Agree, China helped Lincoln, the below is not aimed at you by the way, advanced apology for the “rant”
Initially, the plan was for Western and Asian carmakers to partner with a local Chinese brand
but back then, the Chinese loved those foreign brands more than the local domestic products.
With the coming of hybrids and electric vehicles, the Chinese government support for them,
the tables have now been switched.
IMO, China’s domestic car market is now fools gold for anyone but Tesla and Chinese brands,
Ford had all this time to develop affordable hybrid and electric vehicles for China and export
to near Asian markets but instead, it doubled down trying to crack the Chinese market.
Maybe the answer is setting up production of RHD & LHD of C2 products in Thailand for
sales in the region and just skip China completely, I just hope they do something soon.
Maybe two or three vehicles in the one plant would make for a viable business plan….
Texasota is exactly right. China is the largest automotive market in the world. Every manufacturer wanted to be part of that. Plus investors and stockholders demanded it.
Ford and many other auto manufactures found the allure of a market with 1.4 billion consumers impossible to resist. Unfortunately, it did not turn out so well with the forced technology transfer and outright IP theft.
IIRC the growth potential in China was estimated to be huge and the profit potential was too big to ignore. But like a lot of things it fizzled out.
At least we got a new Nautilus out of it.
If you build it right they ride pretty decent. It's not going to handle like a sports car, but it's comfortable. There's not much lift on this one, it might be 1-2" above stock. The 7.3 psd is indestructible. I think this year of truck looks perfect with a 37" tire so that's what I have on it. This body style is a 27-32 year old truck at this point, so problem solving and mechanical ability are recommended if you want to rely on one for a daily driver... but it's cheap and simple when something goes wrong.
What are these things like to live with? I'm not gonna lie, someone down my street has a four door, lifted with some gear in the back. I usually can't stand lifted trucks, but theirs is almost, dare I say, tasteful, as is yours. I've thought about making an offer on it, it appears to be in really good shape, the exterior looks basically flawless.
If I were in charge it would have never started.
Wait, so you want me to partner with a Chinese company to be able to sell in your market, share all my knowledge and methods and get nothing in return? Yeah that’s a horrible deal.