justins

It does fit with what Wheelsboy said about the Equator styling, that it represents Ford's new global SUV design language, but sheesh that thing fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch. The Equator suits the split headlight design far better, with it's more upright styling.

Well that's... awful..

Wheelsboy has a pretty comprehensive review of this -

Or if Dearborn had have pulled its head out of its arse and realised it had something in Falcon / Territory that, with some investment could easily have easily been a global product...

Actually not all THAT impressive...

Mach E-Fluent?

https://www.caradvice.com.au/827459/holden-axed-in-australia-as-general-motors-gets-out-of-right-hand-drive-globally/

Would that be an explorer with all the necessary trim? ?

Regarding screen orientation and how it's used - is this not something that could be updated OTA in a later version of sync? Which of course begs the question of why wasn't it done in the first place, but as more Ford vehicles get larger (and portrait orientation) screens, surely this can and will be rectified?

https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/2020-ford-ranger-raptor-receives-mustang-v8-engine

Ok, I really like it. Like, really like it.

Get it to Oz at a reasonable price and I think it will do well.

I certainly don't think it's spectacular, but it's in no way offensive. Which is where the bulk of every day sales come from, so maybe it's got a shot...

Nope. This is the year we'll finally get to see it in production ??

It's really just a FP Supercharger and some extra FP kit bolted on by a third party partner here in Oz, but it's great to see Ford Oz officially dipping their toes into the higher performance space and backing it with a factory warranty. There have been a couple of projects over the years that FoA backed away from because they weren't prepared to factory back them. Here's hoping this is just the beginning. https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/ford-mustang-r-spec-revealed-australia?fbclid=IwAR020YlL-dnw65qu5BjB72qbWAFLuRngM6YzkbVX_n9-QC-J2rHZatfr3hk

Just watched it. Interesting. I wonder if they used this process of every vehicle is it's own business line on products like Focus and Fiesta (and even Fusion) and the outcomes are what caused the "move to SUVs" i.e once those vehicles were made their own P & L centres and had the ruler run over them, they didn't make the cut.

"Gardening Leave"

Woodhouse gone to head up Nissan & Infiniti US design.

Wow! Just as Lincoln is getting back on song. This could be big. One has to wonder - are there any big announcements coming concerning the future direction of Lincoln? Or is this perhaps another of these bad behaviour resignations?

You beat me to it. Then there's also the *cough* XClass Mercedes, the "not just a re-skinned Navara" Mercedes Midsize...

Let's not forget that at various times both Toyota and Daimler have held 3 - 4% stakes in Tesla, and both sold out. The fact that Ford are getting a basically fully developed EV platform out of this, for half a billion dollars, and then to also get a dividend on what Rivian can sell to other manufacturers? Great deal IMO.

Hackett is on the record as saying they're going to go after different sub-segments within the same size bracket.

JLR are doing them now as well. The Velar has auto retracting handles. I think the right balance are the ones where you push in one end and the other end pops out. Still sit flush with bodywork, and mechanically simple enough with no electronics to stuff up...

Surely if we're going to see these types of door handles moving forward (as I assume we are due to aerodynamics if nothing else) they'll have to mandate some sort of accessible emergency door release?

The problem with Ford in Oz is their rubbish marketing and poor dealer satisfaction survey results... Focus transmission problems from a couple of years ago are still hurting as well, I'd imagine.