Flying68
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Posts posted by Flying68
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37 minutes ago, akirby said:
They don’t update the ones already produced. They usually just add rebates for those.The article was that they cut prices of 2023 models, being it is 2024 and they aren't making 2023 models anymore, would seem logical that they would want to issue new Monroney's and invoices to reflect the lower prices, especially if they want to move inventory, because the dealers are all still showing the MSRP. If they intended to issue rebates it would have said that in the article, but it specifically said prices, which indicates MSRP.
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Wonder when the window stickers will reflect this price cut. The ones around here are still at the old prices, even the online window stickers haven't updated yet.
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18 hours ago, jpd80 said:
Mind you, the E-CVT was developed before automatic began mid gear lockup,
so part of me wonders if like RWD hybrid transmissions, Ford could use a 6AT
but with an electric motor in place of the torque converter…..
^^^^^ It’s probably not worth the effort to change now, the E-CVT is mature
tech and works well.
You don't have to wonder. The F-150 Powerboost hybrid and the Explorer/Aviator hybrids use an electric power unit mounted to the the 10R80 with a clutch system, but still has a locking torque converter for towing and performance purposes.
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20 hours ago, Captainp4 said:
Tesla is a bad word around here, even if you quote Farley saying they're going to follow Tesla's lead because they're more efficient in every aspect, from design to manufacturing to the end product.
I've seen some people claiming Mercedes did it first, but pretty sure most people are confusing mild hybrids that still step down to 12v for all the inside functions.Mercedes did pioneer the 48v system, and did take advantage of it to provide mild hybrid functionality. They powered all the accessories that are normally belt driven using the 48v system and had an integrated starter/alternator that could provide low end torque at the launch (mild hybrid) as well as an electric supercharger. But yes, the interior electronics were all 12v because that is the standard that all suppliers use.
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Having used the park assist in my Expedition I can say that the reason people don't use it is because it is a pain in the rear to use. It doesn't always detect open spaces, requires you to drive slowly to attempt to find them, and then once it does, it takes forever to park. It is much faster for an experienced driver to just park it themselves. It is a "Gee Whiz" feature that has had 0 development beyond getting it to do both perpendicular and parallel parking (I had the parallel parking in my '12 Explorer and used it maybe a handful of times). The concerning thing is Ford brings features, and instead of improving them to make them more useful, they just sit back and wonder why no one is using it.
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Well I was hoping to get pictures Saturday when I took my Expedition in for an oil change, but they had already sold it and they were prepping the retail ordered one for delivery.
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3 hours ago, akirby said:
Do the rear door bottoms not have room for cups/bottles?
There are cubbies in the door, but nothing that I would call usable for drinks unless it is a capped water bottle. And it is pretty well covered up by the seat, not what I would consider accessible.
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On 1/31/2024 at 6:18 PM, Gurgeh said:
I test drove a BL Nautilus a couple of days ago. I have a 2019 Nautilus and can assure you that the new 2024 has a great amount of rear leg room. Noticeably more than in my 2019. It easily passed my threshold test of needing to have enough floor space in front of the rear seats to fit our decent-sized cooler for long road trips. The rear seats can also be slid forward or backward, depending on where you want the extra space.
That's just one thing about the new Nautilus. It is a few inches longer, taller and wider (ok, one of those dimensions is 1", but can't remember which), but the amount of increased usable interior space -- in the front, in the rear seats, in the rear storage space -- is considerably more than the raw exterior dimensions indicate. During my test drive, for instance, I was surprised how roomier it felt in the front relative to my 2019 Nautilus. The seats are wider and more comfortable and it feels like there is more shoulder and head room as well.
Well our dealer got a RIII in yesterday so the wife and I got a chance to play around in it. We didn't really drive it, except around the dealer's lot to look for a retail order that was in one of the other colors. I was impressed by the rear seat legroom. I had the front all the way back (btw, I wish that front would go back another inch or two) and I still had a couple of inches to my knees when sitting in the back behind my driving position. With the wife in her driving position, I had like 4 or 5 inches to the seat. Overall it was very comfortable, not enough cup holders in the back, really could use some door or floor mounted ones to go with the two in flip down seat cushion. I would like to test drive the hybrid before committing to an order, but I think we will go ahead and get one spec'd out.
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Our dealer has had 1 BL Nautilus come in and it sold in 3 days, the are still waiting for the others. They have 2 showing as "in stock" but haven't actually arrived and 9 more "in transit" so who knows when they will get there. We need to check the rear leg room before we commit, if it isn't roomy enough, probably need to look at something else.
