Assimilator

The BIG difference is that a Wagon and Minivan are very rigid product templates, an SUV or Crossover are very loosely defined categories. They can be virtually anything with a hatchback. Any size, shape, style, or price. It's the only product category that essentially describes a general form factor rather than a specific defined segment. I'm definitely of the opinion that the form factor of the automobile has changed. Ford describes it by "Profile", which I think is a very good way of looking at it. The profile of a vehicle has evolved to enhance all the things most car buyers want, utility, value, flexibility, style, comfort, luxury, safety, etc. Sedans, especially volume sedans, are just obsolete to most consumers, especially now that Crossoers can be had in such a variety that it's impossible not to finding something that fits your needs and price. I notice that the only people who are mad at utilities simply have never owned one and are vocal about being forced to accept one. I was basically forced into one back in 2007 when Lincoln stopped making the LS, and man I never looked back! Since then they've only gotten much better. I will say that Crossovers still have a long way to go to adopt more sedan friendly form factors, but until that transition happens people still want their Crossovers to look distinctly like utilities and not like sedan which is still in the anonymous commodities stage of the marketplace. The first car that sort of bridges that gap is really the Mach E, but that's a weird experimental vehicle to classify. And it's also not a volume product. I think it's possible the sedan market as we understand it will stabilize, but it will never return or grow in ways that are worthwhile. We have never seen a permanent swing back to any previous volume segment once it's been replaced, especially now that the market has more variety than ever.

It's my understanding that the CD6 cars (Continental and Mustang) were cancelled before Hackett was here and it's one of the contentious issues that caused problems for Fields who had pushed for the platform and justified funding by promising more products than it ultimately got. The problems came up relatively early in development so they ended up not wasting a ton of money to make the platform flexible for other products, although it came at the expense of volume. Ford ultimately moved to sharing the architecture's parts rather than the platform itself. It's a little tragic, but Fields was passionate about getting this product off the ground after what seemed like decades of defeated RWD dreams.

Most of the products up through 2020 have been set in stone before Hackett was here, but products after this year have some influence from the new guys, most celebrated of which is the Mach E. But all of the Hybrid programs came out of the Fields administration so quite a bit happened there, including Bronco, Ranger, and EcoSport. Fields oversaw the green lighting of Ranger and Bronco, although the whole Bronco sub brand idea and the "Beat Jeep" goal was one of Farley's first initiatives. The Bronco Scout was one of their first greenlit products which had a very short product gestation since it started life as an early Bronco idea and is basically an Escape companion piece. The whole shared "Architectures" thing was largely Hackett and Farley as well, although it was just a natural evolution of improving efficiency and development and I feel it's overstated since it's still a traditional platform strategy. The efficiency really comes down to sharing the parts bin for each 'type' of vehicle. The F-150 and Transit BEVs are all post Fields, as are almost all of the BEV products besides Mach E. They also greenlit the so called 'white space' vehicles which include the small utility and pickup. Fields was openly skeptical of BEVs and refused to steer Ford toward them, but he was a HUGE proponent for Hybrids which is something that I think the company as a whole still believes in. Although as an efficiency strategy it seems to be lacking in some applications, particularly the Explorer. The Explorer as a whole seems to be the victim of a big expensive idea that benefits Lincoln more than Ford. I'm curious to see what happens to Ford performance and Lincoln, all Fields priorities that are now fully in the hands of the new guys. I have a feeling Ford's new priorities are going to be Bronco Brand, Mustang Brand, and Pickups. I see performance focus shifting to Mustang branded vehicles while ST will obviously stay awhile as a side-benefit of Lincoln as "Sport" was before. Lincoln....who knows, their investments have been generous for their sales volume so I'm wondering where we go from here. Obviously building a Lincoln flagship from a Rivian investment shows me it's still very important.

Ford has frequently struggled in these small/midsize volume segments, even when it was booming they couldn't keep their attention focused on them because they were constantly reorganizing to make the business case work. The final nail in the coffin was trying to make a one-size-fits-all showroom for the entire world and that didn't work which stalled their ability to continue refining products. Ford has long struggled with brand loyalty in these segments because of this wishy-washy experiment, which means they had to spend more to earn less in order to keep customers coming. And every time they lost the market, they had to win them back at great expense with little stability. These segments are spoken for, they lost them long ago and it's too expensive to get them back now that the market is in decline and galvanized around the few who are still loyal to Toyota, Honda, and the bargain bin. If the trade Gods were in our favor, ideally we could have still received a Focus Active to keep their foot in the door, but that didn't happen. We still have more vehicles coming in new segments so it's really a matter of just letting Ford fill its factories with things they can grow that are bought by worthwhile customers. Not to mention the automobile is rapidly changing right now, going back is rarely the solution if you can innovate.

