No comment on these designs, but I wonder why OEM's even bother to have a design studio?  All you have to do is have AI design a vehicle.  Some of these renderings are pretty good.

I think this has become a hidden profit center for Ford and is excessive. It certainly didn’t cost $1700 to ship our Explorer that we recently got from Chicago to our dealer. I understand they are average costing it for CONUS, but even privately shipping a vehicle doesn’t cost that much. Another way to lower the MSRP without actually lowering it. 

ChatGPT when I asked it to create a Lincoln version of a Ford Everest...     Interior...

Here are a couple I did as well.  Not saying I like them, just what I was able to get out of it. lol   Notice the incorrect spelling of Lincoln on each of them.  

I was sometimes a rebel. My parents and maternal grandfather were diehard Buick loyalists. My dad was not bashful in letting me know he did not approve of my Pinto Wagon purchase. And I didn't make any points with him when he bought a Chevy S-10 and I told him be bought the wrong truck. Oh boy!

Thanks! The correct price increase was from $2.99. Original post has been corrected.

I saw that yesterday. It makes sense for them. It’s not their core market, and it takes a lot to build a vehicle from scratch.

I had some time to kill so I thought I would throw some more concepts out there for discussion.  These were done with Grok. I would have like to refine them a little bit more, but when it got down to the finer details, it wasn’t very responsive, or did not interpret my commands the way I would have liked.     This last pic was from ChatGPT.  It isn’t what I had in mind for this vehicle but I still thought it looked nice and included it anyway.         

Thanks. This is the kind of stuff that takes little effort and minimal cost but hopefully makes a big difference.    Here's another one. When I got the car it had a perforated leather cover on the steering wheel. The problem with it was that the cheap plastic "thread" that was used to tie it on was poorly done, especially around the wheel spoke area, and looked horrible. I don't know if there is wear on the wheel rim that someone was trying to hide by installing the cover or if the cover was added as more of a functional thing. Anyway, I took a few minutes to redo the way that thread was used and, at least for now, it looks 100% better to me. I might remove it completely at some point but for now at least I don't totally hate it being on there anymore. While you can't really see it in these photos the seat cushions are also perforated leather so the wheel cover does kinda match.   Before:     After:  

Solid choices, how's your flex holding up reliability wise? Have you replaced the water pump?