GTwannabe

It appears Ford's competition has not been sitting around with their thumbs up their posteriors after all... From a practical perspective, 8-speed autos will help GM/Chrysler V8's with variable displacement spend more time in 4 cylinder mode.

I'll pay to import 1000 T6 Ranger Wildtraks and hang out on Ford lots. When someone comes in to test drive an F-150, I'll give them a free Wildtrak.

Can't see the grille, but it definitely looks like a Mazda BT-50.

For less than the cost of a factory "payload package" you can bolt in an airbag kit and/or helper springs and HD rear shocks.

But Fiat 500 has a 100% conquest rate! :reading:

Don't know any boat owners, do you? FWD-based SUV/CUV vehicles can't tow anywhere near 7400lbs.

SHO is just a Taurus trim level. If it was the "Ford SHO", I would agree with you.

It did. Ranger sold 350k units in 99. 2011 F-150 sales were about the same (just F-150, not F-series). The decline was pretty linear as the design aged and new Rangers had to compete with a glut of mechanically identical Rangers on the used market.

You realize that 50% conquest rate on Flex is a whopping 15k sales, right? Also, how many 2011 Explorer buyers recently "defected" from the competition but owned Explorers in the past?

So do SVT Cobra owners get upset when they see SVT Raptors and SVT Lightnings and SVT Focii?

A jug of urea (diesel exhaust fluid) is ~$15 at Walmart and shouldn't need to be refilled until the next scheduled oil change. More irritating would be the limited number of stations that even carry diesel and waiting for the ONE diesel pump to free up (usually sandwiched between a pair of gas pumps).

Nose looks too much like a Land Rover for my tastes.

"Sport" models can be quite lame:

Imagine what 2011 F-150 sales numbers would have been had it received the same treatment as Ranger:

Color is OK, but would look better with the BOSS graphics since the originals were also pastel colors.

Not surprising... people spend that on Grand Cherokees all the time.

Sport Trac's puny 4' bed didn't help either.

Not gonna happen. Look how many people these days "need" an SUV/CUV when all they haul is a family of 4. When I was a kid, we got by just fine with small sedans. But buyers today want high seating positions and tons of space, so they buy CUV's instead of compacts with 30% better fuel economy.

Explorer platform is probably too heavy and expensive for that. It would have the same problem as the last gen Sport Trac (priced too close to F-150 S-crew)

Actually, Frontier sales are getting a big boost from the recent Nissan ad campaign. Dealer inventory levels are way up (local dealers have 10+ new on the lot vs. average of 2 last year.) I think NV van sales have reduced pressure to push the poor selling Titan. Really like the Fronty PRO-4X so far; it's basically a baby FX4, but with a 6-speed manual. Would have preferred Ecoboost 2.0/4-pot turbodiesel and a few more inches of rear leg room, but that's a T6.

You forgot Nissan: If Ford had promised *something* in the next 2 years (T6, mid-size F-150/Transit derivative, new Exploder Sport Trac), I would have waited. GM might want to keep their most loyal customers, hence the Colorado announcement.

They squeaked by crash testing, but Indian engineering failed miserably on the EPA mileage test. Only got 20mpg city/highway. They promised 30mpg highway. Then they shafted the importer by backing out of the agreement to supply the knockdown kits.

Those of us who actually BUY trucks do not cross-shop small utilities... at all. Can't haul firewood? Useless. Can't make it down a muddy hunting trail or carry a deer without trashing the interior? Useless. Can't tow a modest trailer/boat? Useless.

Awful cartoonish grille... like a cross between Honda CRV and Finding Nemo.

Clearly, you have never heard an SVO motor with 3" downpipe/exhaust and an A237 cam. Mine had a very throaty, loping idle and screamed beautiful music at full boost.