I'm of the mind that the boondoggle that was the Lightning should curb dealers marking the Fathom way up. As long as production can exceed initial demand, it won't make sense for dealers to mark them up. When the Mavericks came out, as we all remember, Ford couldn't build them fast enough to cover the demand. If you found one that was available on a lot, it was one that 1. was ordered and declined for whatever reason, 2. the dealer "put in a retail order" for a person they knew wasn't going to take the unit, or 3. if the dealer was shady, they "oops" sold an ordered unit. #1 was fairly common, we had a hybrid First Edition that was ordered, sat in the showroom for a few months while the buyer was out of state, then when he got back, he realized he couldn't swing the payments. A couple hours later it was sold at $7000 over sticker, and there was a race for sales guys calling people on their waiting lists. Was the markup uncalled for? No, it was a very high demand vehicle that people were willing to pay over sticker to get. Am I a fan of Additional Dealer Markup (ADM) or Market Adjustments? No, but it's part of the car world, and it's really the flip side of rebates and dealer price markdowns (See * below). #2, Ford kept that pretty straight with their order verification process. Most dealers weren't willing to risk overall allocation loss by faking retail orders. X-percent of ordered vehicles were required to be delivered to the individual on the order. When #1 scenario happened, you'd have to deliver to another name, so that's your percentage of ones that didn't go to the ordering individual. #3, I heard of a few cases but didn't see any around me.  * There's plenty of times I'd be perfectly happy if all vehicles were just sold at MSRP flat. No rebates, no weird program incentives, and no "market adjustment" increases. But most of the time those adjustments are DOWN rather than up. For buyers, generally a market adjustment is well in their favor. Ford actually had guidance on how to post the pricing, and the wording to put on social media. More of a directive than guidance, actually. "Ford's newest midsize electric truck has a name: Ford Fathom . We're excited to announce the name of our all-new electric truck, focused on affordability and accessibility for a wide range of lifestyles and needs. At a starting MSRP of $28,350* with the standard-range battery, the Ford Fathom truck is accessible to more customers. Preorders will begin in early 2027. Stay tuned for more details. *Starting MSRP is for base model and excludes taxes, title, registration, fees and a $1,595 destination and delivery charge."   Funny thing is that they just had a continuing education class we had to take on AI use. Their own wording and formatting screwed up being able to do a simple copy and paste. Some words wouldn't copy, and spacing/paragraph returns were weird.   This is a good find, especially knowing Ford loves dropping Easter Eggs. Vapor Blue is a current color, and one that was already in the paint sprayers at Louisville Assembly. The peach color could be our first look at the Birch Sand color coming on the F-150, or it could be something new. I think it's too light and pastel to be Iron Sands Copper Quartz from the Filson Bronco. The green is tough. It's too light to be Wild Green, too dark to be Avalanche. Maybe the return of Cactus Gray? Super throwback to Bohai Bay Mint Metallic? Something new? Ford currently has 24 paint colors for 2027, and they haven't released the colors for the Bronco Sport, Maverick, Mustang, Mustang Mach-E, Ranger, or Fathom yet. Typically they've got 32-37 colors across the models in a particular year, so I suspect there's going to be several colors brought forward from 2026, several that go dormant, and several new colors. 2027 colors confirmed so far are: Agate Black, Avalanche , Birch Sand, Blue Ember, Bronze Fire, Carbonized Gray, Dark Matter Gray, Desert Sand, Field Green, Glacier Gray, Iconic Silver, Iron Sands Copper Quartz, Marsh Gray, Neptune Blue, Nocturnal Blue, Oxford White, Race Red, Ruby Red, Shadow Black, Shelter Green, Star White, Vapor Blue, Wild Green 2026 colors not yet seen on 2027 models are: Adriatic Blue, Antimatter Blue, Argon Blue, Azure Gray, Eruption Green, Grabber Blue, Ingot Silver, Molten Magenta, Orange Fury, Rapid Red, Robin's Egg Blue/Light Blue, Wimbledon White, Stone Blue, Velocity Blue, Space Silver, Space White

To be fair, we don't know official numbers, but still...

