Just came across this. I never heard of it, but when I told a buddy of mine about it, he knew all about it and how it worked! Bob or 7M probably do.    Some Old British Trucks Had One Of The Weirdest Diesel Engine Designs You've Never Heard Of - The Autopian

Ford Europe’s management fell into the trap of staying just ahead of ever tightening emissions regs and you are so right, this has been coming for a long time. A lot of it was home room tribalism where any changes requested by other areas was met with scorn and flat out refusal.    

There was a problem with the computer not learning that a battery replacement happened. I think there were two ways to reset this. I had the dealer check mine out too and they told me everything was fine but it was not. I did the "battery replace learn" procedure and it fixed it temporarily but i do sit after driving very often with doors open, etc as my job requires me to wait a lot for people. I finally broke down and purchased a group 48 AGM battery on my own dime and then did the full reset of computer for the battery replacement and now I have not had this issue any more. (except when expected, like I leave an interior light on, or work on something with the doors open for a long period of time which keeps lots of lights on.  

This is a high voltage PHEV lithium battery issue. The initial post was about the 12v accessory battery that runs all the electronics..  

Out here in the middle of nowhere, 30 miles north of Mexico the closest thing to a limo we have are the Border Patrol Transit Vans.  

Agreed, so many cool vehicles on display in there. I didn't realize how much I wanted a Ford '49 concept until I saw them walking around it, that looks so cool. 

Too bad it's not open to the public.  I'd love to take a walk-through.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/new-ford-heritage-fleet-cars-concepts/   I'm surprised Ford didn't have something like this until recently. Their reasoning behind having all these models together, to inspire future Ford models, is a fantastic idea.    If these are the sorts of cars Ford's designers and engineers are taking inspiration from moving forward, Ford's days ahead are very bright. 

I saw a YouTube video of a technician dealing with the same fume problem but on a Explorer. Customer had been to several repair shops without success. The tech used a smoke machine to pipe smoke into the car interior. The smoke eventually started to seep out around the rear hatch. I  don't recall if the hatch was twisted a little bit or the latch needed adjusting. Maybe suggest this to the next dealer. My old body shop buddy used to check for a tight seal by closing the door or hatch in question on a dollar bill. By holding a dollar bill by one end and closing the door/hatch on the bill and then pull on the dollar bill. You should meet with significant resistance. Repeat the procedure every few inches all the way around the opening. Can't help with the tranny clunk. Good luck.   Dave.

Just another reason why I don't buy new cars.