I ordered a Expedition Platinum Ultimate on 2-27. As of this morning I had heard absolutely nothing from anyone about order status. I called my salesman and he was shocked as the dealership had info on my order. He assumed that I was getting the same info as the dealership. Anyway, my order was confirmed on the day I placed the order and on 3-20 my order was scheduled for build the week of 5-12. Apparently my email address was screwed up somewhere along the line. And yes, I have checked my spam/trash/junk folders. I now have my order number and VIN to do my tracking. I was greatly relieved to learn that my order was actually making progress and not lost in cyberspace. Good luck to any of you that have pending orders.   CJDave.

One of my friends has a Subaru and is a bit more esoteric-they have a Nakajima sticker on theirs...but he is a bit of a WW2 nut too  

How can a slab side Lincoln not be continental based?

Nah-there is money to be made by people clicking on AI generated articles and its not the Auto manufactures doing it.    Contrary to popular belief, most styling testing is done internally with focus groups with NDAs. Most concepts are upcoming products with their styling turned up to 12-13. Do keep in mind that a concept shown off 2-3 years prior to a product release was most likely done around the same time the styling was locked in for a product.   Case in point, this was leaked in December 2019     This Ranger didn't go on sale till late 22 in Australia and 2023 in USA

We won't be able to fully judge the new Outback's appearance until we see one with Coexist and rainbow bumper stickers.

Probably not, but a few years back, some Chinese company put out a F-150 ripoff that could have fooled most Ford truck fans.  Ford complained, and that vehicle mysteriously vanished.  

Reminds me of old Jeep Cherokee.

No, design and general appearance isn't something you can patent or protect as your intellectual property as far as I'm aware. I mean, my explorer looks very similar to a range Rover and I never heard of range Rover coming after Ford after they were bought by another company.   The CE1 affordable EVs sound like they'll be a lot more spaceship in terms of appearance so that's good, it'll mean there's a lot of differentiation between those and this. 

these vehicles put off massive Ford vibes. Is there anything Ford can do to prevent that from happening?

Apparently, they read my post above, lol.    Do you think it’s fair to say that manufacturers surreptitiously throw out photoshops/ideas for vehicles to gauge public reaction?