Ford Killing Cars

The new Explorer is going Rear Wheel Drive and supposedly the Police Interceptor will be only with the Explorer no more Taurus at all.

Around here its all Tahoes and Explorers and the sedans at the local municipality level are all Chargers while the State Police was switching to Caprice's but now it seems Explorers are taking over there too.

 

Seems like a smart business decision, sales of cars are down for all manufacturers, Trucks, SUVs, and Crossovers are where the money is.

 

Ford and their "Best selling line of F series trucks"

Pretty easy when there is six/seven/eight different trucks they lump into one category to make that claim.

People have been hip to the "Big 3" only being "Big Junk" for awhile now.

 

The same could be said about the Silverado/Sierra and Ram. They include the full lineup of trucks in their overall sales. Ford still outsells them. I never said they weren't junk, I said they continue to make money. How many Fords do you see on the road? How many people do you know that drive one? Junk or not, they still sell and make money. I'm pretty sure the bean counters at Ford know where they make the most money. That is all I was trying to say.

 

I was talking to my wife about this a month ago. I asked why do people still buy full size sedan cars when you can get more space and similar mpgs in an suv or cuv. I was saying it was a matter of time before car manufactures start cutting back on them. She said it wouldn’t happen, looks like I was somewhat correct now to let her know it lol.

 

Lincoln will make the sedans, Ford can concentrate on the lucrative mass market autos. Lincoln sedans are better anyway, makes total sense.

 

This should help clean up the shoulder of the highway. I'm glad Ford is doing their part. I can't count how many new cars/trucks from the big three autos I see being towed off the streets. Maybe 20/1 vs Honda and Toyota.

 

Around here you can lease a new f-150 for $209 a month. That can't hurt numbers.

 

The police in my area all switched to ford SUVs.

It's not just Ford seeing declines in Sedan sales.

All the auto makers are. there's a reason why Mike sweers was called to Japan for counsel corporate headquarters. They are going to make a big play for the truck and SUV market themselves.

Mitsubishi released the Eclipse as a crossover SUV.

The rouge is Nissans strongest platform now.

Now Nissan is considering to release the new Z as a crossover, which is offends all the bones in my body.

 

There is also word of a fully electric F150 and SUV (explorer/escape?) which would cushion an oil crisis and probably sell like hot cakes for the majority of truck buyers that commute them and have never even engaged 4WD or loaded up the bed.

They will have no issue when fuel prices go back up. between politcal pressure to keep fuel costs low, to the fact that it's cyclic. Consumers are the most short sided thinkers; they'll be back gobbling up Ford trucks and SUVs in no time after an oil hike. You're talking millions if not billions of dollars in R&D cost that they can revert from cars to CUVs, SUVs, and trucks. That kind of R&D will, more likely than not, help close the gap even more on effeciency versus their extinct cars. by the time oil prices threaten larger vehicle sales, Ford will probably be leading the segment in effeciency and marginal against full size car market. Plus, they are keeping the focus. They can peddle truck load after truck load of focuses in an oil crisis.

FCA did this two years ago killing the dart and 200 and saw a significant profit increase.

 

It isn't just Ford..... Even Honda is cutting back (but not out) production on the Accord.

https://jalopnik.com/hondas-cutting-down-accord-production-because-were-all-1824144162

Arguably the Accord is at the top of the "sedan" market and if they can't sell those, no wonder Ford just decided to stop the bleeding.

 

If the government has strangled 6 and 8 cylinders to extinction and I had the choice between 2 cylinder or 2 cylinder, yes. The only engine configs I would hold on to dear life for are V8s and I6, both of which are already one foot out the door thanks to regulation and government.

2cylinder, 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder...all meh. at that point I'll let the output numbers talk. It's not like the new toyota V6s are anything to be proud of anyways

 

Not just the sedans. Fiesta and Focus are getting the axe as well. Their entire US lineup will be the Mustang, a yet-to-be-released Focus based CUV, F-Series trucks, Escape, Explorer, and Bronco. Jalopnik had a better written and more detailed article about this a few days ago. Ford was losing money on every Fiesta, Focus, Taurus, and Fusion sold in the US.

 

Ford didn't need a government bailout when the other 2 did, guessing they are still trying to run a profitable business.

 

So you want a 4 cylinder that has a few thousand dollar turbo jacked on to meet 6 cylinder specs that has a lifetime of hopefully the rated 150k only to have to shell out thousands to replace it while the 6 cyl goes on to 300k with no such issues. Some can't even get 70k out of it.
Got it. Go for it, not me.

 

I worked in the turbocharger industry and they are getting more durable by the year thanks to the help of integtration by the OEMs instead of just throwing a turbo onto an otherwise-NA engine.

If integrated properly, a turbocharger bearing set should last as long as many other major engine components. a basic wastegate actuated turbo is also not a couple grand (unless maybe from dealers).

Don't get me wrong- I drive an NA V8 rig for a reason. But I also shopped a 10 year old rig. That just doesn't really exist anymore on the new vehicle market. you can kick and scream as much as you want, everything will be boosted in the next decade. They make any engine more effecient.

 

Ford is only cutting their car lineup for the US, foreign markets will still get them. If Ford ever needs or wants to bring cars back they will still have everything necessary and it wouldn't take long to revive the models that are still being produced globally. If the Latin American market cars are being manufactured in Mexico, it would be easy to pick up where they left off.

 

Ford states 150k. That is their spec.
Imo that isn't worth it.

 

fair enough, though not that uncommon for maintence of that scale/cost at that mileage. for example, timing belt and water pump at toyota spec 90k is roughly $1200 average for my 4.7L. A turbocharger preventative at 150k miles, on a 3.5 twin turbo V6 ecoboost, would be probably $2000, based of hardware being around $700
alone:

https://parts.lakelandford.com/p/Fo...0EBgtZntK5P0GaltK2tMqtH0v1fQhtshoChUAQAvD_BwE

so thats 1.33 cents per mile for the toyota job and... no shit lol, literally the same 1.33 cents per mile for the Ford 3.5L turbo job (didn't expect that, honestly).

so Again, I say this stressing that I personally seeked out an NA V8 rig, that the cost of a turbocharged engine is not *all* that much different. And while the little boosters make similar peak numbers, they make way more area under the curve (read: usable power) than the comparable NA. Ask any 3.5L taco owner how their torque is at 2500 rpm

The Comparable 2.3L ecoboost (Ranger engine) will probably make near 350lb-ft peak at 3000 rpm and 90% torque at 2500. the 3.5L Taco makes 265 lb-ft peak at 4600 rpm with just under 70% max torque (about 230 lb-ft crank) at 2500 rpm.

It's like anything else, maintain a turbocharged engine and you can trust it anywhere (like every turbodiesel used internationally offroad). Don't maintain it and it's not trustworthy off road, though I agree an un-maintained boosted engine is more worrysome than an un-maintained NA. While it may not be worth it to you, many people find it acceptable

 

The Mustang is the only Ford car I’d buy (and honestly one of my options for my next car), for regular sedans id buy Japanese.

What worries me is that the entire market is feeling a decline in sales of traditional cars, and there is a rumor of Lexus axing the GS sedan. I’d like to eventually own a RWD Lexus sports sedan but crossovers are dominating sales.