GearheadGrrrl

Sad to see the Ecoboost Performance Package dropped, was considering one for my next car purchase. Was a great combination of performance with decent MPG, better weight distribution than the V8, and practicality with the fold down back seats for Costco runs!

Older US cities copied Europe's glorified alleys, and many newly built single and multifamily developments are sized for something like an Explorer or smaller.

You might want to try the UAW and the pension plan(s) too- The Teamster Local I was in had membership records going back at least to the 1930s, and pension plans have had a legal responsibility to maintain records of pension contributions for employees since the 1970s.

Haven't posted much lately, hopefully this post won't get me banned again- It's just my opinion and most of the folks here are pretty knowledgeable and have a right to their's too. I suspect that having to order instead of buy a vehicle off the lot for the last few years has made us better at speccing. Like many, I ordered my Transit Connect "A La Carte" by starting with an XL model and adding what I actually wanted instead of simply accepting an XLT or Titanium from dealer inventory. I saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars, found some less than hundred dollar options that added a lot of value, and avoided a few items in the XLT and Titanium trims that are for me liabilities rather than assets. After ordering mine I noticed a clever dealer had ordered a near identical one for stock, talked to them and in similar manner they'd "deconstructed" the options and packages to pick the same useful combination. I've been seeing this a lot with XLs and XLTs specced up A La Carte with the best options of the more expensive trims. As for Ford pushing back by speccing vehicles the traditional way by trim levels and packages, probably not a conspiracy but simply going back to "the way we've always done it".

Good to see that the Mustang will survive another year. But "special edition" trim packages often signal a models "end of life"... Unless Ford comes up with substantially more later today, looks like they're giving up on the Mustang.

What we're seeing is Ford retreating to a high volume North American product, and a case can be made that Ford could survive at half it's current size on the F series alone. But that leaves the problem of half of Ford and it's employees with nothing to do with only F series around. It gets worse... What happens when the trend to smaller garages and high prices cuts F series sales in half and Ford hasn't kept the Ranger competitive with Tacoma et al...

Sounds like the current market for 2 row SUVs, and no reason the same competitors and more can't move the price war to 3 row SUVs and even full size pickups. Ford and GM need to quit running to fortress market sectors and compete.

Blue Oval City doesn't have a 3000 employee payroll to make.

OAC needs to stay open- There's a payroll there to make and closing the plant would rile Canadian buyers for decades. The new assembly plants under construction can be delayed- There will be contractual penalties but nothing near the cost of paying OAC's workers with no cars built and no revenue produced.

And even though we have the capability to produce our own oil, the world market sets the prices...

Also younger drivers who never really learned how to drive... We old folks had to learn skid control, etc. because the old cars didn't do that for us. AWD/4WD hasn't helped either- spinning one or two drive wheels was a warning that the road is slippery and we slowed down, todays cars give no warning until you exceed the limits of traction and totally lose control.

Sounds like they fixed the overheating buss that forced them to restrict full power to 5 seconds duration. I can see a Mach-E in my misspent future...

IIRC Cummins tried the same thing a half century ago when they converted their small diesel V8 to a "Giesel". Didn't hear any complaints about them, but that might be because they didn't sell many!

Hope the driver and anyone else involved in the crash survived. Saw similar carnage from young drivers in new muscle cars back in the 60s, apparently the addition of better tires, disc brakes, ABS, Stability Control, 3 point seat belts, and finally airbags hasn't stopped the stupid from doing stupid stuff.

But surely the Ecoboost isn't competitive in motorsports? Actually in amateur motorsports like autocross, track days, etc. the Ecoboost slots into a "slower" class so it's just as competitive, and for track days nobody's racing anyway. The Ecoboost driver saves $10-20K in initial purchase price, needs a third less gas to get to the track, work, etc.. and the lighter "less" powerful Ecoboost is easier on tires. Throw in the Ecoboost's trailer towing ability and Ford's willingness to warranty it as long as you keep the engine stock and it's a worthy competitor for the Miata, Toyburu "twins", and GTI!