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mackinaw

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Everything posted by mackinaw

  1. I had a Pinto in the early 70's back during my college years. 1971 green hatchback, 2.0L four with a 4-speed tranny. It was a good little car. Economical, fun to drive, and reliable. I only have good memories of that car, though Michigan winter road salt did a number on the body.
  2. Absolutely. From a recent Detroit News article: "Ford Pro alone increased its operating income to $7.2 billion in 2023 by 81% with a 12.4% operating margin, even with a slower Super Duty truck production ramp-up with a new quality check process and a United Auto Workers strike. It's forecasting $8 billion to $9 billion in 2024 and a mid-teens margin." “I remember a time when Fiat owned Ferrari, and I had a valuation of about $4 billion on it,” said Adam Jonas, analyst at investment bank Morgan Stanley, while posing a question to Ford CEO Jim Farley during a recent earnings call. “Now, Ferrari is worth $80 billion today, and the business was totally ignored by investors when it was part of Fiat. Now, Ford's Ferrari, it's called Ford Pro. And I think we agree, people are ignoring the cash cow.”
  3. I kind of like the sculptured look of the sides. Not a fan of the interior though.
  4. In case you haven't seen this yet, Fisker has suspended EV production for the next six weeks. On the other hand, they're rumored to be linking up with some OEM (rumored to be Nissan). So who knows what to make of this company. https://www.wired.com/story/fisker-suspends-electric-vehicle-production/
  5. Then again, the water pump on my '94 F-150 went out last year. Only lasted 29 years.
  6. Depends what your level of risk aversion is. If you are in the financial position of having some money to play with, buying shares of Fisker may pay off. Or it may not. I've been thinking about doing the same. Haven't pulled the trigger yet though.
  7. Nope, I don't cut Wall Street any slack over their over-optimistic EV predictions. There's no way a bunch of NYC-based eggheads have any clue about what is actually happening in the world. And Jonas was the worst of them. I'm really enjoying seeing him backtrack now.
  8. "ICE Elongation Thesis." Only a Wall Street analyst could come up with something like that. And talk about Adam Jonas pivoting 180. Five years ago, he was the guy who was predicting that EV adoption would happen quickly and dramatically, like dominos falling over. Marketplace reality, as usual, had other ideas.
  9. From memory, the Ford Five Hundred (circa 2005) had a CVT transmission mated to the 3.0L V6 in the AWD models. I remember reading that it was a "high torque" CVT. It was expensive to produce, so was dropped in favor of a more conventional auto tranny at some point.
  10. I was reading elsewhere this afternoon that one reason Rivian delayed their planned Georgia plant was because it save them 2.25 billion dollars, which will buy them one more year.
  11. You have to give Sergio credit for that. Fiat Chrysler stopped selling compact and mid-size sedans back in 2016. Ford followed suit in 2019.
  12. But there were still over 3,600,00 births in the US last year. That's a lot of babies.
  13. Anybody know how many of Borg's predictions over the past five years have actually come true?
  14. Not surprised. Look for Ford, and others, to hire some of the engineers who were working on this car.
  15. A $25,000 BEV is now the price of admission into the EV game. There was an excellent article in the Detroit News on this topic that , unfortunately, is behind a paywall. Luckily, I subscribe. Some quotes: "As a result, a profitable $25,000 EV has become a golden egg in the industry. Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk says the Texas-based company will have an EV at that price point soon. Tavares points to the slim-margin Citroën ë-C3, a hatchback built in Slovakia from the French brand not sold in the United States whose mid trim is about $25,000 (23,300 euro), as an achievement. And Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley says the Dearborn automaker is working as quickly as possible to bring a new low-cost EV platform to market that could support a vehicle priced as low as $25,000." "To get mainstream customers interested, the $25,000 price tag is a good target, experts say, and it can be attainable. “The question is for a first-generation $25,000 EV for the U.S. market: What compromises will they have to make?” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst at market research firm Guidehouse Inc. “How much range will they have to give up to get to that $25,000, or what features will they have to give up?" "Given such few $25,000 options even among traditional vehicles, the question then arises if there is a market for affordable EVs. Colin Langan, analyst at Wells Fargo & Co., recently questioned whether one exists beyond an alternative for buyers in the used market. “New car buyers usually buy for the status of it,” he said last month during the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Automotive Insights Symposium. “To get the price point low, you need a really small battery and less weight, and I just don't know that the market is there. It doesn't mean there's not a huge market in China, or there's not a market in Europe. But to do a $25,000 vehicle, it needs to be right now very small." As a result, executives and experts say to have a slate of desirable and affordable EVs, there need to be changes in the supply chain, advances in manufacturing processes and developments in battery technology such as with cheaper materials." Much more here, if you subscribe: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2024/02/21/affordability-auto-industry-25000-dollar-ev/72574561007/
  16. All this Detroit News article says is that they are now being shipped to dealers. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2024/02/23/ford-pauses-f-150-lightning-shipments-lengthened-quality-check/72717996007/
  17. The pressure came from the investment community. Five years ago, influential Wall Street analysts, like Adam Jonas (Morgan Stanley), predicted the EV wave would be like a tsunami. He was predicting mass adoption of EV's in a matter of a few years. If your company wasn't seen as investing in EV's, then it had no future. So, fearful that they would lose investors, every manufacturer fell in line and developed EV's. Fast forward to 2024, and the mass adoption of EV's is moving at a much slower rate than anyone expected (outside of Akio Toyoda). As is always the case, the marketplace has the final word.
  18. Misery loves company? Rivian just announced they've lost $43,000/vehicle from October-December of last year.
  19. That was a very interesting read. Sounds like batteries are very difficult to manufacture, especially in volume. And GM kind of shot themselves in the foot by not hiring new engineers who understand this new technology. I see GM just hired a Tesla battery engineer to right the ship. He's got his work cut out for him.
  20. Which will end up being one gigantic compromise. EV's and ICE are just too different to think that one generic platform can do each drivetrain justice.
  21. Ford went from 202,000 employees in 2017 to 173,000 employees in 2022. They added 4,000 employees in 2023. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/F/ford-motor/number-of-employees
  22. I took it to mean they've eliminated layers of useless bureaucracy.
  23. From the Detroit News: Bill Ford Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in September alongside six other industry veterans, the Dearborn nonprofit said Friday. Ford is the great-grandson of Henry Ford, who founded the Dearborn automaker 120 years ago. Since becoming executive chairman a quarter of a century ago, Ford has overseen the company through tumultuous periods in the industry from when it staved off bankruptcy during the Great Recession to the ongoing historic transformation toward zero-tailpipe-emission vehicles. Ford offers a "values-driven approach that demonstrates corporate responsibility and success can go hand in hand," according to a news release. "He was an early and influential advocate for sustainability and environmental responsibility, a driving force behind mobility innovation, and continues to be a champion for the revitalization of the Motor City." https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2024/02/16/automotive-hall-of-fame-induct-bill-ford-edelbrock-john-james-wendell-scott-motherson/72629064007/
  24. And now we have this: "UAW threatens new strike at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant if local contract isn't resolved" https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2024/02/16/uaw-threatens-strike-ford-kentucky-truck-plant-local-contract-negotiations/72629651007/?csp=chromepush
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