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mackinaw

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Everything posted by mackinaw

  1. From today's Detroit News: "Ford Motor Co. plans to ditch Microsoft Corp. for Blackberry Ltd. for future upgrades to its Sync voice-activated system, according to a source with knowledge of the plans. The Dearborn automaker has been plagued with software problems on Sync and its MyFord Touch infotainment system that have stained the company’s vehicle quality ratings and could make the switch from Microsoft to Blackberry and its QNX operating system this year or next. QNX, acquired by Blackberry in 2010, has quickly begun replacing the Windows operating system as a popular choice for automobiles." From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140222/BIZ/302220033#ixzz2u50a99lE
  2. There's an old saying, "nature abhors a vacuum." You can expect both Alcoa and Novelis to greatly increase aluminum production to meet demand. Especially now that GM will be bringing out an aluminum-intensive pickup in late 2018.
  3. Geez, Jensen, you sound just like your buddy Bob Lutz. On a recent Autoline AfterHours, when asked if he would rather spend the money to develop an aluminum pickup like the new F-150, or on a line of diesel engines, he picked the aluminum pickup. Diesels he said, “cost too much money and don’t make a lot of sense.”
  4. Maybe. In real life, diesels usually get better gas mileage than what’s on the EPA label. If Joe Six-Pack starts to pull 30 mpg on the highway in his new Ram pickup (standard cab, 4X2), and tells his bar buddies, the buzz will be on Chrysler’s side. I love all this. For the past 30 years, Ford, GM and Chrysler walked pretty much in lock-step with each other when it came to pickups. They were basically the same vehicle with just a different nameplate. Now, for the first time in decades, the buyer has a real choice.
  5. From today's Automotive News: DETROIT -- Chrysler Group dealers ordered more than 8,000 diesel-powered Ram 1500 pickups in the first weekend that they could do so -- a figure that represents nearly half of the light-duty pickup's normal monthly production. That's about five times the normal percentage of sold orders for a typical prelaunch vehicle, said Bob Hegbloom, director of the Ram brand. "This just helps to solidify in our minds that we did the right thing with this truck," Hegbloom told Automotive News today. The percentage of initial diesel orders by dealers is about double or triple what brand executives had anticipated, Hegbloom said. "Everybody's gung-ho about it," said Eddy, owner of Bob & Chuck Eddy Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram near Youngstown, Ohio. "The factory's just not going to have enough to go around, at least for a while." Full article here: http://www.autonews.com/article/20140218/RETAIL01/140219854/dealers-order-more-than-8000-diesel-powered-ram-1500s-in-3-days?cciid=email-autonews-daily&r=8221J0649801H2C
  6. They weren't done on the cheap. GM spent 4 billion dollars to develop these new trucks.
  7. Contractors/fleet buyers will also have the option (for now) of buying steel-bodied F-250/F-350's.
  8. Well, do you honestly expect Ford to tell the automotive press that a diesel is in the works?
  9. From a 1986 Jack Telnack interview in Fortune magazine: "Observers have noticed a resemblance between the Taurus and the West German-made Audi 5000, another car with a slippery silhouette. Telnack acknowledges the similarity, but explains, ''We have a softer, more aerodynamic shape and better-integrated bumpers. And we started work on ours before theirs came out.''
  10. No doubt they’re testing prototypes. Why wouldn’t they? Back in 2012, when asked about diesel engines in Ford products, Mark Fields made the comment that they’re watching the market carefully, and if the market shows that customers wants diesels, Ford will provide provide them.
  11. I think Ford's selling two versions of the Focus in China. A Focus "classic" (last generation), and the current "world" Focus. Still, quite the achievement.
  12. I was around back then and I can tell you that nobody in my car-crazed neighborhood (metro Detroit) was even aware that the Barracuda was introduced back in April of 1964. I can’t recall any ads in the paper or anything on the TV or radio. But I can tell you that everybody knew when the Mustang came out. You saw large, print ads in the Detroit News and Free Press, and ads galore on both on radio and TV. And of course the dealerships had their spotlights blazing away in the night sky. In 1967, a friend’s dad bought a new ’67 Barracuda. Notchback, 273 V8, auto. That was a nice car.
  13. Yes. If you're a contractor, there are tax advantages to purchasing a vehicle in December. Those go away when a new year starts
  14. John McElroy's (Autoline Daily) take on the IIHS test: Here’s my Autoline Insight, the IIHS is being disingenuous in testing cars it knows full well were never designed for this test, and then blaring out headlines to the world that they failed the test. If given enough advance warning automakers can incorporate the necessary structure into their designs to pass this test without too much additional cost or mass. But if they have to go back after the fact, the opposite is true. If the Institute wants to influence design so that the industry builds safer cars, it needs to be far more transparent and provide crystal clear notices. And then it should give automakers enough time to incorporate those changes into their designs before they start testing them.