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Our local Lincoln dealer became a Black Label dealer after buying out Long McArthur's Lincoln inventory. I presume LM's Lincoln franchise was pulled due to market size.
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We are looking at a 2024 Nautilus with the hybrid powertrain. We might have gone BEV had Lincoln actually had a BEV to offer that is in that 2 row segment (we don't need a 3 row crossover or mid-sized SUV). Was really thinking about a Mach-E at the end of 2023, but decided against it due to ever dropping residual values. Perhaps once the kids are off to college and I don't need the Expedition, BEV's may be ready for prime time then, depends on what I need or want when that time comes. The only way BEV's will takeoff is for the manufacturers to start offering options in each of those segments. The only way to make that profitable is to get an adaptable platform that can scale.
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Nobody seems to know what residual value will be on BEV's. Tesla residuals have been cratering, especially now that the rental fleets are starting to dump them. If I buy a Mach-E today, in 3 years is it going to be worth anything? I can pretty accurately predict what a normal ICE vehicle residual will be, but BEV's aren't quite there yet.
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AKA we have too much inventory and nobody is coming in to look because the MSRP and rebates are not enough discount.
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Just an FYI, you can't add the EM power to the ICE power to get total system power. The EM produces its torque and power and the low end of the RPM band. They phase the power output of the EM to decline as the ICE hits its peak power. EM's are constant torque until they hit there maximum power output, then can either hold that power or start to decline as RPM is increased. Most motor controllers only allow maximum power for a short band until the total power is reduced to preserve the motor health. Also depends on the maximum battery output and how long the battery can sustain that power output.
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1 hour ago, Joe771476 said:
Replacing a battery costs $12,000. Insurance companies won't insure you if you park the vehicle in your garage. They're catching on fire every day. You can't reduce the carbon footprint of a carbon based planet! Without the greenhouse effect, the average surface temperature of the Earth would be 0 degrees F! With it, it's 59 degrees F. I prefer that! These so-called expert scientists said Pluto was a planet, now it's not. They say milk and eggs are good one year, next year not, third year good again! When there's an impending hurricane, they draw 10 possible paths because they really don't know where it's going! But let's believe them for a moment. They say we've had climate change events (cooling and warming) for millions of years, right? Well there were no cars and industrial plants back then! And they say storms are getting worse. The reason they SEEM worse is because there are more people to be injured and killed and more building to be destroyed. The INTENSITY of the storms is not getting worse!
Where did you get this information? I think you are engaging in hyperbole that isn't helpful to the discussion. Unless there is a specific recall for a specific model there is no prohibition of parking an EV in your garage with regard to insurance. Even ICE vehicles have recalls that instruct you to not park in the garage due to fire risk, like our MkC currently does due to a battery terminal connection recall, but that doesn't mean our insurance won't cover us. Pretty sure the statistics show ICE vehicles are as or more likely to catch on fire in a garage than BEV's are.
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1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:
Speaking of preorder issues, apparently a dealership (In PA) had 25 lightnings on order, and no one actually bought them. This is according to someone that works for them...
Wonder how much ADM they added to each one? Everything will sell at the right price, some dealers just don't understand this right away.
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51 minutes ago, GearheadGrrrl said:
First, a lockout will backfire because besides increased unemployment insurance rates, though expired the contract is still in force including guarantees of wages if a plant closes, especially if the layoffs are due to a lockout which is a mass discharge without cause.
Second, where are all these scabs going to come from? Reality is that the plants would sit empty and eating capital for months because new workers simply aren't available.
Finally, one can easily see the framework of a settlement, but some leaders on both sides enjoy listening to their own orations too much to put it down on paper and hopefully approved- It looks like UAW and the automakers will settle for 30% raise and eliminating tiers so that is pretty much settled. Union representation at future plants is largely in the hands of the yet to be hired workers, the most the companies can guarantee is union recognition by a simple majority of workers signing membership cards without an election. That leaves the issue of defined benefit pensions to be settled, and given that few companies can saddle their balance sheets with such an obligation, a solution will probably require setting up an independent company to handle pensions and absorb the liability or transferring the responsibility to the federal government, where it ends up if pensions become insolvent anyways.
Case law in both California and Michigan holds that layoffs resulting from labor disputes are not claimable for unemployment. California had a specific case where there was a limited strike (similar situation to the UAW vs Big 3) and the employers responded by laying off all employees until the dispute was resolved. California Supreme court held that when anyone strikes, it is considered an action by all, thus any layoff arising from the labor disputes are excluded from unemployment benefits. Most states have similar laws, although I haven't seen any recent case law, I would presume most would hold the same theory. If you strike, you subject your fellow employees to layoffs that are not covered by unemployment. Lockouts would be treated similarly. UAW members are treading on thin ice right now over demands that many people consider to be unreasonable.
