SoonerLS

I was just trying to say that I was seeing the same thing you were. Or weren't, I suppose. Fortunately, jpd80 came through.

All I see is the text in your quote, but I'm guessing it's something humorous, not a real prototype.

It's not always about what they want to do--it may have been too close to an existing trademark, and they weren't going to be able to overcome that (or maybe it was going to be too expensive). It may not even have been a US trademark; maybe they couldn't get that trademark in another market where they were planning to sell the Baby Bronco. You wouldn't expect that latter one, but it's why Microsoft's SkyDrive got renamed to OneDrive after it was launched--Sky News had a trademark on SkyDrive in the UK. Microsoft wanted a coherent global name for the product, so they changed the name. It could also simply be that the name didn't test well or other names tested better. Unless Ford comes out and says something (which seems unlikely), all we may ever know is that they decided it wasn't worth pursuing. Of course, if you really want to get conspiracy-minded, Scout was the name of Tonto's horse, and Tonto's horse was a pinto...

That's just quitter talk.

I saw the one in the first post yesterday. I don't recall if it was during the Cleveland game or the Dallas game, but I did find the commercial memorable.

The big dogs (Orkin, Terminix. etc) pretty much, from what I've seen, stuck with trucks (some moved to the F150, but most went to other makes), but there are a lot of players in that market. I'm pretty sure that losing those truck sales didn't really hurt them any.

Didn't they sell off their stake in Opel?

With modern battery tech, they probably have more flexibility in the location and shape of the batteries, so the weight can be more easily distributed into otherwise unused areas--where you'd need a fairly large single volume for a hydraulic tank, you could, in theory, break the batteries down into smaller units and stash them wherever you have some empty space. And as was mentioned elsewhere, with the electrical hybrid systems, they can leverage a much larger electrification program (one that covers the full range of Ford products) instead of having to do it all from scratch--and, more importantly, bear all of the costs on a relatively small operation.

#richpeopleproblems

I'm not a fan of fake engine noise (especially the fake engine noises that come out of the sewer pipe exhausts on FWD 4-bangers), but it's an important auditory cue for visually impaired pedestrians--and non-impaired pedestrians, at that. That's why you're starting to see regulations on the subject.

That's what they said near the end of the video.

Three of the Japanese makers (Mazda was one, and I think Lexus and Acura were the others, but Mitsubishi could've been one) put 4WS into production in the late '80s, but it didn't stick. Dunno why; it could've been like the '65 T-Bird's sequential turn signals, and just too far ahead of the technology to be reliable, or maybe it just was just an answer desperately seeking a question, but there have been a few times when I could've used 4WS on my truck.

There are rumors, but, AFAIK, Ford hasn't said anything even hinting at that.

Fleet managers, maybe, but that's about it. There are a few F-150 guys who would trade a Coyote for a 5.4, but I have yet to run across one who would take the 4.6 over the 5.0.

That makes more sense than it being a marketing move. The guys who care about the bore spacing are very few and far between, so there's no significant marketing advantage to be had there.

Meh, it helps differentiate between the F150 and the Expedition. I doubt that anyone without OCD actually cares about it.

IIRC, it all happened around the time SVT imploded after John Coletti retired, and that (the SVT implosion) probably had more to do with the Cammer and RWD conversion kit dying before coming to market. It was also about the same time the rotating oscillator really started spinning up throughout the auto industry.

That's true, but has no bearing on what I posted. If Ford decides to make crate engines available, hot rodders will put them in hot rods; that was never in question, because that's what hot rodders do. Heck, I'm pretty sure I've seen at least one hot rod with the mill out of an old semi powering it, so it wouldn't shock me to see a few with 7.3 powerplants, regardless of what Ford does. If Ford doesn't, I don't see them ever getting beyond the one-off stage simply because there won't be enough engines out there to build any support.

According to AllData, the book hours are just over 1 hour to replace the drier on my F-150 and about 30 minutes to replace the one on my old LS, so I'd imagine that they could do the work in a morning or afternoon, depending on how busy they are. Both said that doesn't include evacuating and refilling the AC system, so 2-3 hours is probably a reasonable estimate for how long the work should actually take.

The Coyote isn't the 5.0 Cammer. Neither it nor the reportedly-planned SVT RWD conversion kit ever came to market.

They built a 5.0 Cammer-powered RWD Focus for SEMA about 15 years ago, and we saw where that went. Don't get me wrong; I think this is very cool, I just don't see it going beyond the one-off stage any time soon, if ever.

I'm not getting that myself; from what I could see through the camo, they look pretty much like the current generation's headlights. Camo does strange things, though--but I guess that's what it's supposed to do...

Yeah, but I don't think it's a coincidence that the explosion in Chargers didn't really happen until the CVPIs started disappearing. Once the BOF cars were no longer an option, it opened up the market, because a unibody chassis was no longer a disadvantage. FWIW, back around 1990, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol tested a Dodge Intrepid as a cruiser. That lasted until they had to use it to "intercept" someone during a chase, and the resulting damage, which would've been relatively minor bodywork on their BOF CVs and Caprices, totaled the car. They didn't go for another unibody cruiser for about twenty years, when they started buying Chargers to replace their discontinued CVPIs.

My boss had the stripes on his then-new '10 Camaro 2SS painted, and I recall it being expensive (a few grand)--and they really only did the hood and (I think) deck lid, as well as custom "6.0 SS" labels on the sides of the hood bulge. $10K to get factory-painted stripes that go the length of the car ain't all that much of an expense; it's probably on par with what a quality shop would charge.

I'd wager that Roush was involved in the design process.