GearheadGrrrl
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Posts posted by GearheadGrrrl
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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...
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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.
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Blue Oval City doesn't have a 3000 employee payroll to make.
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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.
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And even though we have the capability to produce our own oil, the world market sets the prices...
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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.
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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...
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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!
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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.
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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!
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Good points, the 4 cylinder Ecoboost Mustang will turn 13 second quarter miles, so only the most "power hungry" really need the V8. The Ecoboost is a much better balanced Mustang with decent MPG, Costco class cargo capacity with the back seat folded down, and it's even rated for trailering. Add hybrid power with AWD and it'd keep Flat Rock plant busy for years!
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They're showing raw numbers of vehicles "on the road", Ford leads because they built the most vehicles, not because they're more or less reliable.
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Putting the politics aside, a 29K# semi tractor is 10K# too heavy to compete!
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While giving IVECO a foot in the door to re-enter the US market.
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In world markets the "Combi" with 2nd row but no 3rd row seats has been very popular, and a lot of cargo van buyers prefer 2nd row windows for better visibility. Ford should have made 2nd row seats and windows standard and let the customer remove the seats if they don't want them.
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I'm not a "Never EV" person, and when I buy my next new car around 2027 I hope better EVs and more charging options will be available so I can drive one.
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Your data is near useless, as for the vast majority of electric vehicles we don't have even 10 years of failure history. Nor does it necessarily apply to my tougher than normal use case, which would require a lot of battery abusing fast charging to above 80% of capacity and draining below 20%. Given that the failure rates and repair costs of IC vehicles are well established but EV's are still largely unknown, it would be foolish of me to bet $30K or more on an EV when IC cars that do a better job are available for less.
There is also the issue of parts availability- For example Focus EV batteries are NLA and Volt parts are becoming NLA.
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I've done the numbers and for me the price of a new EV would have to come down to about $10K after rebates to match the costs of my IC cars. Battery replacement is a big issue- I keep my vehicles 20+ years while many EVs will be junk at half that due to the cost of battery replacement. No surprise that the fleets are agreeing with me- The costs of relying on Tesla's captive service operation would sour any fleet on EVs and the resale is a potential bankruptcy for a rental/leasing fleet.
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As long as EVs remain a niche market, North American demand for dedicated EVs alone is too small to turn a profit. That means future Ford EVs will have to be competitive in Worldwide markets where the best selling vehicles are 4 to 5 meters long. Thus the business case for Explorer and larger EVs is a weak one, and a shorter more aero front end will allow 3 row seating in a less than 5 meter "world size" EV and save a couple thousand dollars, euros, or whatever in battery costs.
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26 minutes ago, akirby said:
But from a factory perspective and a corporate resource perspective - Bronco and Ranger did replace Focus just like Mav and BS replaced Fusion. It’s all about budgets and projects not the products themselves.Think of it as having a fixed amount of shelf space in the grocery store. You have room for 10 products. If you want to add a new product you have to get rid of an existing one or you have to expand the store. They didn’t want to build a new factory so they replaced existing products.
Thanks for the bread analogy, Hostess/Wonder AKA Continental Baking tried many of Ford's current strategies- Closing bakeries, pushing higher priced breads, and selling private label breads at a loss in hopes the volume would save them. The super markets and convenience stores were their "dealers" and in the old days they nurtured good relationships with them. While the products weren't the tastiest, they had predictable quality that consumers could depend on until management took the smaller retailers for granted and romanced Walmart. After turning profits all through the depression and for decades beyond, they used the 1st bankruptcy in 2004 to gut union contracts and letting Walmart get away with several months of unpaid bills for bread and cake delivered forced their final bankruptcy in 2012.
Ford and to be fair, GM too have been exhibiting similar maladaptive behavior the last few years- Betting too much on electrification with no hedging, pushing high profit but short lived products like Bronco, and raising prices beyond customer's affordability. Meanwhile, reliably profitable lower priced products like sedans/wagons/hatches have been dropped despite having excess plant capacity to build them.
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As Trader 10 noted, a 2024 Fusion would have about the same or higher ATP as a Maverick. And unlike the Broncos and other "icons", it would have regular predictable sales that can keep an assembly line busy for a decade.
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If a $25K sedan isn't profitable, how is a $25K boxy sedan without a trunk lid like the Maverick profitable... Do trunk lids cost that much to make?
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1 hour ago, akirby said:
Autocrossing a Navigator or F150? You’re either trolling or you’ve lost your mind.Nice to see we're agreed on how useless the Navigator is!
Ford Mustang 60th Anniversary Package Draws on Classic Style of 1965 Original
in Ford Motor Company Discussion Forum
Posted
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.