GearheadGrrrl
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Posts posted by GearheadGrrrl
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EV Chargers are very much capitalized by government subsidies and with little funding for maintenance, repairs, and replacements. While everything is sweetness and light while these chargers are new, eventually they'll have to turn a profit and charging prices will skyrocket or they'll be abandoned. Something to think about before you spend a year's pay or more on an EV...
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Good points, typical small business that needs trucks starts with whatever car they have, then as volume grows they upgrade to a van or pickup. Beyond that Ford loses them with uncompetitive medium duty offerings and nothing with more than two axles that can pull a single "pup" trailer at best. Daimler understands this, that's why they've got their Mercedes car dealers selling Sprinters!
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Agreed, Medium/Heavy trucks should be just as high a funding priority as EV vans. Ford should really be working on cooking up a new big truck with Cummins upcoming 10 liter diesel and spark ignition engines, the aluminum Super Duty cabs, and at least 3 axles!
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2 hours ago, silvrsvt said:
I doubt we will see a full on econoline replacement that is an EV before the middle of next decade, due to its needed capacities. The Transit EV can deal with the lower end of the market, but might need more range.
Maybe it will be a Transit Connect EV?
I just don’t see the need for anything in the mid range EV wise that the Transit can’t do.
No EV version of either the Ford or VW Transit Connect platforms (yet), but the EV and Hybrid Transit Customs are already engineered and in production. The big Transit's too big to fit under standard 7 foot tall garage doors that a lot of small business Transit buyers have at their homes or shops, creating a market for Transit Custom.
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23 minutes ago, ausrutherford said:
If its the electric van, one wonders what it will be:
1. Replacement for E-Series/Brightdrop competitor
2. Something like the Transit Custom.
Electric van is named in the agreement, Transit Custom sounds most likely but a replacement for the aging Econoline would be nice too.
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As a "van fan", I'm happy to see Ohio Assembly slated to get an EV van, so sounds like we'll be getting the Transit Custom that outsells everything in Great Britain. Thank, UAW!
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How big a vehicle can Flat Rock fit down their lines?
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25 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:
I’ve seen them force retirement before if you’re a big enough fuck up. It was either retire by the end of the day on a certain day or be fire and lose everything. I expect to see far more of that.Per ERISA federal law retirement is an earned benefit that can't be taken away, even if the employee is fired and the firing is sustained.
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5 hours ago, rperez817 said:
U.S. DOT developed a toolkit to help rural communities throughout the U.S. develop the infrastructure associated with successful BEV deployment and adoption. As that infrastructure is built, and as more and more rural Americans enjoy the benefits that BEV provide, the "political football" or "political hate" associated with BEV should abate. Charging Forward: A Toolkit for Planning and Funding Rural Electric Mobility Infrastructure | US Department of Transportation
I'm on a small town city council and have already researched putting in a charger- It's such a bad deal I won't even bring it before the full council.
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2 hours ago, iamweasel said:
This is so off-base......
For the record, the ONLY reason the F-150 is even built at the Rouge is because of Bill Ford. I was one of the managers of that '09-14 F-150 program and when that program started we closed Norfolk and were looking for another place to build it. Tere were other lower-cost options - including some non-UAW facilities. (Namely Mexico.) Bill Ford said no way. They decided to pay a lot more money to make it work in Dearborn.
I keep thinking of those moments during this strike and part of me wishes they'd shut them all down and go non-union across the board. Would be better for the company in the long run.
There have also been proposals over the years to even relocate the HQ out of the country. (Like Eaton when they "moved" to Ireland.) But again, the Ford's won't let it happen even though they know it would be better financially in the long run.
As a person with first hand knowledge, I value your opinion. Ford's paternalism is a two edge sword, and there are many times when they faced down potential losses and did the right thing during WW2 and the polio and COVID-19 epidemics. On the other side of the sword there is a sad legacy of anti-semitism, violent union busting, and now refusing to share Ford's wealth with the workers who created it.
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FoMoCo is just one of UAW's three major employers and hundreds of smaller employers.
Bill Ford may think his paternalism will play well with UAW members, but many know the history of Ford's abusive paternalism before World War II and union recognition, delivered by spying "social workers" and company thugs. The visual of Ford's goons attacking peaceful workers at the Ford Hunger March and Battle of the Overpass is forever seared in their multi generational memories and no Ford is ever going to ever earn their trust, and especially not Bill Ford's latest version of his great grandpa's paternalism.
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And maybe Mach-E, SCCA won't allow a vehicle in autocross if the height is greater than the track width. But if they can get center of gravity data showing it has a stability factor of less than 1.3 they'll allow it and some EVs have been allowed in autocross through that exception.
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Maverick and Escape are allowed in rallycross but not autocross due to their high center of gravity. The only current Ford that is allowed in autocross is the Mustang.
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Focus RS sold at or above list price with long waiting lists. Same now for Golf R and just about any other hot hatch, but Ford's no longer capable of competing in that market.
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Ford sedans/hatches selling on buyer loyalty alone?
Fiestas and Focuses as well as Ford engines in sports and open wheel cars are still very popular in amateur autocross, racing, and rally/cross. Ford needs to give these loyal Ford racers something new to move up to, and a near 2 ton Mustang ain't it.
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Problem with that analogy is that Studebaker had a lot of problems besides labor costs, such as not having the economies of scale and captive suppliers like the Big 3 had.
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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.
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36 minutes ago, akirby said:
Lock them out and give them a 5 day deadline to take the offer back for a vote. Make it hurt everybody and see how much pressure the members can put on leadership. Then start replacements if necessary.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?
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Keep in mind that's not news but an opinion piece.
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8 hours ago, tbone said:
This is starting to feel like when Hostess shut down in 2012 because they couldn’t come to an agreement with the union. It’s not an exact parallel because Hostess was in a more dire financial position, but they told the union they would shut down if they did not reach an agreement, and that’s what happened. Ford may not shut down, but they might be forced to do things drastically different than today, which will be a sad day for me and all those involved.
I used to work for Hostess two decades before when a wholesale bakery of that scale was damn near a license to print money. But believe it or not, inept management managed to (on paper at least) run Hostess in to bankruptcy. The union struck bakeries that Hostess was going to close anyways, and they'd already given Hostess so many concessions that the jobs weren't worth keeping.
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By the end of the upcoming contract all Ford will be making in this country is BOF pickups and 3 row SUVs with an average transaction price pushing $100K... Ford can afford all the UAW workers demands and more!
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I favor more automation- With the current worker shortage automation can be increased relatively painlessly.
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Yup, KTP just walked out... UAW gettin' serious with Ford!
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41 minutes ago, akirby said:
How many Broncos and Rangers got built today?Slavery ended in this country a century and a half ago and Michigan was always and is a free state, thus the workers can not be forced to build Broncos, Rangers, or anything else. Workers have to be paid and they have every right to cease working once the old contract expired and until a new contract has been negotiated that both parties agree too.
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It still seems like getting rid of the Fusion was a mistake.
in Ford Motor Company Discussion Forum
Posted
VW tried that too with a lifted Golf 7 wagon with AWD, I was tracking a couple hundred 2019 models in 2020-21 that weren't selling despite $7500 rebates, then they suddenly disappeared. Turns out a Colorado VW dealer who understood the Suburu market bought them up and had them sold in short order! GM had similar experience with the Buick (Opel) AWD wagon, despite similar big rebates Buick didn't understand the market.