WTF is Ford thinking???

[Aspen500]

Not FMJ related so sue me.
Think I'm going to puke. Ford is bringing out an electric car/suv thing and named it Mustang Mach-E. Are they on crack? Want to build a car with a very limited market, fine. Just don't pollute the Mustang name. Of course they are still going to build the real Mustang for years to come but I think they're making a huge mistake. Name it something else, not Mustang. Probably a bunch of millenial's that don't have the slightest idea what the name Mustang means to it's buyers. Plus, the Mach-E isn't exactly what you would call a good looking vehicle. I've seen worse (Azteck or any French car comes to mind). Anyways, that's my rant.

 

[Justwondering]

It seems odd to me that so many of the automakers are walking away from sedans and only making SUV's. All the SUVs seem like they are 95% the same -- maybe different taillights, but basically the same.

Headed down the electric road may be fine if you are in a city but seems like a losing situation in the rural areas. No way to charge it back up once you finally do get somewhere. Heck I generally have 1 or 0 bars on my cell phone, the internet I pay dearly for usually dies about 9 pm on Friday night and only returns with degraded service until Monday morning when they 'bump the sector' whatever the heck that is. Seems we aren't worth the effort to upgrade the towers/antennas/radios.

Yet, Ford and others would have you believe an electric car is the way to go. I am forced to buy electric from a rural co-op because none of the big players want to care for the low-density of the country folks. So I pay almost double what the big guys charge, but Ford now wants me to put that into a car? No way.

Boy, I'm mouthy tonight.. ha ha

JW
(but its Saturday and the internet hasn't failed yet)

 

[Trey]

That abortion is not a Mustang.

 

[old yellow 78]

I looked briefly at the new "Mustang Mach E".... ugh. I just don't like it. The name doesn't fit, and the car itself is ... well, ugly. The worst thing about it other than that Tesla-like blank face, is the really horrendous huge touch screen bolted on the face of the dash. It looks like they glued a huge laptop on the dash as an afterthought. I also agree that it is likely a mistake for FoMoCo to completely abandon sedans.

 

[Aspen500]

I believe they've discontinued the Taurus already(?) and are going to discontinue the Fusion due to "lack of sales". I don't get that one. You can't go more than 10 seconds without seeing a Fusion on the road and, they are actually one of the best cars Ford has ever made. Chrysler did the same thing with the Dart, "lack of sales" yet those things are everywhere you look. I just don't get what they're thinking. At least Ford isn't completely stupid, the REAL Mustang is going to be around for a long time. SUV, COV, whatever they call them, Just wondering is right, they all look the same and the looks aren't exactly good in most cases.

I hadn't seen the interior of the so called Mach-E and now wish I could unsee it. Doesn't look like an interior you'd expect in a $55,000 vehicle, looks like a sea of cheap molded plastic, and that touch screen...............................Could we build vehicles with even more crap you have to take your eyes off the road to operate? What's wrong with control knobs? All 3 vehicles I own, I can work the HVAC, wipers, lights, radio, all by feel. Don't even need to look and that's the way it should be. All this talk about distracted driving and those idiots that text, yak on their stupid cell phone, eat, whatever while driving and then they build things with touch screen that you HAVE to look at to operated, then go through 3 menus to get to the thing you want to operate,,,,,,,,,,,,it's just plain dumb. As for electric, the justification people use for buying them is "they're emissions free". Well, no they're not. The electricity has to be produced somewhere plus, overall electric vehicles cause more pollution when you figure in the mining of raw materials (like lithium for the batteries), refining those materials, shipping, building and eventually the scrapping of the car. With gasoline power you can go from dead to a full charge in 5 minutes. Those electric cars you sit and wait for 8 hours. Pity the unknowing person that touches the wrong cables. Of course they'll never know they made a mistake because, just like hybrid's, if you touch the high voltage terminals, it's instant death. The voltage isn't the problem, it's the mega amps of current that are instant heart stoppers. No thank you.
LOL, wonder the Ford will randomly burst into flames like a Tesla?

 

[Oldiron440]

Like it or not that's the future of the automotive world.

 

[Duke5A]

I like it. It's not a Mustang, but I like it nonetheless. I absolutely hate touchscreens, but everything is going that way.

Ford and GM are axing their sedans because they are getting ready for a big push into electrics and it requires a totally different chassis than the ones they're currently tooled for. Tesla has been a resounding success thus far and anyone looking ten years into the future knows the market is heading that direction both naturally and through coercion (see Europe). This is something you don't want to fall behind in the R&D race.

 

[old yellow 78]

that touch screen...............................Could we build vehicles with even more crap you have to take your eyes off the road to operate? What's wrong with control knobs?

they build things with touch screen that you HAVE to look at to operated, then go through 3 menus to get to the thing you want to operate,,,,,,,,,,,,it's just plain dumb.

I absolutely hate touchscreens, but everything is going that way.

That enormous touch screen glued to the dash of the "Mustang" would itself be enough to keep me from buying the car. I think it is hideous! I think it must be targeted to the gamers and Millennials. I agree that the touch screens are very distracting. So does Mazda, who makes a point of not offering them, deliberately. The screen in the CX 30 is much smaller, integrated nicely into a beautiful, somewhat retro-looking dash, and is NOT touch operated. It is controlled by a knob and two buttons located right in back of the shifter on the console where your hand naturally rests while driving, and requires only small movements of your fingers to control. Eyes stay on the road as the controls are operated by tactile recognition and movement.

