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I haven't researched what exactly must be included in the CAFE standards, but wouldn't changing the classification of a SUV to a commercial truck remove it from the CAFE grouping? Aren't the F-550 and up made by "Ford Trucks" and not Ford? There must be some political way to keep it out of the requirements. Otherwise major manufacturers wouldn't be able to keep building heavy duty commercial trucks.
Also, Ford would have to come up with a way to use an existing Super Duty frame for the new Ex otherwise it just gets too pricey to run a seperate line of frames, driveshafts, etc. I think that making multiple things that look the same is going to keep hurting Ford. Take the 2008 Mirrors. There appear to be 6 different mirrors that have next to nothing in common. the mirror glass isn't even the same size accross all of them, yet they all look identical to the average person.
The Excursion didn't pull down Ford's CAFE numbers. CAFE only applies to vehicles with a GVWR under 8500 pounds. Excursions were all above 8500 pounds, so they were not rated for fuel economy by the EPA and did not count in the corporate CAFE.
The reason the Excursion went away is that is never sold enough to make it profitable enough. When the decision was made to kill it Ford was selling all the Superdutys they could make. Getting rid of the Excursion allowed them to make more Superdutys, and that saved a bunch of money over having plant space dedicated to making Excursions.
With the new CAFE standards, any thing quite like an Excursion will have to comply with the new law. The over 8500 pounds GVWR exemption now only applies to pickup trucks and cargo vans. All suvs and passenger vans up to 10000 pounds GVWR will have to comply with CAFE standards. So if Ford was to produce another Excursion it will be included in their CAFE numbers and it could possibly bring down their average.
Even if it were included I still have managed to get 15mpgs in town and 20ish on the highway and that is with my tuner chip unplugged. With a little tweaking and some transmission improvements I think that Ford could make the X put out close to 17/23 which blows the doors off ALL half ton trucks
The Excursion didn't pull down Ford's CAFE numbers. CAFE only applies to vehicles with a GVWR under 8500 pounds. Excursions were all above 8500 pounds, so they were not rated for fuel economy by the EPA and did not count in the corporate CAFE.
The reason the Excursion went away is that is never sold enough to make it profitable enough. When the decision was made to kill it Ford was selling all the Superdutys they could make. Getting rid of the Excursion allowed them to make more Superdutys, and that saved a bunch of money over having plant space dedicated to making Excursions.
Where are you getting your info from in regards to the cafe standards not appliying to GVWR at 8500 pounds. If that were the case then wouldn't we be charged a gas guzzler tax?
Even if it were included I still have managed to get 15mpgs in town and 20ish on the highway and that is with my tuner chip unplugged. With a little tweaking and some transmission improvements I think that Ford could make the X put out close to 17/23 which blows the doors off ALL half ton trucks
That is why I said in my previous post that it could possibly bring down their average.
The Excursion is cabable of some truely impressive MPGs for its size and weight. I bet that 17/23 has already been achieved by someone here on the board with a diesel and I'm sure Ford could make it get those numbers if they were to reduce some of the drivetrain inefficiencies and like you said do some tweaking and fine tuning here and there.
As a Family Man I think that Ford quit on the Excursion to soon but of course as Ford states the Expedition replaced the Excursion. When I bought my Excursion the driving force behind it was the power stroke motor, the space, and seating. Just so you all know I have 4 kids that take up all the room in this truck and they are all under the age of 4 so strollers and seats and what not; fill this truck up. Even though they quit making the Excursion so they could manufacture more Super duties and replaced the Excursion with the Expedition, I too feel that Ford cut out the Excursion to soon and do to my circumstances I wish they would at least at a minimum put Power Strokes in there Expeditions or bring back the Excursion!
Hey I was reading about hydrogen generators... also read somewhere about something called hybrid cars - some crazy dumb a _ _ Japanese thing with a lawnmower engine, electric motor and a battery - who could ever get them to synchronize! Pure insanity.
And sorry folks I saw how badly that hydrogen generator discussion went astray and this thread is about bringing back the Excursion so I didn't want to waste everyone's time on the steam thing. Like nuclear power plants - probably doomed to extinction. Just thought a hybrid gas or diesel & steam might be neat (closed loop system to recycle steam and boiler replaced by manifold heat or something).
Oh, and I've a cute joke here... One day an economist and his little girl are walking down the sidewalk when the little girl sees a ten-dollar bill on the sidewalk and asks her father if she could pick it up. And the economist-father says: "Sweetie, I'm sorry if that were a real ten-dollar bill, someone would have picked it up already."
Where are you getting your info from in regards to the cafe standards not appliying to GVWR at 8500 pounds. If that were the case then wouldn't we be charged a gas guzzler tax?
I don't understand this at all.
The gas guzzler tax is charged on vehicles that have window sticker fuel economy ratings below a certain number. What is the window sticker fuel economy rating on ANY Excursion?
Answer: There is no fuel economy rating on any vehicle that has a GVWR over 8500 pounds. As someone else pointed out this may change in the future, but that's the way it is now.
I agree about 90% with what 'Mark Kovalsky' stated. EXCEPT I remember reading in several places at the time that Ford was selling all of the Excursions they could make. The problem was the made 'More Per Vehicle' Making Superdutys. So If they make $3,000 profit on an Excursion, they were making $4,000 profit on the Superdutys. They decided to drop the Excursion, bring out the Puny Expedition EL and make more Superdutys. Around Chicago land the Superdutys Diesels are sitting on the lots because of the crappy MPG's.
So answer me this... Between my wife and I we have 7 kids (I have 4, she has 3). They are 15, 13, 11, 10, 9, 5, and 3. We tow either 2 or 3 horses almost every weekend in the summer, a ski boat, or a utility trailer with 15-20 bales of hay. Without the Ex, what is there for me? A 6.0L suburban, great so I can get 10 MPG pulling horses, thats why we sold the expedition to get the Excursion in the first place. We get 15.5 MPG WITH the three horses.
Hey, maybe Toyota will build one. And the media will love it.
Well maybe not, because I know when Toyota started rolling out the Tundra and the new Sequoia with the 5.7 surprisingly the tree huggers didn't take to it nicely (don't know if the media will like it though). Read this article about what happened at the LA Auto Show.
a 2009 excursion with the new 08 superduty design would be the best looking suv in production. needs to be offered in the 3v v10 and the new twin turbo diesel. mabey even a new 6 or 7 speed trans to help with mpg, i'm sure they can come up with something, chevy came up with a 6 speed, why can't ford.
The torqshift is a six speed, but it (to my recall) jumps 5th when cold and when hot jumps 4th .....
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
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