DeluxeStang

What are your thoughts on something like a mach-e? Like an actual mustang SUV? My folks are currently planning for retirement, and after a lifetime of being frugal and responsible, I'm trying to convince them to get something special for themselves. It's kinda a toss up between a 4 door bronco and a base c8 at the moment. Both are icons with open air capabilities, but that's where it ends. We live in Utah at the moment, but the winters here are very mild, it's December and still in the 40s/50s with zero snow on the ground, so having a RWD sports car isn't a huge issue. We already own an SUV and a truck, so I'm kinda trying to steer them towards a sports car. My dad has mobility issues in his early 70s, so it would be a challenge, but it would probably also be hard for him to step up into a bronco, he's gonna struggle either way. My mom only being 5'1 would probably like owning a low slung sports car, and loves the c8 every time she sees one. Plus the c8 will probably retain it's resale value better than the bronco. But it'll probably be less reliable long term, and more expensive to maintain. So it's definitely a series of trade offs.

I've actually said that exact thing myself with the mustang gt3. Just evolving the proportions of the mustang but trying to keep the essence of it. My ideal take on a next gen mustang design would be something with the lines of a 1967 gt 500, but with the proportions of a Lexus LC 500, and the surfacing of an Aston Martin. Trying to retain that muscle car feel, but moving it in a more evocative direction.

Fascinating, that's one of those things where you wouldn't immediately think that way, you wouldn't automatically assume the bronco appealed to a lot of mustang enthusiasts. But the more you think about it, the more sense it starts to make, a lifestyle heritage model from Ford with retro styling, and relatively decent performance for the money. There's a lot of overlap there. I think Farley has been watching the market pretty closely, and is seeing there's relatively resilient for a performance sedan both among enthusiast consumers, and groups like police fleets who are still using chargers and starting to buy mustang GTS more.

Cheap is basically built to the lowest standard possible, to be as cheap to buy as a new car could be. Affordable is basically making a car great value for what it offers, but not necessarily the lowest price. Like using cars I've owned as an example, I had a 2009 Kia Rio. That was a car that was like 11 grand brand new, but frankly was a shit box. It wasn't super unreliable, the powertrain didn't have a single issue in 13 years and 110k miles. But it had a lot of smaller issues like if you parked and turned it off with the wheels turned, the key wouldn't turn in the ignition when you went to restart it. So you'd have to wrestle the wheel as straight as possible and then try to start it. Basically just a lot of issues over time that made you say "Wow they cheaped out on everything". Like hand crank windows and door locks, my entire door was about as thick as the door panel on my 2017 explorer, just didn't feel safe. The steering wheel would shake back and forth violently at highway speeds. Just not a great ownership experience. Whereas my maverick hybrid, I would call that an affordable car. It wasn't cheap, it was significantly more expensive than my Rio, I bought one of the first hybrids and it was about 28k for my XLT after registration and sales tax with a few options. Despite being more than twice the price of the rio, it feels like better value. Like a maverick doesn't feel like a shit box. It doesn't feel like a luxury car, but I feel like I'm getting more dollar for dollar in terms of value than I did with my Rio.

They left it open ended when asked at that reveal event if it could accommodate other kinds of powertrains which implies they're at least thinking about it.

Yeah I'm digging it. If you kinda split the difference between this, and the s650, and landed somewhere in the middle, that's kinda the styling direction I'd like to see the mustang go in, it just has a ton of road presence. As for price, people are quoting 120k for the road car in multiple articles which wouldn't be terrible to be honest. But I don't know if that's a price Toyota has actually thrown out there, or if it's just speculation.

It'll be interesting to see if CE1 style designs can accommodate ICE powertrains. A potential packaging issue is if the truck and other models have a cab forward, short hood look, it might be really challenging to package an ICE powertrain and other necessary items in there in a way that doesn't make it an absolute nightmare to work on.

Will we see the return of the 13k Ford fiesta? I strongly doubt it. Do I believe this increases the likelihood of Ford bringing a new fusion here that starts at under 30k? Yeah I do.

Agreed, Ford should apply much of what they learned during the engineering and manufacturing process of CE1 and carry as much of that over to their ICE offerings as possible.

This is why politicians need to be more consistent with regulations. Automakers need a semblance of stability, to know where the industry is going in, and that just feels almost impossible to predict right now.

Kinda like how I wouldn't want to market a mustang by calling it a real hit with the crowds.

It's well documented that strict emissions regulations played a sizable role in brands like Ford phasing out smaller, affordable cars over time, it was just too difficult to make money on them. I wonder if they'll be thinking about bringing some of those models back to the states with these changes.

Yep. Then you have that SCEecoboost dipshit who is like obsessed with being negative on every article FA writes. Like he's a prime example of the kind of person you can't please. He keeps saying bring back sedans, but was also bitching about Ford offering a new affordable EV performance sedan, and a mustang sedan, it's so stupid. If Ford made a new affordable gas powered sedan, he'd complain that it was turbocharged, and if it was naturally aspirated, he'd complain about it being underpowered. I'm a huge car enthusiast, but I'm getting kinda tired of these sorts of people. I'm just thrilled about the prospect of a sedan making a return, even better if it's something sporty. Far too many people just can't be satisfied these days.

https://www.carscoops.com/2025/12/the-man-who-gave-us-the-ford-gt-and-f-150-raptor-is-building-his-own-all-terrain-hypercar/ Just putting the pieces together, this thing sounds very similar to what Farley has described. This vehicle is backed by a "massive" car company, the article doesn't say who. The guy who co-founded the company was a Ford engineer for decades who worked on the Ford GT and raptor, and presumably still has connections at ford. They also say we'll learn more about this product in early 2026, Ford's revealing a new performance car in January. So all in all, I say there's at least a small chance this is that off-road supercar we've been hearing about, and Ford partnered with an external source to help develop it, maybe Multimatic had too much going on and couldn't help so they turned to another partner. They're describing it as a car with hypercar levels of performance on-road, and off-road capabilities. It'll be interesting to see how they're able to combine really impressive on-track performance with off-road capabilities all in one product, not many vehicles have offered that.

Sounds interesting. The current Honda CRV looks pretty attractive, and kinda has that boxy, yet slightly rounded look to it, not super far off what the explorer styling offers. Something like this with a bit more flair would be a welcome change.