i’m torn, Props to Ford for building a nice car but I feel like they should be penalized for building the car in china and selling it in the usa. Everyone is wanting protectionist tariffs on the Chinese automakers but somehow Ford/GM gets a pass on building in China? Why? 

I’d be more forgiving of the Alpha-numeric naming schemes if they actually meant anything, instead, that precedent has long been dead:
BMW:
M50i: 4.4t, non-M engine
Mx40i: 3.0t, non-M engine
30i: 2.0t
Mercedes:
350: 2.0t
450: 3.0t hybrid
53: spicy 3.0t hybrid
63: 4.0t, or a 2.0t hybrid
Audi:
45: 2.0t
55: 3.0t

The interior reminds me of what the Jaguar XJ COULD have been. That wraparound dashboard that continues into the doors is very nice, and does seem very boatlike. Keeping with the nautical/aviation theme Lincoln has going on right now. 

I am glad you said it Andy.

I think the Scouts look great and the brand can conceivably help VAG to return to health. But VW is going to have to have a total revamp of their mass market offerings. They can’t rely on a brand with an entry cost north of 50K to bail them out. They need an eco system that appeals to entry level buyers to create…

Mercedes-Benz is a mere shell of its former self. They’ve joined the other German manufacturers where you fear owning one after the warranty expires because it’s a four-figure bill whenever it goes in the shop. Cost cutting is just going to add to their downward spiral. Maybe they should just build quality cars that…

VW…I have owned a bunch of VAG cars. I currently don’t have any. I have had multiple R’s and GTI’s but the current interior chased me away from the Golf and fixing the steering wheel isn’t enough to bring me back. I looked at other VW’s and the vast majority of them have the same interior problems as the Golf. …

I remember as well. Every truly interesting car I ever saw growing up in the 1970s was an import. Datsuns, Toyotas, Hondas and VWs.

“ If Chinese EVs start showing up on our shores, our domestic automakers might have to start making better cars that sell for less money in order to compete.”

that is exactly what happened in the late sixties and early seventies when toyota started selling well engineered, comfortable, cheap cars. I first set eyes on a Corolla in a college parking lot in spring of 1972. Classmate bought a nice two door, manual shift, crank window car for less than two grand. Early ones…

Brand bias is funny to me. Apple was the first to successfully market ARM chipped laptops in the business space and gave us all day battery life combined with excellent real world performance. Soon the windows eco system will catch up and it will become the standard (all consumer facing mobile Surface offerings are…

Apple didn’t “fail”, they decided it wasn’t a market they wanted to try and compete in. In fact, it appears that some of the innovation we are seeing in the Chinese EV industry may be thanks to Apple:

Agreed wholeheartedly. I’ve always thought Farely seems like he would run a pretty good car company if the goddam shareholders would let him. I’m choosing to believe these quotes are him campaigning for that right.

Apple wanted to make an autonomous car, not just an EV

I was thinking this too. The Apple Car seemingly got dumber the more information about it was made available, until it just got canned. It was so obsessed with appearing inventive, nobody bothered to ask if it should do something people wanted.

Except for phones and tablets, modern Apple does not have the engineering chops they possessed a couple decades ago. Their full sized computers are overbuilt masses of sheet metal, filled with pointless heat-trap baffles and parts that do nothing to justify their monster prices, and their laptops are rattly claptrap…

what’s crazy is why Apple didn’t purchase Tesla when they had the chance? Apple has SO MUCH MONEY. They should have bought Tesla.

With that said, man this IS a pretty car. It looks like Porsche built a Model 3 out of the McLaren parts bin.

I’m sure Ford’s shareholders would rather this dude not gush about the competition, but you know what? Good for him. He’s driving the other guys’ cars and giving them an honest appraisal. I hope this car delivers some lessons for can use on their own offerings.

Small correction to the headline, but Xiaomi doesn’t build it, they contract that to BAIC who are an actual car company that has been around for decades. Still it’s kinda crazy that a smartphone company designed a car, and their first go at it is apparently really good. I wonder how much BAIC helped in that regard.