SoonerLS

A Vignale trim might work in Europe, where you don’t have Lincoln and you do have Mercedes taxis, but I don’t see that working here. As much as we may have in common, Europeans and Americans have very different ideas about some things. About 20-25 years ago, Ford had a senior exec (his name escapes me at the moment) who decided Americans wanted European handling instead of American power, and that went over like a fart in church…

The Pinto may have been a PR disaster, but there are a bunch of street rods running around with Pinto front suspension assemblies under them. The one Pinto my dad had was one he bought from a junk yard as a donor for the '37 Ford pickup we were restoring.

That's 4-5% of unit sales, but what is the percentage of profits? If, f'rinstance, they're only 4-5% of unit sales, but they're accounting for 10-15% of profits, that seems like a pretty good trade.

Something I've noticed... We don't have Kroger grocery stores here, but we do have Kroger grocery delivery, and they seem to be exclusively using Transit-based box trucks. I'm presuming they're chassis cabs, what with the refrigeration and all, but I guess they could be cutaways.

It was a humorous reference to a typo in jpd's post--a 6F140 would be a FWD transaxle, rather than the 6R140 that they actually have.

That’s very brave of them, offering a FWD medium…

When the Falcon and Corvair hit the market, the imports really weren't much competition, aside from the Beetle. That's why Iacocca thought the Pinto could close off that market to the imports.

I don’t think that’s unique to Lincoln dealers. There’s a local dealer who owns both a Chebbie and a Buick/GMC dealership, and he’s currently running a TV ad that’s not exactly pro-electric. Sitting next to him on his desk you can see his computer monitor, which has a full screen image of an EV on a flatbed, something he points out in the ad.

FWIW, Blue Bird uses Godzilla in its Vision models and the Micro Bird models based on the E-Series chassis, and it uses the 6R140 behind it. The diesels in the Vision and All American lines are running Cummins/Allison powertrains (the All American line is all-Cummins/Allison, even the gassers and propane models). The Micro Bird T-Series, built on a Transit, uses Transit powertrains. Interestingly, it lists a diesel T-Series, but it looks like Ford may have dropped the 3.2PSD--at least I wasn't able to find it in any of the Transit specs, just the 3.5PFDI and the EB35... BTW, if you go looking, Blue Bird's Web site is a mess when it comes to the Micro Bird T-Series. Its specs table lists the only powerplant for it as the (presumably GM) 6.0. You have to download the brochure to see powerplant specs that make any sense. ETA: Minor correction--the All American rear-engine buses use Cummins/Allison; the front-engine version uses either Cummins/Allison or Cummins/Eaton (Eaton Procision dual-clutch auto).

According to Blue Bird’s Web site, they’re using the 7.3 (in both gasser and Roush propane applications), so it looks like it happened, but I wouldn’t expect school buses to make much of a splash.

From the History Guy: ...maybe it wasn't the disaster it was made out to be, after all.

That's ok. We get that you were quite understandably upset about the ballgame.

Where I work, in addition to the services we provide to our customers, we also provide equipment to clients who want to use our technology. We normally build on Transit 350 high-roofs, but one of our clients required a diesel, so we agreed to build their vehicle on a SuperDuty PSD. Our shop/engineering manager happened to be on the local Ford dealer's lot when they had just rolled a F-250 PSD XLT 4x4 crew cab off the delivery truck (he said the hood was still warm), so he put down a deposit on the spot. He said while they were writing up the paperwork the dealer got five calls about buying the truck...

I believe they bought the dealership. It's called Confidence Ford now.

There's an ex-Chebbie dealership not far from my office. The city tried turning it into a business park, but so far it has only been used as a display location for a few Fendt tractors (I think--they're green, but not that super-expensive shade known as John Deere green) and as a parking lot for the drivers and the fleet of blue vans that serve the nearby Amazon distribution center. My Ford dealership got sold to an out-of-state group, and it looks like they're trying their damnedest to completely screw the pooch. They changed the name that had been on the dealership since the 1950s, they got rid of everybody who made it a great dealership, and the new people don't seem to give two shits about their once-loyal customers. My mom bought a set of tires there because she was supposed to get Ford points that would pay for her next oil change, but when she went for the oil change, not only had they not done whatever was necessary to get the points credited to her account, they charged her $180 for the oil change. To hell with people like that. Slimy SOBs like that were why I quit doing business with all the Ford dealerships in the OKC area except for that one. Looks like they're out, now, too.

The main issue with ULSD of which I'm aware was fuel-delivery related--the high-pressure injector pumps relied on the sulfur for lubrication of the impeller, so when it went away, the impellers would slowly wear away and stop delivering fuel at pressure to the injectors. My dad had to get the injector pump on a tractor rebuilt because of that, but I don't recall that being a major problem with on-road diesels.

Imagine how that meeting went. "So, you're telling me that, basically, for the price of a crankshaft and a set of con rods, we can replace a relatively expensive engine with a less expensive engine, and keep another relatively inexpensive to build engine as a premium option, plus we can shut down an entire plant? What took you so long!"

Yeah, if you're not going to be constrained by the reality of the situation, you might as well go for something nice.

I’ve seen a couple of Rivians and a couple of Lightnings on the streets here, and I think the Lightning is a much better looking truck. The Rivian has too much of a Honda Ridgeline vibe to it from the rear. I don’t care for the unibody look; trucks should have some kind of break between the cab and the bed, even if it’s only visual, and that sail panel on the Rivian just doesn’t trip my trigger.

My inarticulately made point was that I don’t think the “no gasser option” in the 450 is anything new.

Was there a gasser option for the 450? I know it used to be PSD-only, but I don’t know if that changed with the intro of Godzilla.

…But you repeat yourself (with apologies to Mark Twain).

It's apparent that they're "high grading" the Lightning--they're constrained on how many they can make, so they're going after the most lucrative sales. Regular cab short bed 4x2s might be the best trucks out there, but they ain't where the money is.

The bodyless chassis is a pretty cool view of the R's underpinnings.