really strange... The advantage of family control is so you can invest and grow the business without pressure from Wall Street gadflies. I'm really not sure why they care so much about stock price in the short term. To me, it is much more important to figure out how to sell more SUV, vans, and pickup truck outside the US. Giving up on cars is not necessarily the wrong move... they do have lower returns. But giving up on a market when Ford didn't try to sell the right product is a real sin. There are markets where Ford compete now where it doesn't even sell a van... which is really f'ed up because vans are historically probably Ford's most profitable vehicle. Where ever Toyota is selling Hiace, Hilux and Prado, Ford should be there selling Transit, Ranger, and Everest. There is only about a dozen car companies left outside China and soon some of the Chinese companies will be bigger than Ford. To choose not to compete is really not an option for Ford.

Family ownership keeps Ford an American company for better or worse. If Ford was investor owned like Chrysler, it would have been sold or merged with someone long ago. As for share price and criticism that company lacks real long term strategy, I think the facts speak for themselves. Ford was the number two car company in the world when Bill became President in 1999. It is now number five just barely beating Honda last year having been passed by Toyota, VW, and Hyundai in the last 20 years. And if you consider Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi a single company as some industry analyst do, the pending FCA-PSA merger, and the fact that Ford will fall behind Honda this year, you are looking at Ford being in 8th place - basically the smallest of the full line mass market car company in the world. So in a industry where scale and size means a lot to profit margin, Ford is kind of going the wrong way. How long can Ford stay independent? I don't know but a lot of the challenges Ford is facing now has to do with scale and it would help to be bigger with more cash flow. Before someone makes the inevitable comment about size doesn't equal profit, Ford is shrinking but also not making profit. In fact, you can almost trace Ford's declining profit by declining revenue... Ford has high fixed costs so shrinking doesn't get you prosperity... it begets more poverty. What's most amazing about this industry in the last 20 years is the rise of Hyundai... they went from nobody to the same size as GM (and will probably pass GM in 2020). 2019 Worldwide Sales Volume (millions of units) 1. VW 10.97m 2. Toyota 10.74m 3. Renault Nissan 10.06m 4. FCA-PSA merger pending 7.91m 5. GM 7.72m 6. Hyundai-Kia 7.20m 7. Ford 5.39m 8. Honda 5.17m (Honda is on pace to pass Ford in 2020) 9. Daimler 3.34m 10. Suzuki 3.01m 1999 Worldwide Sales Volume 1. GM 8.41m 2. Ford 6.64m (+ 0.97m for Mazda which Ford controlled + Volvo 0.5m which Ford purchased in 1999 = total 8.11m) 3. Toyota 5.46m 4. Daimler 4.82m (DaimlerChysler days) 5. VW 4.78m 6. Fiat 2.63m 7. PSA 2.52m 8. Nissan 2.46m 9. Honda 2.43m 10. Renault 2.35m ~~~ 13. Hyundai-Kia 1.33m

That must be a fairly recent change. Previously Everest was only available with 2.0 EB and 2.2 TDCI in China.

Wow, no one-touch up window or auto dimming mirror? What century is this Ford? Talk about missing the forest for the tree on cost cutting

That's the most stupid post I've read in a forum for a long time. It takes not even 2 second to google this. Ford competed in Japan just fine for some 20 odd years when it was the top selling non-luxury foreign brand. The reason things ended the way it did has something to do with a guy named Mark Fields (yea whatever happened to that guy eh?) From the time Ford rescued Mazda the first time in 1979 until Ford sold it in 2010, Ford models were sold in a Mazda dealer network called Autorama. The rebadged Mazda and imported Ford together was regularly the best selling foreign brand. In 1995, Ford increased its investment in Mazda to 33.4% enough to gain control of the board. From that point on until 2010 when Ford sold the company, Mazda was basically a Ford division with Ford appointed senior management. Ford was essentially the 5th largest car company in Japan after Toyota, Suzuki, Honda, and Nissan from 1995 to 2010. Mazda ran into financial trouble in early 1990s when it had grand vision of competing with Toyota by launching a whole bunch of quasi luxury brands (some never got off the ground like Amati in the US). By 1995, Mazda needed another rescue so Ford stepped in with cash, increased its investment to 33.4% and took management control. Henry Wallace was the first Ford appointed CEO of Mazda. Mazda was floundering in Japan after the economic bubble melted in Japan and it had too many domestic brands: Mazda, Ford, efini, Eunos, and Autozam. Wallace decided to streamline the operation and focus on the Mazda and Ford brands and cut efini, Eunos, and Autozam. Mark Fields took over as Mazda CEO in 1999 and he made a couple more changes. He got rid of the commercial truck and pickup business and decided it made more sense to focus on singular Mazda brand in Japan so he ended the rebadged Ford models. At the time, that made sense because Mazda was basically a Ford division and no one envisioned Ford selling Mazda. It was the crown jewel of Ford's international portfolio. Until that point, Ford had a full line up of both domestically produced and imported cars for sale in Japan. Import: Mondeo, Taurus, Mustang, Explorer Domestic: Festiva (Aspire), Laser, Telstar, Econovan, Freda (Escape was in final development and would come later in 2001 but the decision to gut the Ford brand was already made) After Fields decision to gut the domestic Ford line up, Fiesta and Focus were brought in but they were never as popular. And so overtime, the Ford brand withered and became somewhat irrelevant in Japan. And unlike the Germans, Ford was and still is a mainstream brand in Japan. So unlike VW, which can subsidize selling Golf from profit generated by Porsche and Audi, Ford was sink or swim on selling Fiesta and Focus. It was more or less achieve similar level of success as PSA which was in the same boat.

I'm saying the next gen Territory is probably going to be the same thing as the low cost C-CUV that is intended for South America. CX758 or whatever it is called is probably not a regional program - the math doesn't work unless you factor in potential sales in other emerging markets. Ford was planning to introduce the current Territory in South America in 2020. Not sure if it is still on track given the Coronavirus situation. So make sense that next gen would also be sold in both China and South America. This is a bit OT for this thread but the only way Ford can save its South America operation is to bring over more Chinese models. VW and GM are doing the same... the low end of Chinese market is very similar to South America... they both want cheap and they don't particularly care for fancy European designs. Ford needs an entire suite of emerging market cars: B hatch/sedan: Ka/Figo B+ sedan: ??? C sedan: Escort B CUV: EcoSport C CUV: Territory B pickup: ??? C pickup: Maverick

That is true. Under Mulally, Ford did try harder. His big thing was about spending money on where customer can see and feel.

I think it is the Territory (short C) replacement. However, it may also replace EcoSport in the US.