This afternoon's updated gas prices in Hamden, CT 06514 (Greater New Haven) $4.34 Regular (Cash or Credit) @ Oasis (Independent - NOT Gulf) $4.39 Regular (Cash) @ Sunoco (Decrease $0.10 from $4.49) $4.49 Regular (Cash) @ Citgo (Decrease $0.10 from $4.59)        

i feel like such an idiot for getting a 2022 rather than a 2023 or a 2019.    edit: nah honestly I just don’t like how the headlights look. I can probably fix that.

At some point, ya got to just let them go. I advocate for a blended strategy. I don't believe Ford should just drive their volume into the ground by focusing purely on profit margin. But I also don't believe they should be building lose leaders just to have a lot of volume. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot.    I actually believe these brands that compete on price alone are kinda screwed. Brands like Nissan, and maybe to a lesser extent Kia and Hyundai. Because their built their entire brands around attributes that rivals can duplicate, low cost. Nissan buyers aren't loyal to Nissan, they're loyal to cheap cars. What happens to those buyers when Chinese brands inevitably make their way to the U.S? They're gonna ditch Nissan for BYD or whoever else can undercut Nissan on price.    This is why I've been one of the loudest voices on here in favor in Farley's no boring products mantra, leaning into Ford's icons. That not only improves profit margins, it's leaning into a strategy where people are loyal to ford, and it's unique attributes. It's building demand around brand qualities that are harder for rivals to compete with. 

Agreed. Apparently Farley has spoken a lot about trying to use skunkworks to speed up the development process and reduce cycle times. So hopefully they're able to apply that across their lineup. Ford really does have an issue with just letting products waste away and then canceling them claiming no-one bought them when they were outdated relative to rivals. Hopefully that component of Ford culture dies out.    What's the storage space like with the mach-e? I don't expect it to be on par with our explorer or maverick for obvious reasons, but if it's serviceable, roomy enough for what it is, that's good enough for me. 

They were obviously trying to keep Focus buyers with that styling.  The problem is most Focus buyers didn't care about styling, just price.  

I feel like we have both of those needs covered reasonably well with our Escape PHEV. Sure, there are some minor shortcomings (like 37 mile EV range) but it is a great compromise for our lifestyle.

This is essentially what got me to the point of my next car probably being EV. Driving my Escape hybrid, I just wish it could do electric all the time. That and that they finally built chargers down the road from my office building, so I can logistically make sense of how I’ll charge.   TBH rally cars look like jelly beans now although I’m not sure if there is a performance reason for that rather than a cost or “race Sunday sell Monday” mentality.

Agreed, hopefully it's like a case of Ford meets alpine styling instead of just being a jelly bean with rally lights tacked on. But I like the direction, I think it's fun and interesting. 

That's great to hear my friend. My wife has a '25 MME GT and says its the best car she's ever owned.    Hopefully, the dreaded Ford rot on the vine disease doesn't negatively impact MME or for that matter the upcoming CE1 products in the years to come. I'm cautiously optimistic that the newfangled design, engineering, and manufacturing techniques from the skunkworks will enable Ford to keep its future product lineup lookin' fresh and appealing over time while also keepin' costs under control.

Let’s see how those products look before we praise them.  If they just stick an extra fog light on and call it “rally inspired”, that’s not worth it either.  It’s good they’re at least thinking about it.   I think many times it takes people actually experiencing something before they accept it.