DeluxeStang

Hell yeah, keep us posted.

That's wild, my Ford dealer charges about $30 for oil changes, and is well received. Specifically it's a package deal, 3 for $90.

Maybe we'll get some sightings this month, I'm excited.

At this point, I'm wondering if there's even gonna be an s650 refresh or if we just are gonna go straight into a new generation.

Things are dragging quite a bit. Maybe the hold up with the mustang sedan is they've decided to just release it alongside the next gen coupe previewing both around the same time. That would explain why it's apparently not coming until 2028/29 which lines up with s750 timelines more or less. I don't see them bringing an s650 based sedan to market in 2028, and then immediately making it look outdated by revealing a new coupe with fresher styling. That would torpedo a lot of the appeal for the product. Giving both a fresh new design and releasing at the same time is more logical.

Apparently there's a company that does aftermarket roof panels with extra sound insulation. They're not cheap, but I've heard they're high quality. That could be something you should consider as well. Apparently makes the interior a lot quieter by itself.

Apparently it's about 20% quieter than a normal hardtop bronco. The interior has a really nice, premium look to it. Some of the material colors might take some getting used to, but it's not bad. The 3.0 is a great motor. Exterior wise, it looks classy, I really like small details like the new grille texture, it really elevates the look of the bronco to a more premium level. Overall, really nice addition to the bronco family.

I know lol.

Imo this really doesn't work visually. The bitch back roof for instance just doesn't have that visual sleekness you need to make something like this look good.

How long have we been hearing about a mustang 4 door for? At least since the s550, but I've heard back when the s197 was being developed there were rumors of a 4 door. I wonder what the hang up is. There's clearly demand for it, especially now that the V8 charger is dead. Yet it feels like it's been one of those cars that's been right around the corner for like 10 years lol. Maybe it's a platform limitation, or something else I'm not seeing.

Thunder was always a stupid name. There, I said it, glad they won't be using it.

I'm surprised it's that spacious.

Spot on. Agility, focusing on innovation, excitement, and passion, and I'll add relying more heavily on shared components and platforms. Those are all things that could help Ford reenter the affordable vehicle space in a way that's more compelling and sustainable.

But it's a doorway to full EV driving. When you drive a hybrid, you experience that electric only driving at times, you see how reliable they are, you familiarize yourself with what an electric vehicle feels like even if it has a gas motor still attached. Owners experience that quiet, refined,smooth driving experience for the first time, and they like it. That often lays the mental groundwork for them being more open to considering a pure EV because they enjoy that effortless, smooth driving experience.

At some point, ya got to just let them go. I advocate for a blended strategy. I don't believe Ford should just drive their volume into the ground by focusing purely on profit margin. But I also don't believe they should be building lose leaders just to have a lot of volume. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot. I actually believe these brands that compete on price alone are kinda screwed. Brands like Nissan, and maybe to a lesser extent Kia and Hyundai. Because their built their entire brands around attributes that rivals can duplicate, low cost. Nissan buyers aren't loyal to Nissan, they're loyal to cheap cars. What happens to those buyers when Chinese brands inevitably make their way to the U.S? They're gonna ditch Nissan for BYD or whoever else can undercut Nissan on price. This is why I've been one of the loudest voices on here in favor in Farley's no boring products mantra, leaning into Ford's icons. That not only improves profit margins, it's leaning into a strategy where people are loyal to ford, and it's unique attributes. It's building demand around brand qualities that are harder for rivals to compete with.

Agreed. Apparently Farley has spoken a lot about trying to use skunkworks to speed up the development process and reduce cycle times. So hopefully they're able to apply that across their lineup. Ford really does have an issue with just letting products waste away and then canceling them claiming no-one bought them when they were outdated relative to rivals. Hopefully that component of Ford culture dies out. What's the storage space like with the mach-e? I don't expect it to be on par with our explorer or maverick for obvious reasons, but if it's serviceable, roomy enough for what it is, that's good enough for me.

Agreed, hopefully it's like a case of Ford meets alpine styling instead of just being a jelly bean with rally lights tacked on. But I like the direction, I think it's fun and interesting.

I wonder if this very rapid push to hybrid vehicles will have a trickle down effect to greater EV acceptance down the road. Hybrids are genuinely very common now in a lot of areas, both mild and plug-in. People who never thought they'd own a hybrid now do, and are realizing they actually kinda love it. That electrified vehicles can be smooth, reliable, and improvement over pure ICE. I could see a lot of those hybrid owners who like the refinement making the jump to full EVs as they become more affordable and easier to live with. My parents were anti anything electrified, they thought it would be a hassle and unreliable. They love my maverick and are fully on the hybrid train now. Now my mom is strongly considering a full EV, a full 180 from where she was a few years ago. She loves the mach-e. She doesn't really view it as this boogieman tech anymore. We probably won't get the CE1 truck just because it sounds similar to my maverick and I don't see the point of having two similarly sized trucks, and I like my maverick too much to trade it in, unless it shits the bed in a major way. But we're following other CE1 develops very closely. A mach-e style utility or some sort of hatchback/sedan if it's well executed has a high likelihood of being purchased by us.

