SoonerLS

350ft-lbs is probably too weak for the Super Duties, and you'd have a hard time pitching it as a replacement for the V8s or the EB35, but it sounds like it would very nicely replace the D37 at the low end. Of course, that depends on how much it costs to build the D37 and this oil-burner; it can't cost as much as the 5.0 or it'll be too expensive to fit into the F-Series lineup, IMHO.

That one may not be over. The taxi companies are suing over the contract, and NYC's comptroller just "rejected" the contract because the Nissans are not wheelchair-accessible, which puts NYC at unnecessary financial risk (according to the comptroller) of ADA lawsuits.

If they were hell-bent on "being a Toyota loyal," why would they bother talking to any Ford dealers at all, let alone multiple dealers? It sounds to me like they were interested in the Fusion, but the Ford dealerships didn't give a rodent's behind about selling them one, so they kept looking 'til they found a dealer interested in making a sale. This is all on those Ford dealers, IMHO.

No, Ford wasn't snoozing on this one; Ford has no control over the dealers. That dealer pissed away a chance to sell a vehicle, the same as the Lexus dealer did.

I don't know if they want TC's or not, but I saw an article in Automotive News a week or so ago that said (some of) the taxi and livery operators in NYC were suing the city over the Nissan NV200s. I just scanned the article, but I think it was over the vehicle itself, not the contract.

What I find funny is that 235/65R16 used to be a low-profile tire for a performance-oriented car...

Wait, won't using MFT do that? I heard using it'll cause the car to spontaneously combust, babies to be born nekkid, and the downfall of western civilization as we know it... Seriously, though, that's one nice vehicle, and I hope it turns out to be everything you hope it will.

Considering that they're profitable and accounted for ~30% of FNA's Ford-brand sales through November (the combined sales of Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, and Mustang are less than F-Series sales, YTD, and they outsold ALL of the cars in November), yeah, that would be a catastrophic loss for Ford. Given that the trucks and utilities accounted for roughly two-thirds of FNA's YTD sales through November, and the mess of red ink that is Europe, I'd bet that they are responsible for the lion's share of Ford's global profits--but 90% still seems like a bit of a stretch.

Well, I'm pretty sure Ford, GM, Fiasco, Toyota, and Nissan, among others, are still using OHV engines. I don't think any of them have used flatheads since the '50s... :fear:

Translation: We weren't necesarily completely correct, BUT THE EPA IS WRONGER!11!11!!

It's hardly a statistically significant poll, but my boss is a big Chebbie fan, and he was disappointed that it doesn't look different enough from the current trucks. From what he said he'd been seeing on the Chebbie forums, it sounded like he was far from alone in that disappointment.

Now you have a chance to hide your travel papers just like Rick: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/13/showbiz/movies/casablanca-piano-auction/index.html

When do the new Chebbie boat anchors hit the market? I'm pretty sure their base price is under $55K, but will they be on sale by the end of March?

You're a bad, bad man. I knew there was a reason I liked you. :D

Ford's current MO is that they release the new powertrains when they're ready, rather than holding them for a new model or MCE. If there's a new mill or transaxle for the MKZ that's available in time to get it into the '14 MKZ, chances are very high that it'll be introduced in the '14 MY.

AFAIK, Ford and GM haven't even started their co-development of the new slushboxen, so I wouldn't expect to see anything other than the 6F-series transaxles in the non-hybrid MKZ for the next few years.

On the radio they said there's a kid who was born at 12:12pm on December 12, 2000, so he turned 12 at 12:12 on 12/12/12. Quite a coincidence, eh?

Manpower and facilities. Without getting political, the EPA casts a very wide net, and this is only a small part of it. This system actually works quite well, and the few exceptions have literally been the exceptions that prove the rule. The biggest problem with the EPA mileage figures is not the testing and measurement--it's the fact that most people don't understand what those figures actually mean. They see that 47MPG on the sticker and think that means they can drive like maniacs and still get 47MPG. Of course, this is not entirely unexpected, as the the American population in general is woefully ignorant of pretty much anything at all that has to do with numbers...

40 years ago, Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt were walking on the moon. Oh, wait, are we not playing the non sequitur game?

That $1B may have been the total investment a year ago, but I'd bet that it has been converted to seed money with this new rebirth of the Lincoln Motor Company--if they show success with the MKZ and the vehicle that follows it...

The MKS itself, IMHO, is not representative of the new Lincoln Motor Company, but your description of the test drive experience is (or, at least, should be).

The question he should have asked was if you'd R'd TFM before test driving an MKS with the active suspension. I'm told that how you set it up makes a great deal of difference in how the car drives, but you really need to know what you're doing to get it set up best for what you want. (Now, whether that, in and of itself, is a design problem is another question entirely.) But no, the MKS should not be considered representative of the new Lincoln Motor Company; the MKZ is as close as we get for now, and even it is only a partial step. The vehicle following the MKZ (MKC/MKEscape/MKWhatever) will be the first to really tell the tale, because that'll be the first one completely designed after the rebirth of LMC.

Feeling jilted because he didn't include the flower-arrangers in MD who drive pickups? If you talk to anyone who actually knows about pickup sales, they normally talk about OK and TX sales together because it's just about the largest (and most stable) pickup truck market there is--at one point not terribly long ago, it accounted for roughly 3 out of every 4 F-Series trucks sold. In addition to stable truck sales, we also have a well-established natural gas delivery system, and quite a few CNG-fueled fleets, so there should be a pretty good market for CNG-fueled trucks in this region, yet Ford is completely ignoring it (which was TOW's point).

My understanding is that the hybrid parts constraint is in the battery/battery pack production capacity. Is that not accurate?

I would bet even money that Ford has been pushing for a review. The chances that this was due to cheating are exceptionally low (given Mulally's attitudes towards finding and fixing problems, that would almost certainly be a PCLM--Probable Career-Limiting Move--for all involved), but that does still leave two probable explanations: 1) mistakes in following the testing procedures; or 2) Ford's results are accurate. From an engineering standpoint, it's a win-win--it'll either validate Ford's testing or show them where they need to correct a problem. Obviously, they'd rather it be #2, but I think Mulally's the kind of leader who would be satisfied with either answer (as long as any necessary corrections occur), because #1 is a "teachable moment," which fits in well with his engineering management style.