No argument to that as its all sound, but Then why even submit the vehicle to a comparison test if in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter? I could be wrong, but to me, if you offered a product that meets or exceeds the other options, then the customer base will increase, mitigating any profit loss from r&d.  Yes, gm has more to work with, but that didnt stop jeep, which had absolutely nothing but a ram 1500 chassis.  Lexus lx has a low take rate and volume, but that didnt stop them, same with infiniti.  Why are we excusing ford?  Again, its one thing if all those reasons were correct, but then why increase the price of the product?  Its not adding up is all I'm saying.  I just want the nav to be great, not good enough, and throughout its lifestyle, it seems lincoln and ford improve greatly on the product but cut corners that prevent it from reaching its full potential(gens 2 and 4), then the following generation, throw all that out the window with a product thats feels inferior to the previous one(gen 3 and 5).

True, but Ford's 'heavy' truck sales have been on a downward trend for the last couple of years.  Some of their recent product decisions (no air brakes on gas engine models, no diesel sales in CARB states) seem to be having an effect.

Remember, the Heavy truck sales are dependent on fleet buyers, so there may have been big orders in Q2 last year that weren't this year.   But I agree about doing more for the segment.

Lincoln is building momentum, Ford SUV sales are up almost 20%, and F-series sales strong.   Heavy trucks sales are down an impressive 18% for the year (-43% for the month of June alone).  Will Ford ever get serious about this market or are we seeing a slow fade to oblivion?

Yea, as Henry Payne said, Europe is a different planet when it comes to cars.   Another example: The new MME GT I purchased for my wife last month here in the USA had a pricetag less than $50k before taxes and fees. The same MME GT goes for almost $89,000 in Germany:  

I have two guesses on E-Transit.   First educated guess is Ford completed delivery of a large fleet order E-Transit in Q1 or Q4 last year so sales have fallen on year over year basis. Amazon and FedEx each ordered a bunch and maybe one of the order is fully delivered.   Second educated guess is Ford is supporting the Oshkosh NGDV so it is reducing E-Transit availability. USPS revised the order in 2024 to increase the EV so Ford probably caught flatfooted and decided to prioritize delivery of drivetrain components to Oshkosh and therefore reducing the E-Transit. 

They never embraced regular HEVs.  They tried mild hybrid trucks that flopped.  They also had the PHEV volt but that’s it I think.

Yea, I remember that. Original development started a few years after I started working at Ford.   In retrospect, I thought "why did Ford bother to develop its own hybrid system? It wasn't better than Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive back then, and it sure ain't better than the current generation Toyota Hybrid System now."   Not Invented Here Syndrome explains why.   Ford wrote the book on “Not Invented Here” – Ford will take that idea and do it better, cheaper and in less time. The reality is something altogether different. After Ford operatives get their hands on an idea, it will cost twice as much, take twice as long and be not even remotely better.

How many times does it have to be explained?  A huge sales increase would come at the expense of Expy or Super Duty and even then the actual volume would be small so the net increase in profit and revenue is small (maybe even a wash).  So why spend all that money in engineerIng, testing and lining up suppliers ( you don’t just plug and play) for little to no ROI?     Winning comparison tests doesn’t translate to cash.  Maybe when OAC is online the business case will be different.  GM is the market leader and has the capacity so their business case is totally different.

I think most of us expected it to have a hybrid option, and were surprised when it didn't.   Ford has publicly stated they're still planning on having the whole lineup "electrified" (hybrid or EV) by....2030 I think, so it seems like it's still coming, but the question is when?