https://www.fordracing.com/motorsport/teams   Oh and Ranger has been a model since 1982…..43 years is enough time don’t ya think?

I recently got a letter from Ford about this recall / customer satisfaction program, saying that a fix is now available for people with broken doors, and a reinforcement kit is available for people whose doors haven't broken yet. "Your vehicle will receive either a reinforcement kit or a full door replacement," it says, and "Ford strongly recommends that you bring your vehicle in for repairs as soon as possible."   I'm in the "doors haven't broken yet," category, so I called my dealer and scheduled an appointment to have the service done. Later in the day, I got a voicemail from the service manager assigned to me, saying that if my doors aren't broken, there's really nothing they can do, and the body shop is backed up 6 weeks for fixing doors. So I canceled the appointment.    A couple weeks went by, and I decided to stop in at the dealer and talk to them. See if I could just schedule an appointment 6 weeks out for the body shop, and take it in on the appointed day. I talked to a different service manager, and she told me it's a whole big process because they contract out their body work to an independent shop. (Which is kind of a surprise, since it's a big dealership in a chain with locations across the country.) She said I'd have to schedule an appointment at the dealer, they'd have to do an inspection, send information to Ford, Ford would have to review the application and then either approve or deny the service, and if they approved it, THEN the dealer could schedule a service with the body shop, which would probably be 2 months out. Plus she said the service is pretty invasive because they have to remove the doors, cut out the door pillars, and weld in new metal to reinforce the check arms. Just the whole way she described the process, every sentence was designed to sound awful and dissuade an owner from wanting to pursue the service.    I'm curious what other people are finding on this check arm reinforcement program? Are you getting similar pushback from other dealers? Are the pre-damage reinforcements being performed readily, or only begrudgingly? The letter said, "Your vehicle *will* receive either a reinforcement kit or a full door replacement" (emphasis mine)... does Ford ever deny the application, if that's what the process really is? What should I do next... insist the dealer do the work? Go to a different dealer? Any thoughts welcome. 

That is a whole lot of mental gymnastics to say you don't like it.  How is a screen, which looks like a flat dash (I haven't seen how it will display information or if it will be overly busy) be less minimalist vs a dash with a bunch of buttons or whatnot on it?   Years back people where bitching about all the buttons on a early 2000 F-150 for example, now we have people bitching about them not having any.  It all boils down to how you interact with your vehicle. The biggest gripe I've had with any recent Ford products I've used is the shitty location of the push start button on the 2020-present Escapes, which seemed like an after thought.  I've been in a higher end Santa Fe and it was a complete shit show IMO-the screens looked nice, but it was far too distracting when you had the turn signals on (with the cameras kicking on showing you what is going on around the car) and the digital review mirror had a slight lag to it. 

Our 87oct E10 jumped from $2999 to 3.079  as Labor Day approached which is typical in our tourist town, but then it went to 3.299 in one leap after the holiday! Our local grocer is the outlier. Are pump priced tied to the futures markets? Around the Twin Cities, we've been seeing swings of 30¢/gal or so over ~30-day period

I love a huge screen in my game room to watch TV but in a car not so much.  We just have different tastes, that’s all.   I tend to like simplicity and find beauty in things with understated elegance.  As example, I prefer to see a beautiful woman not wearing too much makeup, or jewelry or with tattoos.  There’s nothing wrong with these things, it’s just not to my liking or preference.   If you Google minimalist taste, and I’m not saying I’m at that extreme, you’ll see that some people have inherent tastes that are different, and it doesn’t matter how long it’s argued, core preferences against excessiveness won’t change. To me that screen looks too big and is there mostly because it can be, not because it’s needed or serves an important purpose.  Granted, it does look better than one that sticks out like a sore thumb, and is designed like an afterthought. But not by much.  😀      

If this information is correct, and that’s a big “if” in my book, it will definitely test price elasticity of EVs.  A Leaf S starting at $25,360, even though excluding destination and with only +/- 200 miles of range, could appeal to many city drivers for local trips, assuming of course that there are enough EV buyers for real, and not just people claiming they are ready to accept EVs.   $4,630 cheaper than S+ seems a big difference, but its battery is considerably smaller and motor less powerful, plus who knows what else sets them apart that is not covered in specs.   https://www.carsdirect.com/automotive-news/industry-news/2026-nissan-leaf-s-base-price-cut-to-25-360    

Same station, yesterday afternoon 9/05/25, it was $3.04 a gallon for same grade. 

Had a similar issue with my 2005 F150 when a master cylinder to ABS assembly line rusted through and failed. The rear line was available from Ford but the front line was discontinued (weird) I ordered a rear line and "tweaked" it by hand to make it fit, installed and bled, works "good as new". I would think a trip to your local brake or transmission shop could give guidance on a replacement. GLWR.

IIRC, Ford Performance brought the in-house and racing together. Now we have FR...why not?🤷‍♂️