Not by much - I get your reservation about buying from a traditional dealership, but "two step" distribution has been around for decades and has worked well. When some "less than ethical" principals get into the mix, it can create chaos in the entire distribution chain, but when it works well, everybody makes a decent living and all is good.  

They are commodities and not only was Escape too expensive they totally blew the styling.  As much as I hate to admit it, daughter's Rav4 is a far better vehicle and has a low cost platform.   Ford really had to start over so cancelling Edge and Escape might end up being a great move if we get better replacements.

This is what I'm talking about. I won't deny for a second that trucks and SUVs are very popular, because they are. I just believe you're going to see smaller vehicles start to make a comeback, partially due to their lower prices, and partially because there's less need to have a large vehicle with a lot of cargo space if you know you're gonna have 1 or 2 kids instead of 5. It doesn't matter now because it's not like teens are buying new cars, but I've seen a lot of younger people sticking with sedans and hatchbacks even as they move to a new car purchase. So I don't believe they should be ignored provided Ford can appeal to affordable car buyers in a way that's profitable using CE1.    I also believe aero and technical requirements are gonna start to push us back towards lower vehicles as well. Just look at CE1 and other affordable EVs. Farley has talked about how they couldn't turn a profit on gas powered sedans and hatchbacks, but how the really clean aero of a sedan/hatchback suits this affordable, small EV use case really well and makes a lot of sense. Aero is pushing us towards rooflines becoming lower, and sleeker, ride heights becoming lower, front areas being reduced, more emphasis on sleek design over boxy upright design. All to meet areo targets.    I believe there are some cases where areo should be sacrificed slightly in favor of great design, like with bronco or mustang, the most important thing is that they look as good as possible, even if there's an aero penalty. But with these affordable EVs where it's all about reducing drag, I could see the boxier, more upright look being phased out over time. But we'll see. 

Maybe one was quoted with 93 octane, one with 87?  Both do say "max avail.", though, so not likely.   In the end, does it matter?  Would you have still purchased it if it had "only" 385 HP and you knew it?  Are you ever even going to use all 385 HP anyway, let alone 400 HP?  That's less than 4% difference, and you wouldn't notice that small amount unless you're running the 1/4" track regularly (and you can lose 4% based on weather conditions anyway).  It's splitting hairs and it's really not worth the added stress of worrying about it (IMHO of course).   I tow 12k+ lbs with my Super Duty, and I can never remember how many HP it has.  I think it's 475, but maybe its 450?  It doesn't matter, it does what I want it to do and then some, so I direct my worry to more important things in life.

That may be, but on December 19, 2025, their website said 400hp.  I got a copy of our window sticker on January 06, 2026.   They were still claiming 400hp on their website as of February 10, 2026.  Their current Build and Price says 400hp.   It is unclear to me what our power rating is, but I believed it was 400hp at the time of purchase based on the info I had available to me at that time.    

and thats bit them in the ass post Covid....look what happened to bronco Raptors and Expeditions for example...the higher the MSRP the smaller the market. I agree, Ford sat back and watched the addendums and looked in the mirror thinking they werent charging enough for their cars....now the market has basically returned to normality and the higher MSRPs killed sales...so they dropped them 10 -12k. Heck the Darkhorse is overpriced...to the extent theres a 3k rebate on a supposed limited edition.... the SC may be different as its likely the supply will be severely constrained...but $170k???? and regardless...there will STILL be ADMs....( and sincerely, there will probably be less than 8k markup in the car...THATS part of the reason Dealers put addendums on them ) I dont condone ADMs but I fully understand why some Dealers utilize them...

It was kind of implied that the two row Utility market had become commodity vehicles which is sad because in the past, Ford was more than capable of supplying vehicles that could compete and make money. The 10% return edict was introduced to cut vehicles  that made no financial sense to Ford but would previously support dealer sales and service centres with ongoing work.  

I thought I saw somewhere that this was emissions related?