Agreed, it felt like BS had a lot of effort put into it's styling, and the escape was just put into a microwave. I feel like there's a way to do curvey styling that's more enticing. Heck, just look at Ford's European strategy now where they're gonna pull styling from rally cars. Even something like that could give escape styling a shot in the arm so to speak.

To each their own. But again, I think that comes back to blob vs. curvy. Yes, blob crossovers have some curves, but they look like a potato on wheels. There's really no strong, emotional shapes or curves, it's just a lump. I agree, those designs aren't ideal. But I see blob designs completely differently than I do curved designs. Like a mach-e is swoopy, but every surface is muscular and sculpted which is why it works imo. The hood, fenders, roofline all have character, and for that reason, the mach-e is one of the most easily identifiable utilities on the roads. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. It's kinda like with boxy styling, you have some designs that look really good, and some that look awful. The cyber truck and sante fe for instance are both flatter vehicles with basic surfacing that look terrible. But look at a 4 door bronco or Rivian and notice how good they look. It's because the surfaces are intentional, they're stylized. A bronco body side surface is actually pretty layered instead of just being perfectly flat, that's why it works. It's all about execution, there's a way to make boxy and curvy designs look good, or horrible depending on how good the designers are.

I respectfully disagree. I view styling like powertrain choice. I believe most of us would agree that having only EV, or only ICE, or only hybrids is a mistake because you're not setting your product apart from others, and you're not hedging against inevitable changes in the industry. When everything is an ev, EVs lose that special uniqueness. Its like that with styling, but to an even more extreme degree. Everything is a boxy utility now. Ford offers a lot of boxy utilities, the expedition, explorer, bronco, and BS, they're pretty covered. I'll add doing boxy rugged utilities is the in thing right now that virtually every brand is doing, it's the trend, no longer the thing that differentiates because everyone is doing it. Ford should offer a variety of styling, more traditional timeless designs with their icons like bronco and mustang, more radical and futuristic designs with their EVs. Some boxy, some curvy. So that instead of having this generic lineup where everything is just a boxy design with similar cues and they just vary in size, you have this rich vibrance where you can buy a sexy coupe suv, or a boxy rugged badass off-road bronco, or a mustang with muscle car design, or a futuristic looking hatchback EV. That's my dream, one where every Ford model is special because it does something differently than the other. By comparison, a future where everything is a box and the only thing setting them apart is one is a foot longer than the other, that does nothing for me, Ford deserves better than that.

To each their own, the mach-e is a super attractive utility imo. It looks better than a lot of the boxy utilities to my eye. Things like the bronco look good, but the sante Fe is an example of boxy designs looking like warmed over ass. It's not really the form structure, boxy or curvy, but rather the execution that impacts the attractiveness. There are good and bad looking examples from both camps.

I personally view the mach-e as one of Ford's best looking utilities. Which is why I would prefer a design that sticks close to that. The design of the mach-e has been a huge win for it, so I think Ford should apply that to other models. I also don't really view curvy styling as a risk if it looks sporty and attractive, blob curvy styling is another matter entirely. I believe Ford already has the boxy ute audience pretty well covered with BS, the full sized bronco, and expedition. Even the explorer is pretty boxy. I don't believe escape should become a boxy shape because that hurts its differentiation if it's like the rest of Fords utility designs. Having a mix of boxy and curvy gives each product its own identity, differentiates it, and hedges bets against changes in consumer styling preferences.

I wonder what they'll do differently with the styling to make the escape more appealing again. I've heard some say make it boxy like the BS. With rumors that the mach-e is gonna become an ICE crossover, I kinda wanna see a crossover with evolved mach-e styling cues that's an in-betweener, smaller than the current mach-e, maybe a little longer than the current escape. Something that retains a similar look,and remains an EV so mach-e buyers who want to stick with an EV have something that appeals to them. But escape buyers also have something sleeker and sportier than the current escape that's worth buying. Maybe ditch the mustang branding, ignore the mustang logo in this rendering lol. But a CE1 crossover like this would be awesome. people can buy a boxy utility like the BS if they want, or a sleeker coupe cross.

To be fair, it seems like they were screwed either way. This looks clunky with all the body cladding, but like you mentioned, would look fat without it. Some models make the contrast cladding work well visually, like the mach-e. Others, well they look like this.