  15. When that happens, Ford will bring out a newer F-150 that will be 500 pounds lighter than the Chevy. Then Dodge will bring out a new carbon-fiber Ram pickup that will be 500 pounds lighter than the Ford or Chevy. Then Toyota……. Yes, I'm being absurd, but you get the idea. Most likely full-sized trucks will hit a certain point where it won't be practical or economical to reduce weight beyond a certain point. The new F-150 may have established that benchmark.
  16. Pete was right about the F-150 and he's right about the new Chrysler too. The 200 goes from being incompetent to merely competent. Interesting that Mark Rechtin, reporter/style critic for Automotive News, gives the Chrysler a thumbs down too.
  17. Who's Mark Williams and why should I care what he says?
  18. The new Colorado isn't a compact truck. It's even a stretch to call it a mid-size truck. This thing is BIG. A standard crew cab Colorado (there's no standard cab) is longer than a standard cab Silverado. All the Colorado will do is to syphon sales away from the Silverado guaranteeing that the F-150 will remain the best selling pickup in the U.S.
  19. From today's AutoExtremist: "The Most Significant vehicle to the U.S. market and the Industry at Large: The Ford F-150. The hand-wringing over the new, aluminum-intensive F-150 by certain spineless weasels in the esteemed automotive media was ha-ha laughable. They spent all their time whining about whether the “700 pounds” of weight savings was a mirage and totally missed the point altogether. This truck is a flat-out a game changer and a grand slam home run, pure and simple. Yes, Ford is hanging their asses out in the breeze and it will affect their short-term profitability, but eighteen months from now they will be so far ahead of the rest of the industry it won’t even be close. Notice you didn’t hear the competition throwing darts or grousing about the F-150, because they know exactly what it means. It’s where the entire industry will be going – car and truck - and now they’re all of a sudden five years behind. A gutsy, brilliant play by Ford that will change this industry forever."
  20. From today's Detroit News: "Ford's 2015 Mustang won the best production car award from the automotive design community at the Detroit auto show Tuesday night, while the Volvo XC Coupe concept took home two awards, one for the best concept car and another for a new category this year for most innovative use of materials. Some 30 judges who are design leaders in the automotive industry sifted through all of the new cars and concepts on display at the 2014 Detroit auto show, and selected three semi-finalists for three categories. Three chief judges summed up all of the judges’ findings. The three finalist vehicles for the top production car award were the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan, the 2015 Ford Mustang coupe, and the new Ford F-150 pickup truck. “The judges commented how beautiful and how modern and how muscular (the Mustang) is in the flesh,” said chief judge Ralph Gillies, senior vice president of product design for Chrysler Group. “It’s just the right size to work in America and internationally.” From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140114/AUTO04/301140135#ixzz2qR8LIJ3j
  21. From today's Automotive News: "DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. will discontinue its F-150 Tremor sport truck after just one model year. Doug Scott, Ford truck marketing manager, said Ford would not renew the Tremor when the all-new aluminum F-150 goes into production in the fourth quarter this year at Ford's Kansas City truck plant. The Tremor is a short-wheelbase, regular-cab pavement burner powered by a 365-hp, turbocharged EcoBoost engine. The Tremor went on sale in the fourth quarter last year as an on-road counterpart to the Raptor, Ford's over-the-top off-road performance truck. The Raptor's future is also uncertain now that Ford has announced its redesigned 2015 F-150. Ford did not show a 2015 version of the Raptor this week at the Detroit auto show. One source at Ford's Dearborn truck plant told Automotive News the Raptor was not included in the 2015 production schedule." Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20140114/OEM04/140119780/ford-to-drop-f-150-tremor-from-truck-lineup#ixzz2qQ4n7KgJ
  22. A few months ago it was reported that GM pushed ahead the mid-cycle refresh of the new Silverado with one of the goals being to reduce weight another 300 or so pounds. No doubt they got the inside scoop on the new F-150 and decided to act sooner, not later. Ain't marketplace competition grand?
  23. 700 pounds lighter, fully-boxed frame, and they kept the front "drop-down" window.
  24. I'm glad to see Ford and GM going separate ways with their new trucks. Vehicles get better when manufacturers have different visions on "what's best" and then have the guts to implement. It will be interesting to watch how the marketplace reacts to these new vehicles.
  25. Good news! Look for Ford stock to dramatically rise tomorrow and for Microsoft stock to tank.
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