He's local to us here, wasn't uncommon to see him in the local advance auto when grabbing parts a while back. Cool dude. My buddy painted, I think it was a lime green fiesta ST, that Vaughn used to just beat the crap out of on his uncle's property right up the road from here. Another buddy that did plastidip did some stuff for him too. Haven't seen him a while but the RTR stuff is legit.

The TTB was not "bad" per se....just needed to be serviced at a higher interval - 30K miles vs 50K-75K for competing models of the same era. 

Ford tried Twin Traction Beam on Super Duty before reverting to solid front axle so there is something to be said for simplicity on occasion.  😀   Agree that a solid front axle seems highly unlikely for a new RAM mid-size 4WD truck but who knows?  That just would not make sense to me because it limits electrification options.  If future pickups are designed to be built as PHEV and or EREV, not to mention BEV, then a solid front axle is too limiting from powertrain perspective.   Also curious of what engine options are being considered for an ICE variant, if ICE is even a possibility.  The Gladiator was to get a hybrid version but that was walked back.  Presently Gladiator has Pentastar and 8-speed but at some point the old V6 was to be discontinued.  Also curious if RAM will add a V8 option like original Dakota offered which set it apart from smaller pickups like Ranger.  I recall a 318 V8 was a big deal for Dakota when first introduced.  The twin turbo I-6 may be a possibility in lieu of a naturally aspirated V8 but that would likely exceed $30k price target.  Perhaps as higher-cost high-performance option?  Whatever they come up with let’s hope it’s more fuel efficient than Gladiator.  Should be interesting to follow.

I see the creation of Ford Model E and the assembly tree way of building cars as "watershed moments" in Ford's storied history of striking out in a new direction when everyone else is doing "what the market expected"....CE1 should build out a solid base for EV adoption, but by no means does that mean Ford should turn their back on Ford Blue...the next 24-26 months will be an interesting time in the history of Ford. 

That’s a great question.  That would be a very Bronco thing to do that Jeep purists would have a heart attack about.  

Just an observation, The alliance with VW was pitched as a way of both manufacturers saving money by using each others platforms but by far, Ford has made a fortune selling badge engineered Transits and Rangers to VW, allowing VW to close the Hannover plant and save a bundle on next generation platforms and German Labor costs. In turn, VW sells a minuscule amount of Caddys to Ford, and even fewer MEB supplies.   By the looks of it, Ford has taken VW to school on generating income.

Nothing focus corporate attention more than the mounting costs of recalls, Ultimately, this is all Ford’s own doing be it manufacturing or supplier defects. If you don’t want to keep bleeding money, fix the processes that lead to this.   People go on about recall costs but I have to imagine that the massive increases in prices since 2020 have given Ford strong profits but yes, coming at a cost to both the bottom line and reputation..   Anyone notice that GM recently took a $1.5 billion charge against its EVs, thinking Ford might have similar paper write downs coming in the near future.

Why not build both a dodge/ram version and an upscale version for jeep. GM seems to do just fine with 3-4 version of the GMT line. 

thanks for info

Ford bet big on BEVs being way more popular now than actually occurred, it took $11 billion out of Ford Blue ICE programs to make that happen. With that much investment shifted around, it’s hard to imagine any sort of massive correction effort being possible in the short term.   Farley said that as justification for why Ford doesn’t want to change, the brass still think that they are just a year or two early….that’s the big “neutral moment”, they still think they’re right and just have to wait for the market…     This all goes back to the big leap to what turned out to be expensive BEVs over a gentler transition to hybrids, PHEVs and EREVs.    The problem isn’t the BEVs, it’s a lack of other electrification to get buyers on board   sorry, didn’t mean to rant….