Because of the black cladding and smallish rims, I think this car looks best in black, seems to slim it down to my eyes anyway. I know that defeats the trick they did to preserve the coupe profile, but I'm mostly interested in solving the wheel to body ratio. I'm not sure the huge black wheel trim pieces help or hurt on contrasting colors, but the monochrome black looks classier to me.

Mach E generally looks a bit pudgy for its narrow low rolling resistance tires. Tesla seems to handle this style conundrum better by being a little more lean and honest with the EV design. Ford is putting it on thick to give the Mach E that Mustang look with the bulging body work and blockier front-end. The side-effect is that the car really only looks its best with the incredibly inefficient 20's on the GT. Most people won't be that preoccupied by it I'm sure, but a good number of Mach Es will be running around with smallish rims and black body cladding which isn't going to flatter the Mustang styling and badging all that well. It's still a good looking car no matter how much you cheapen it, but the wheels are a sore spot with this design.

It seems long but it's actually a fairly standard lifecycle at Ford/Lincoln (8 Years with an MCA in the middle). I think the big issue is that the 2019 MCA did not update the interior to the new design, not to mention MKX (2016) got the design right before Lincoln went in a new direction (2017) which is the reason it feels so outdated after only 3 model years. If it's any help, a 2023MY product will usually be out in CY (Calendar Year) 2022. Hopefully sooner rather that later. All I know so far is that both are FWD with the Edge getting a Hybrid. I'm sure Nautilus will as well (probably PHEV), but no information yet to confirm. The 2020 Escape head of exterior design is actually leading the Edge design. At the Spring Escape reveal, he told me they had just begun their work on it.

I'm more relieved by the elimination of aging models than the elimination of cars. I'm not happy the Fusion is going away, but I strongly believed all of the others needed to go, especially because the Focus has always been a troublesome product for the US for many reasons. I like the idea of the Fusion being replaced by what the Mondeo is getting, a low-slung stylish crossover (essentially a better looking wagon). But it looks like we aren't getting that. And anybody thinking Ford will have to go back to Focus hasn't seen what is coming yet.

The Mach E looks soo good, the proportions and the smooth seamless surfacing really set it apart from Ford in general. It sounds crazy, but I like it better than the Mustang Prime. It looks much more upscale and progressive than other Fords and more closely resemble Lincoln quality. And when you think about the price, it definitely should be all those things. I just wish all Fords would look as compelling...I really think Explorer and Escape are notable design misses despite some great proportions.

Poking through the websites, I'm realizing now that Ford and Lincoln are nearing the end of the great car purge that has eliminated a bunch of aging car models. C-Max, Focus, Taurus are officially gone, while Explorer/Aviator and Escape/Corsair are finally new and fully stocked. Fiesta inventory is almost dried up and will likely be scrubbed from the site by the end of the year, and Flex ends production this week. MKT has already been scrubbed from the Lincoln inventory and website. That just leaves Fusion/MKZ left for another year. Next year we start adding a bunch of new nameplates (Mach E, Bronco, Bronco Scout) and the updated F-150. So in relatively short order, Ford has dramatically reshaped the lineup and cleaned house. Feels good to see the renovation finally coming together and setting the stage for lots of new stuff.

Here are a couple of great videos on the matter.

That took longer than the 48 Hours they hoped for.

The First Edition of the Mach E has finally sold out. Ford internally believed they would sell out in 48 hours which wasn't the case unfortuantely. It's still available overseas. Just a reminder, 50K are to be made in the first year, but only 20K are slated for the US with a majority going to the EU. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/11/27/ford-mustang-mach-e-first-edition-sold-out/

Those wheels are a Focus EV exclusive.

It's hard to get around the fact that Model 3 and Model Y don't have the luxuries of other cars, but the driving experience is typically very positive for a number of reasons. Driving without a transmission makes such a huge difference, torque is smooth and responsive without the need to feather the transmission or throttle to ensure smooth performance. The engine isn't constantly reminding you that it's working hard. It's really quite a nice luxurious experience on its own and you quickly understand why this is better and the only way forward. Tesla certainly isn't the only one that can do this, imagine what a Lincoln BEV can do, it's really the only way to achieve MAXIMUM Lincoln. Lincoln and Ford can certainly nail the sound isolation that Tesla seems to fall short on. And Ford/Lincoln's feature suite is different, certainly more comprehensive in many areas.... if not in the key areas that distinguish Tesla.

