You forgot M-tex in Midland Texas.  They have a shitload of F250s.........

If ads are so important then how did Ford sell 1.5M vehicles last year without them?  Lack of ads doesn't make them any less of a commercial success.   Some buyers are brand loyal like my brother in law who only buys F350s for 7 crews and himself.   Others just want the best price.  For most of them this is not their first or truck and they know what they want or don't want.  

Yea, that's the Ford MO. And you are right that value for the consumer is nonexistent in this case.   The Ford big shots who thought of this strategy are pretty dang clever. De-content to reduce costs, sell accessories/aftermarket parts that fix the de-contenting (from the consumer's perspective) to increase revenue. They're probably gettin' a nice bonus this year!

Here's the breakdown for the 10 largest commercial vehicle fleets in the U.S.    

Well again, my contention is most class 7 and lower sales are to the people you describe-small business trade people/contractors.  Do the Verizons, Comcasts, (7M3's employer) of the world place large orders for class 4/5 trucks?  Yes but I'm talking about the thousands of businesses in this country that buy these lower classes in support of their business.    I have to say, the only large fleet orders I see for class 6 and 7 Fords are UPS and Enterprise Rentals.

99.9% of buyers don't care and most never open the hood.  I've had prop rods on multiple vehicles and they never bothered me.

1.3 can't be upgraded to 1.5 so you are stuck with what you have.

I did have to have my 2018 Mustang Ecoboost reflashed at about 42,000 miles.  No problems since then.  I’m at 96,000 miles now. 

They're a mixed bag imo. I genuinely like how the new telluride looks. The k9 also looks really good imo. 

called it from the get go and copped flak for it...they went all in on EV ( including battery factories ) and shot themselves in the foot...cost them a LOT of money, GOVT pressure didnt help in the slightest either...you get into bed with the Devil youll have consequences, not sure the figure is accurate, but rumor was Ford was losing 50k on each Mach E...again, sounds incredibly inflated, but losing copious amounts on moola on specific vehicles just to appease, is not a good business decision...Toyota played it a LOT better, and maybe the best in the Automobile kingdom, but I think Fords learnt a valuable lesson, licked their wounds and will respond well...fingers crossed.