Breaking: Ford to discontinue its sedans in the US market

[danasgoodstuff]

19 hours ago, GA Russell said:

You car guys would know better than me:

1) Didn't the discontinuation of classes signal the beginning of the end of both AMC and Studebaker?

2) Are the crossovers higher off the ground more likely to roll over?

Studebaker probably built more classes of vehicles (heavy truck sales were tiny, for instance) than it should have, right up until Dec. '63 when the board decided to get out of vehicle production entirely and closed South Bend (they only continued on a limited basis in Hamilton so the dealers wouldn't sue them, the company survived after they got out of vehicle production entirely in '66) .  But Stude then and Ford now are two very different things.  Ford will continue with cars for other markets, right?  So they could bring them back here...

Edited April 28, 2018 by danasgoodstuff

[Guy Berger]

10 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

I gained a whole new perspective and respect for the Prius that day. Although the little joystick thing is still really weird to me. Though my son just bought a used Chrysler 200, and you turn a dial to shift it into gear. Bizarre. 

We had a Prius as our prior car.  I wouldn't say it was a particularly cool car to drive and it really struggled on big hills, but was easily the most practical vehicle I'd ever driven.

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, most cars with small engines are weiight and incline sensative. My Juke certainly is. 

[mjzee]

There's an article in today's Wall Street Journal titled "The Real Reason Ford Is Phasing Out Its Sedans."  I can't link to it, but here's the key paragraph:

Now, as then, Ford and others are exploiting a well-crafted loophole in fuel economy regulations that makes bigger more profitable. In 2011, the industry won a change in the EPA’s calculation of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE). The “footprint rule”—which refers to the area within the perimeter of the four wheels—calculates a vehicle’s fuel economy as a function of its size. The rule change effectively incentivizes building larger vehicles by holding them to progressively easier standards. As a result, the largest and most profitable vehicles also enjoy the lowest relative costs of compliance. The rule change also constituted a backdoor tariff on more efficient imports, but that’s another story.  Exactly one vehicle-design generation later, the footprint rule has rippled through the auto market like a displacement wave. The average new vehicle on the American road is longer, wider and taller than the vehicle it replaces. And correspondingly more profitable.

[Scott Dolan]

Very interesting! But it seems credible, as most “compact” cars these days are the size of mid-size cars from a decade ago. 

[JSngry]

People buy how they feel, that's the hard/sad (often) truth.

Lot of fuquitousness in the world today.

[Scott Dolan]

That made up word means...?

[Scott Dolan]

Do you mean fatuousness? 

[JSngry]

No, I mean fuquitousness...say it slowly.