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19 hours ago, GearheadGrrrl said:
UAWs lawyers would love a lockout, would put Ford on the hook for millions in pay. As for hiring scabs, noticed the help wanted signs everywhere?
54 minutes ago, Bob Rosadini said:How would a lock out put Ford on the hook for millions in pay.? Does put a huge hurt on Fain's strike fund though.
If there is no operating labor contract (i.e. it has expired) 3 things can happen 1. continue working under the existing agreement; 2. labor can initiate a strike; or 3. the company can lock out covered employees. There would be no back pay or penalty as the existing labor agreement is expired. Anything negotiated in the new agreement is separate. What is unusual about this is that the UAW is not fully on strike, like they decided that most employees like their jobs and want to work but realize if they did that, the agreement would never get near their demands. I basically see no alternative for the big three other than to start locking out labor, especially if the selected plant strikes bring work to a halt. The alternative is that they could layoff workers at those other plants instead and because there is no operating agreement, they wouldn't necessarily need to ever hire them back either.
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28 minutes ago, Willwll313wll said:
Without speculating, I am not sure how far are they are from what the UAW is demanding. I also wonder what these increases will ACTUALLY cost Ford, taking into account Ford having $24 billion in profits last year. By comparison (Not that I think it's a completely fair one), Tesla's profit was half that over the same time period.
They did not have $24B in profits. They had a net profit in 2021 of $17.9B in 2021 and a net loss in 2022 of $2.0B. So far in 2023 they have reported a net profit of $3.7B for the first half. Gross profit which I believe is what you are referring to was about $24B in 2022, but that is just total revenue - cost of sales and doesn't count any other expenses like corporate overhead, interest expenses, investments, etc..
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So basically Bill just said that if the UAW doesn't get real, they are going to go away real fast along with all the other domestic manufacturers as the supply base collapses and they have to close plants due to inability to invest and compete.
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1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:
Speaking of the Mach E being profitable-thought this was interesting
Shows that the Rivian Van and MachE have the lowest cost per kWh at $98.50 with LFP batteries. The Caddy and Ram are next at $112.70 and $112.90 (almost identical) with NCM variants. The Model S is $120.30 with an NCA battery. Curious if that is the actual capacity though, Tesla is very non-specific about their battery capacity. Last is the ID.4 at $140.81, but with such a small battery size I wonder if there is some scaling issue there as the BMS and cooling are probably a bigger cost component. I would have assumed with a NCM variant that the cost would have been closer to the Caddy and Ram.
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You know there are a lot of people that would kill to make $100k after 4 years, and potentially get 5 weeks vacation plus another 3 weeks of holidays.
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Tesla enjoys significant cost advantages over the all the other manufacturers. One big component is labor rate. I don't know why the UAW hasn't aggressively pursued unionizing Tesla.
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14 hours ago, rperez817 said:
Here are the numbers from 2022. Nvidia, Lucid top 2022 CEO compensation survey | Automotive News (autonews.com)
General Motors CEO, Mary Barra
- Base salary: $2.1 million
- Bonus and incentive plan compensation: $6,258,000
- Stock option gains: $0
- Stock award gains: $24,627,264
- Other compensation: $1,121,560
- Accumulated pension benefits: $2,160,068
- Total compensation: $34,106,824
Ford CEO, Jim Farley
- Base salary: $1.7 million
- Bonus and incentive plan compensation: $2,754,000
- Stock option gains: $1,869,342
- Stock award gains: $10,620,588
- Other compensation: $1,396,765
- Accumulated pension benefits: $0
- Total compensation: $18,340,695
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk
- Base salary: $0
- Bonus and incentive plan compensation: $0
- Stock option gains: $0
- Stock award gains: $0
- Other compensation: $0
- Accumulated pension benefits: $0
- Total compensation: $0
Musk is not a valid comparison. He is the largest individual shareholder at almost 13% of Tesla. He also had a long term compensation plan (that is under a lawsuit by other shareholders right now) that was worth $50 billion or more. He doesn't "take" a salary because he is basically the owner and has already been compensated for future work. Make no mistake though, Tesla has paid him a lot of money.
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Ford CEO Farley Regrets Not Tackling Quality Issues Sooner
in Ford Motor Company Discussion Forum
Posted
Almost every 3 row SUV (except for full size) will have less room in the 2nd row than almost all 2 row SUV/CUV's. The only way to get that 3rd row in is to reduce 2nd row leg room while making the 3rd row practically useless. Getting adults in all 3 rows comfortably is for minivans and full size SUV's.