Mad Hatter

I understood it to be an issue of highway speed; the larger tires had a lower speed rating, and customers were complaining.

Does look like the Fisker or an Aston-Martin from the side.

Me, too-a black/tan 4 cylinder/5 speed Sport. Excellent pickup; it changed my mind about what a small truck was capable of.

I saw an elderly man with a Pearl Harbor Survivor license plate on his Tacoma a few years ago. That was a real WTF moment.

I live in a fairly rural area of Texas (biggest city within 50 miles is 50,000 population, about 100 miles to anything bigger). TCs are starting to become noticeable here, but still uncommon. Most are owned by small businesses; looks like the Pepsi bottler has a few for route salesmen, replacing Rangers and Chevy HHRs.

I hope that means the Falcon name moves to a new platform, but there'll still be a upcoming global RWD like I've seen mentioned here.

I kinda like the mental image I associate with the name Emerald. The problems I see are that the name may not be considered relevant today, and the idea that you might see a, say, Hyundai Sapphire or Kia Diamond editions. American Express used to have a more upscale image, and built upon it with the Platinum Card. Then third-tier lenders issuing MC/Visa came out with [their Platinum cards. IMO it didn't elevate the others; it stole AMEX's thunder and rendered the term meaningless. And the same for the cars. I like the Zephyr name if they keep the alphabetical designations.

Something like that would placate the ambivalent; the hard-core fans would appreciate something more in the spirit of the history of the brand. I suppose it could be said that since Mercury had been moribund for so long, the "fan base" is secretaries and retirees. But that would ignore a lot of the past. Eh, it was just me thinking there might've been some inventory of the Marauder-specific trim around to make a batch. I bet had GM made a limited run of Firebirds, they would've not only sold quickly, but at a premium that'd justify and offset what little would've needed to be changed on a Camaro to make it one.

Is there a possibility there might be some special-edition Mercuries to mark the end? If Ford chooses to end a brand, I would like to think they would do it with style. Not in a classless way like Plymouth or Pontiac, nor some badge-job edition. I would like to see them bring back the Marauder for, say, the last five hundred or thousand Grand Marquis produced. Even better, with the 5.0 Coyote, but I'm certain that wouldn't happen for various logistics/certification reasons. A Milan with a 3.5 EB; that would be cool. Doesn't seem like that'd be too big a stretch if they were thinking about it for the Fusion.

I heard something about this late last night on the radio; a billion-dollar fund to clean up about 80 former GM manufacturing sites. Figured someone here would have a link.

I saw one of them in San Marcos, Texas around Easter. The one I saw was orange, and it ran like a bat out of h*ll.

Would selling performance tunes either in-house or through a partnership be feasible with this? It would seem so.

And cheap. The radio looks like someone cannibalized an inexpensive stereo or boombox from 15 years ago.

Previous PostI never knew of them until recently, either. Interesting, and the concept will surely be revisited-if not someday implemented.

I noted your call on that. If that's the eventuality (and assuming Fiat decides not to pursue anything greater than class 5), I wonder if it would've made sense to rebrand the pickups as Jeep, instead of Ram. As a brand, Ram has no equity other than the previous model designation and visual recognition. Jeep, OTOH, has excellent brand recognition/worth. I think a substantial amount of buyers want the Cummins diesel and wouldn't have been deterred by the Jeep designation-in fact it might've helped. Any thoughts?

I would like to see a comparison on ownership cost, as well. Routine maintenance like four-wheel brake job, oil change, tire replacement, etc. Insurance, also.

You know..thinking about it, that's about who I see driving them. And seem to be wearing some sort of Camaro apparel, like H-D owners. There's something about the two cars; the older Camaro drivers think the car is a fountain of youth, and the older Mustang drivers are just young at-heart.

On the subject of HIDs, is there a reason the Security package is required? If there's a reason, they ought to bundle the two packages instead of informing you by a pop-up window you have to have both.

^Is that car a one-off, or a predictor of the next Mustang? They ought to make that, now!

I can see the point in the topic, although I think the SUV phase was more aspirationally-driven than purely practical. And I don't discount the longstanding mainstream car magazines' European fixation.

Can that engine be stroked? I thought I read the practical limits on displacement were built into the critical dimensions..maybe it was just bore diameter.

I had a '97 Thunderbird I bought new. I really liked that car; ended up giving it to a niece. I would wait for the chance to get a Thunderbird if it delivered on the presumed RWD/Coyote content at price close to an equivalent Mustang. A four-door would be fine if it could have something unique, like suicide door configuration and looked sleek like the A-M & MB pictured above/VW CC.

What would be the odds of Ford introducing that much-discussed small-displacement turbodiesel in an otherwise conventional (F-150 or Expedition) for this application?

Congratulations! I like the choice in options, too. I'm going to wait a while for feedback from 6 & 8 owners/aftermarket on both before making a decision.