I find that most automotive salespeople are nearly clueless about their own products or what customers want... let alone what products were offered from their brand 27 years ago. The few who actually give a crap about what they are selling can't offer any constructive criticism up the chain anyways - corporate not offering what customers want is far outside of their control.

On the hardware side, Ford will produce what their market research folks tell them will sell the most units, tempered with what the bean counters and engineers can produce at the appropriate price point and profitability, and further limited by what the risk management lawyers will allow them to offer. As for aesthetics, if they decide to re-do the classic, they have a pretty reliable track record of success with the Mustang line; I think the design team is capable of pulling a rabbit out of the hat.

 

yep all hey care about is selling extended warrentys

 

I think based on the teaser covered Bronco wheel base and dimensions, we are going to be pleasantly surprised with a Ford Troller variant. Solid front and rear axles, and based on the global Ranger platform.

The Troller T4 is powered by the 3.2 Powerstroke, so I dont see why the 5.0 can't fit between the rails. The Troller also has a Dana 44 front. I hope this plays out into reality.

 

Now THAT would make things interesting...I've not seen this before.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a1...retty-bitchin/

 

Can you please site a source of the unibody? I didn't see that anywhere. I too left the article with the same assumption, larger vehicle, different engine options, RWD and I assumed that it would once again become Ranger based.

 

The Explorer will be built on the Ford CD6 platform which can be used as either a FWD or RWD-based vehicle and will definitely be a unit body/frame. Platform will be shared with the 2021 Mustang(!?) also. Unibody vehicles can be plenty tough--look at the old Jeep Cherokee and the current Grand Cherokee/Durango twins, a LOT of full-sized vans, etc. Hell, the full size Transit van is a unibody....

2020 Ford Explorer Info, Specs, Release Date, Wiki

CD6 info: http://fordauthority.com/fmc/ford-mo...-cd6-platform/

 

Yep, the Transit is a beast...I had 3,000 lbs of lumber in the back of ours once, and you couldn't even tell going down the road.



I like unibody, they generally ride and drive better, as well as perform better in crash tests. RWD longitudinal drivetrain architecture is more important to me than chassis design, but that's just me.

 

I don't remember saying anything negative about unibody construction. I just wanted to see the reference since I hadn't read it.

 

ya unibody isnt so bad if its not rusted out

 

Yeah salesman only know so much. They usually find out more on the news about new products than their own company. Remember dealerships are generally privately owned, corporate doesn't usually say much. Hell, even 3 months ago we barely knew anything about the Gladiator. We only know what comes from the news really. Online forums and Jalopnik can only speculate and the engineers that pop up on here from time to time can't really say much and even then they don't know much about other products. Salesman only know about vehicles from a pamphlet, nothing else. Very few are car enthusiasts.

If mechanics were salesman, we would know every detail to tell the customer what they want to know and then some.

 

Isn't that the truth. It's pretty rare that I walk into a dealer not knowing more about the vehicle I'm looking at than the salesman. It's kind of disappointing, but understandable.

 

When I was selling new Fords in 1989, the main points of knowledge that the dealer wanted us to have was:

When showing a truck, know the weight that the bumper can handle, tow and payload ratings. Understand how the twin I-beam and TTB front suspensions work and be able to compare them to the competition.

On all vehicles, service points in yellow and available safety equipment.

Any knowledge beyond that was on our own and in many cases, it proved beneficial to be able to answer questions but not inundate a potential buyer with information. People are easily insulted.