Ever wonder who would sell more trucks if Ford, Toyota, and GM could only make the same number of units in a year? Now THAT would be an interesting fight.
I'd pay good coin to watch that!
I hated the new charger from day one, it pales in comparison to the original, but police forces seem to prefer rear wheel drive cars (not that I can blame them) and the charger is that .
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1986 F250HD Ex cab Fresh built up 6.9L diesel Lariat AC leather seats power everything w/full cluster, sterling rear 3.08LS gears, E4OD trans, ram intake ATS 088 turbo
1986 F150 Ex cab Lariat rollercam 5.0L on LPG AOD trans 3.55 gears 390 000Ks
Fuel economy is an issue everywhere. What are you going to tow with, a four cylinder? A hybrid? A flexfuel vehicle fueled at one of 3 Ethanol stations in the entire country? Progress will be slow.
I'd love to live and see the day when they have an episode of Cops where some texas sheriff Prius tries to chase down a redneck in a chevelle or something. Now that'd be some funny stuff... "14 to central, I'm doing 0-60 in about a week and a half, but it's ok, i'll catch him at the next gas station!"
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2000 Excursion Limited 4x4 V10 - soon to not be stock anymore.
2004 F150 XLT screw 4x4 5.4 - 2.5 leveling kit, 34.5" BFGs - Gone
2004 mach1 mustang, holding the garage floor in place.
my thoughts too...why make 46 different cars, and then rebadge them...you know, thats a nice crown victoria...and check this out, if i buy this 50 cent badge for an extra $20,000, it becomes a Grand Marquis...
rebadging is not a bad thing. it saves money and gives more options... what they need to do is stop some of the suv lines...
lets see they got compact suv's, compact crossover suv's, midsize crossover, midsize suv, full size suv, and god knows how many more i'm missing... all of them with different tooling, different designs, different engines and whatnot... all engineered from the ground up. go into a ford dealership tell them you want an SUV, chances of walking out with the one you want are pretty damn slim.
Now if instead of reinventing the wheel each time they rebadged a land rover and sold it as a midsize suv; rebadged a jag or a volvo or one of them spiffy ford australia cars and sold em as a full size passenger car, it'd be great.
Ford is viewed VERY well outside the US... and for good reason. a european made focus is a nice little car, not a plastic skittle... the UK ranger is one bad mofo, where's our US crewcab diesel ranger? I know quite a few people who would pay for a 250lb torque ranger with a 2200lb payload and a crewcab...
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2000 Excursion Limited 4x4 V10 - soon to not be stock anymore.
2004 F150 XLT screw 4x4 5.4 - 2.5 leveling kit, 34.5" BFGs - Gone
2004 mach1 mustang, holding the garage floor in place.
where's our US crewcab diesel ranger? I know quite a few people who would pay for a 250lb torque ranger with a 2200lb payload and a crewcab...
You forgot the 30+mpg. I'm not sure about the UK, but on the ford australia website they show two seperate options for a diesel engine in the ranger, a 2.5TD, and a monster of a 3.0TD. The thing is rated for 6600lbs of towing, but I'm sure many owners push them harder.
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1986 F250HD Ex cab Fresh built up 6.9L diesel Lariat AC leather seats power everything w/full cluster, sterling rear 3.08LS gears, E4OD trans, ram intake ATS 088 turbo
1986 F150 Ex cab Lariat rollercam 5.0L on LPG AOD trans 3.55 gears 390 000Ks
You forgot the 30+mpg. I'm not sure about the UK, but on the ford australia website they show two seperate options for a diesel engine in the ranger, a 2.5TD, and a monster of a 3.0TD. The thing is rated for 6600lbs of towing, but I'm sure many owners push them harder.
the mpg in the foreign cars is hard to envy. diesels are MUCH less restricted on the exhaust emissions out there than they are here, thus, engine is allowed to breathe easier, make more power and be more efficient. gasoline over there (europe mainly) can get over 100 octane at the pump, and rarely below 95 octane. that also allows higher compression, more efficient engines... gotta thank the EPA for that...
along with al gore and all the global warming advocates/doomsday prophets...
