Thats 2 more than I’ve seen, and I live in the land of a-plan

Sometimes it has a to be spelled out because a lot of folks still don’t understand this “Ford logic” progressively eliminating the V6 from Explorer, then call it a commodity vehicle like the old Crown Vic.

Agreed.  It would be foolish to throw it away now.

I don’t know that is entirely true anymore. With the pull back on EV’s, I think there is development potential for Ford with this platform to underpin next generation Explorer and maybe midsize crossover. Ford certainly isn’t going to pay develop another non-EV platform. 

I think that’s a given.

Sadly, for Explorer (and Aviator) it sits on an orphaned chassis.....This eras Panther chassis all over again.

Yeah, a good idea to temper expectations.  IIRC Farley mentioned skunkworks team was very successful in lowering R&D costs (30 cents on the dollar), but I don’t recall much detail suggesting the new vehicles would be that much cheaper than competition.

Because they hired a lot of outside talent from Tesla, Luckd, Rivian and Apple.  These aren’t typical Ford engineers.

Having an all-new Mustang inspired by early models is not to say it must be retro per se..  Not to me anyway, though I can see some not differentiating.  To me it’s more about capturing the original’s essence.  To be honest, I don’t normally like cars that are retro-looking, so not looking for a 65 convertible knockoff. 

Oh God lol. Even as someone born in '94 who's early childhood was influenced by the new edge, I want to get past those days lol. I get the 90s are the trendy thing right now, but once you get past nostalgia, it wasn't a good period for mustang design compared to 2005-present and 1965-1970. I firmly believe mustang is one of those cars where designers need to ask themselves "Will these still look great at a car show decades from now?" 60s styling does, 80s and 90s styling, not so much lol.