The Mazda screen is right at eye level and about 8 inches wide. Note the two tone black/brown dash:

The screens controling central knob and accompanying buttons are seen here on the console, right in back of the shifter, perfectly posistioned for your hand while your arm is on the arm rest. No visually looking for a particular icon or touch box on a huge bright screen, it's all done by feel with fingers from the arm rest. Nice!

For comparison here is the Mustang Mach E dash:

And the Mazda CX 30 dash:

I honestly think I would have to fight the impulse to rip that huge screen off the dash and throw it out the window. Imagine how distracting that screen would be driving at night!

 

[Aspen500]

That Ford screen looks like an after thought, so they ran down to Best Buy and bought a tablet (or whatever they're called) and stuck it to the dash vents.
Sort of related: At work when we do an oil change, in most cases we also have to reset the stupid oil change reminder. Some are a simple pump the throttle 3 times and done. Others you have to search through a menu, find the correct sub menu and then the sub menu of the sub menu, make sure your pointed due east, put your left leg behind your head............................. Worst part about them is, when the reminder comes up it's way past where the oil should have been changed. Those that go by the sticker have few engine problems. Those that go by the reminder message end up with timing chains stretched or jumped, variable cam timing problems, frozen/plugged pcv systems and the resulting rear main seal blowing out (GM Ecotec especially) and any number of other problems, or even outright catastrophic engine failure. Guess it's just more work for me, right?

 

[Oldiron440]

I like it, I'm 61 and your xx tripping over your feet too hate it....go figure.

 

[Aspen500]

How many electric cars have I seen around here? Well, there was the one (and only one) Leaf the Nissan dealer sold and,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,that's it. I've never seen a Tesla in person or any other all electric vehicle for that matter. There aren't even that many Prius's or other hybrid's, despite what "they" say. I think electric and hybrid are kind of a regional thing maybe? The Chevy dealer had the Chevy Volt and Bolt and how many of those did they sell? A big fat zip, not single one.
I have to have the sound of an engine under the hood, preferably one with 8 cylinders I know all electric is coming but I also know gasoline powered vehicles will be around a long time to come.

 

[Opticon77]

Batteries still suck and no amount of subsidies are hiding that fact. I might be inclined to buy an E-car as a comfy local commuter appliance, but not for $40k when my 40mpg TURBO Chevy Sonic was less than half that... And I'll probably feel that way for as long as gasoline remains cheaper than apple cider... And Ford keeps giving their cars Powerwheels interiors.

 

[kkritsilas]

A few things to keep in mind regarding electric vehicles:

1. At this time, no jurisdiction has applied a road tax to electric vehicles as has been placed on gasoline for a long time. If electric vehicles do get to the point where they make up a significant percentage of the vehicle population. When there is enough of the electric vehicles around to start impacting the road tax revenues, how much does anybody want to bet the politicians will institute that tax?

2. Nobody has taken a sober look at the power grid regarding power draw with a significant percentage of electric vehicles being recharged at the same time. The power grid was designed to deliver power to homes with a typical 100A service. Now take 20-30-40% of those homes and add a 100A quick charger additional load for the overnight recharging of electric vehicles. Does somebody see an issue? Even if the generation capacity is there (which may or may not be the case; varies from location to location). in some locations, more generating capacity may be needed, which could mean greenhouse gas generation.

3. This will not necessarily apply to warmer areas, but living in Calgary, we do have cold winters. The range of electric vehicles in the cold, just to reduced temperatures slowing chemical processes down. There is also a range reduction due to people using the heater, as you have neither coolant or exhaust as a heat source, and nobody likes driving around in a refrigerator. So, in cold weather, range reductions of 40% and greater will be seen.
Ranges quoted are already optimistic, a 40%+ range reduction may leave people on the side of the road.

 

[Oldiron440]

I've always wanted to know what they have for heat/defrost in them and how fast that must zap the battery.

 

[XfbodyX]

They got this, its all still so much in its infancy. We got to the moon in 1969 with alot of the same parts that were in the new color tv-s. Look how far we have came with autos in the last 50-75 years. Air power, ect.

The growing pains for ele cars should be fun to sit back and watch.

They could outlaw fossil fuel today, I grow alot of corn and got alot of places to hide old non connected muscle. In fact I kinda wish crazy AJ was right and the sky was falling.

Anymore im just happy to wake up and still be able to walk and work, you guys can worry about these new ele. cars, im still trying to ponder that if the F cars were so new and modern and advanced, why did ma mopar forget about the dated 318/904 deal.

 

[XfbodyX]

Thinking more about the growing pains, take the pinto and the people frying gas tanks. Well gas burns right at 500 degrees but a lithium battery burns close to 1000. Add some al foil and some dry rub, wont take long at 1000 degrees.

 

[Oldiron440]

Laugh at the pinto all you want but they strapped wings on those things and flew them!

 

[XfbodyX]

Im not laughing at them, I had one, a aunt died and left her 3000 mile pinto to me and my brother. Fun car. Unfortunately it was a funner go cart then car on thr dirt roads and by the end of the summer it was knocking bad and then the T belt broke and I swapped it for a ford truck.

But it was a nice solid car. I actually like them, If I could find a nice one or bobcat cheap id turbo a tiny 4 cylinder and have some fun.

 

[Oldiron440]

 

[Oldiron440]

The end......