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2000 Excursion Limited 4x4 V10 - soon to not be stock anymore.
2004 F150 XLT screw 4x4 5.4 - 2.5 leveling kit, 34.5" BFGs - Gone
2004 mach1 mustang, holding the garage floor in place.
What kindof gets to me sometimes is the fact that emission controlls often come at the expence of fuel efficiency. Most (I will admit not all) of the harmfull stuff that comes out the tailpipe are the result of incomplete fuel burning, so if they were to make the engine make better use of the fuel that is going into it, there would be a drop in emissions.
What is begining to catch on where I live, is to import older vehicles from japan. Apparently there is a law there that vehicles older than 15 years cannot be insured for highway use, so a lot of otherwize good vehicles have to be liquidated every year. The most comon ones I see are light duty diesel powered off road trucks and suvs (landcruiser, delica, hiliux). I'm seeing more and more RHD imports every year (can you blame them?).
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1986 F250HD Ex cab Fresh built up 6.9L diesel Lariat AC leather seats power everything w/full cluster, sterling rear 3.08LS gears, E4OD trans, ram intake ATS 088 turbo
1986 F150 Ex cab Lariat rollercam 5.0L on LPG AOD trans 3.55 gears 390 000Ks
However, since the engineers seem to be more concerned with the cost than the quality (I am an engineer and I would call myself an accountant instead if I did that), it probably doesn't matter to them that brake dust makes the vehicles look cheap since they are. Yep, let's save a couple of bucks so thousands of people will not spend thousands of dollars to buy these cars.
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'04 F150 Lariat Supercrew 4x2
5.4L V8, 3.73 LS
Black w/ Black Leather
Fully loaded except moonroof
'00 Ford Ranger XLT Supercab
3.0L V6 automatic
Black w/ Dark Grey interior
well i just thought of another great idea, how about in the xl work trucks std cab with 8 ft bed, ford should put a heavier suspension in the rear as im tired of seeing the ass end of them look like they are struggling to hold whatever it is the fleet truck is carrying, i mean thats where i think people would gage your truck as a work/built ford tough motto....thats what id do if i was in charge, for how many of them you sell.....
well i just thought of another great idea, how about in the xl work trucks std cab with 8 ft bed, ford should put a heavier suspension in the rear as im tired of seeing the ass end of them look like they are struggling to hold whatever it is the fleet truck is carrying, i mean thats where i think people would gage your truck as a work/built ford tough motto....thats what id do if i was in charge, for how many of them you sell.....
they have the heavy duty payload package for that
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2000 Excursion Limited 4x4 V10 - soon to not be stock anymore.
2004 F150 XLT screw 4x4 5.4 - 2.5 leveling kit, 34.5" BFGs - Gone
2004 mach1 mustang, holding the garage floor in place.
Brake dust. Get rid of it or I will not buy another Ford. I am sick of cleaning the brake dust, and it makes ALL of your cars look cheap.
Ceramic pads should solve this problem, and give better braking performance at the same time, but I doubt ford would fork out the coin to factory equip their trucks with them.
How would it be to have an optional solid front axle for trucks that are used in less forgiving conditions?
Also is there really a point for the deeper box? It seems to me it just restricts rear visibility, its not like you could actually use up all that volume for wet dirt ir gravel anyway.
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1986 F250HD Ex cab Fresh built up 6.9L diesel Lariat AC leather seats power everything w/full cluster, sterling rear 3.08LS gears, E4OD trans, ram intake ATS 088 turbo
1986 F150 Ex cab Lariat rollercam 5.0L on LPG AOD trans 3.55 gears 390 000Ks
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Lariat AC leather seats power everything w/full cluster, sterling rear 3.08LS gears, E4OD trans, ram intake ATS 088 turbo