According to this article, Lincoln is getting Small (Mach E), Midsize, and Large (Rivian) BEV Utilities by 2023. I'm not entirely convinced in some of these details yet because I know we are getting a Midsize Lincoln/Ford BEV based on the Mach E architecture, but I have no indication we are getting a compact BEV for Lincoln based directly on Mach E. Until I get a code for that car, I'm skeptical it exists yet. But if it does, that would certainly change my Mach E preorder plans. The U787 is news to me, but it sounds right.

Transit BEV is another.

Nobody I know can confirm the 2021 Lincoln BEV and it would be a little strange not to see a code for it at this point. China was suppose to get a distinctive Lincoln small utility with dimensions similar to Corsair, but I assumed that was unrelated to the Mach E. Anyway, I'll know if this article is accurate once the U787 actually appears at Ford.

Because it's using the U-Code instead of CD like the other Lincoln BEV in development, I'm guessing this is an even larger Utility like Aviator. Nobody I know has seen this code pop up anywhere at Ford so this is all very fascinating. It's also possible the other Lincoln BEV has been replaced by this one which would account for the cancelled Flatrock expansion, but I'm just speculating on that. Anyway, some of codes to be aware of right now. U787 Rivian Lincoln CDX746/747 Ford/Lincoln Larger Mach E based BEV Crossover CD539/U540 2023 Edge/Nautilus CD542 Mondeo Replacement CX758/P758 Crossover/Compact Pickup The new Nautilus has a U Code which is interesting, but it's still a FWD crossover. The CD542 replacing the Mondeo is only going to Europe and is getting a PHEV. This was thought to be the Fusion replacement as well but it may not be slated for the US, which would be a shame. So I'm guessing that Fusion wagon-like mule we saw awhile ago is CD542 and it may not be a US-bound product. I hope I'm wrong and it's just the CX758, but that makes less sense since that product was suppose to be a right-sized affordable utility to replace the wrong-sized EcoSport alongside a Pick Up companion.,

Taking a 2nd look I can see the that the fender line is consistent with the Scout which is straight across on the top edge and rounded up at the bottom (thanks to the clamshell hood design which Bronco Prime doesn't get). The Bronco R suggests something more rounded at the top corners, but who knows since that vehicle has wide non-production fenders. This may just represent a different version of the grille than we see in the leaked images or the prototype. The prototype has a grille that goes straight across up to the round headlight with the running lights integrated into larger grille slots. This grille has a different motif going on, but a leak at this stage would make more sense for the Scout.

That is a curious one, it doesn't really look like it fits the Bronco Scout fascia and doesn't really resemble the leaked images (unless they've changed significantly again). But it also doesn't resemble the shapes seen through the camo on the Scout prototypes. The Scout has a more complicated shape at the fenders rather than this more symmetrical design which better fits the Bronco R fender cut out. This also looks too wide and narrow for the boxier scout fascia. More importantly, that extra wide headlight cut out is not consistent with the Bronco Scout designs. I more inclined to believe this from the Bronco, but that's because we don't really know what the Bronco is going to look like yet. But I think the fact a mould is leaking this early suggests something closer to production, which would be the Scout.

They also used Mustang as a basis for its design, although I think you could get away with a different name just by swapping out the taillights. The design is otherwise consistent with other Fords, even if everybody would be drawing comparisons to the Mustang. But in that scenario, the comparisons would be more positive and less divisive. I am somewhat onboard with the Mustang name, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't work out longterm. I still think this is a strange world to mash together and it's hard to see this as customer centric. I don't know how they got Mustang and not Mustang people onboard in the clinics, but perhaps they did. I got onboard, but not because it was a Mustang. I like the tech and design and largely ignore the Mustang nonsense. I also appreciate the innovative thoughtfulness to the design inside and out, lots of nice touches. I usually couldn't care less about Ford products because they are bland and penny-pinched to death, even if they are riding on exciting foundations. But the Mach E excites me because it has many new things to geek out over. But I'm always on the fringes, usually what I like is a bad thing for Ford, this car seems uncharacteristically indulgent for them. That tells me that maybe they REALLY get it, they know what excites people in this market.

Fake cars driving around in a circle is losing popularity?....tell me more! Actually most spectator sports are losing popularity in the US.

I think the big hangup for me might be leasing. Ford doesn't say there will be leasing available, only that there will be an option for those people who want a shorter term with the vehicle. I would not be surprised if leasing is not an option which would likely mean I go get a Model Y instead. I think the important thing to keep in mind is that Ford is very capacity constrained because of batteries which means they won't be challenging Tesla volume for years to come. Ford still has a really long road to hoe on EVs, it's going to remain a very tiny business for awhile.