I'd like to see them all under one roof. The first Blue Bird bus was on a Ford chassis. I'd like to see the blue oval logo on ALL Blue Bird buses. Then you'd have the Freightliner/Thomas Bus, the International/IC bus, and the Ford/Blue Bird bus. You'd see the BLUE Ford oval and the BLUE Bird logo! Tell me I'm wrong, but I've said this before: Parents waiting for the bus to bring their children to and from school would see the Ford  name and later the blue oval logo on B-series buses. I believe these parents bought Fords for their own vehicles.  It formed a trust. The same thing applied to seeing the Ford name/logo on fire apparatus at parades. And think about it. IC and Thomas don't sell cars and pickups! They gain nothing in additional sales of other vehicles. Only Ford would!

Kind of embarrassing when the Nissan leaf offers 303 miles of range for $30k and they aren’t even using some new manufacturing process to lower costs like ford is.

Following up your question.....Borg directly addressed AWD:     To add more details. Base gets you RWD and 200 Miles of range. Add $2K for AWD (like Tesla), and about $3-4K for extended range which is around 280-300 miles. So around $40K for loaded, I’d estimate. I’m estimating the extended battery price based on Mach E, which is over $4K but larger and more expensive than the standard range LFP packs.     200 eh?  hmmm.............sounds low.   I guess Slate has 205 standard with less space.....I'm just worried about how people will react to it, especially since real-world numbers likely won't hit that figure.

Yeah, it's definitely seeming like that repeated usage of color hints at them being either paint or interior accent options. I also wonder if that image pattern with the rounded rectangles and circles hints at either a faux grille pattern (mixed messages on that one), or perhaps a speaker grille pattern or something.   Or maybe I'm grasping at straws lol.     Ford already has set a precedence with this with Bronco of the panels that can be swapped out.  I could see them offering them on this product to capture some of the customization options Slate has (also helps with the "passion" mantra by letting people pick "their" color).  Now they have to just not overcharge for the parts.......

Blue Bird To Take Over Ford Commercial Stripped Chassis Development   Ford and Blue Bird - an American bus manufacturer - have long enjoyed a fruitful relationship, with the latter utilizing Blue Oval engines for its school buses, while also debuting a new stripped chassis model with Ford V8 power back in early 2025. Now, that relationship is set to expand even further, as Blue Bird has announced that it will assume responsibility for the design, manufacturing, and sales of the next-generation Ford F-53 and F-59 commercial stripped chassis. As part of this deal, Blue Bird will acquire the Detroit Assembly Plant assets of Detroit Chassis LLC, which has been manufacturing the F-53 and F-59 stripped chassis platforms for quite some time now. Production of the next-generation versions of those platforms is expected to begin in early 2028, and Ford will continue to service and support those models at its dealer network in an effort to provide a seamless transition for customers.

They should offer colors like Mopar did in the muscle car era.  As my daughter likes to point out, car colors are boring, they need more vibrant selections.  Probably because she drives our old MkC, which is black on black.  If these new, cheap, EV's are intended for a younger audience, make them appeal to the younger audience.

2.7EB uses timing chains up front.  Not a wet belt like the 1.0EB.   The 2.7EB has a small wet belt in the back that runs the oil pump.  But it rarely fails.  It only runs the oil pump.  It's quite short so it doesn't need a guide.  The guide is what typically failed on the 1.0EB and caused the belt to shred.  The shreds would get stuck in the oil pick up and clog it.  Causing no oil being sent to the system.  Odds of that happening on the 2.7EB is very remote.

I got a email inviting me to reserve one, uh no. Fathom is a ridiculous name. It is an antiquated nautical term equivalent to six feet. Even Skunk Truck would’ve been better, or “F’o’c’sle”. While Ford was busy laying off people, they could have broomed the naming convention folks; Mach-e and now Fathom. Horatio Hornblower would be proud, though. ⛴️