Yes, you're quite right. However, as the recipient of my fathers largesse of donating old Mopars to the teenage driving cause and then Chevy Vegas for the "economy" of it, I will dispute the '80s as being the "starting" point of their uncoupling from reality. In late '73, the Arab oil embargo occurred which really…

Ah! Sorry I missed that! Well, never hurts get the story out there. Thanks for putting the link in.

It is indeed the factory wheel...a friend had one of these in the late 1970s and it had that woodgrain wheel and dash trim.

I'm seeing some Ferrari Daytona...

A Ridgeline rides worlds better than any other "real" pick up truck does. Instead of thinking of it as a dick size compensating full size pick up, it needs to be thought of as a mid-size SUV with a much more usable cargo area that doesn't have the need for a nasty aftermarket bedliner or an expensive locking…

"It prompts the question though:"

PT Cruiser was a smash hit that after several unchanged years, merely fell out of fashion.

Wow. That is a level of unnecessary only the Germans could manage. Still, absolutely amazing.

Or...

Am I the only one who thinks this would be a great opportunity for Richard Rawlings/Discovery Channel to step up and fix this car?

Well, living in Brazil, the Corvette is as rare and exotic as other half million cars, so it never had that stigma about it. Then again, my family has been with Chevrolet since the 70's, so there's that. I only started liking Porsches later on, hahah....

Exactly... I like to think that neither is objectively better than the other, just that they're different, and, to me, the Vette has a little more appeal than the Porsche, but I'm a sucker for a good 911 as much as the next man. Specially if it's a 993.

Tour-egg, twah-reg, too-arr-egg, twahr-egg...I still don't know

That's exactly what I'm getting at-that your Escort was reliable because of its simplicity. It didn't have any overcomplicated electronics that got ruined over time. On the other hand you have all these new pickups that are supposed to be utilitarian and reliable, yet car companies just keep putting vulnerable…

That's why they're (hopefully) staying true to the Atlas concepts. You can see lots of Raptor there.

I didn't mean a multi-link IRS. With a four-link you can still use a solid axle. That's what the Grand Cherokee started using back in the early 90s and then carried over to the Wrangler with the TJ model. Most, if not all, offroad racing trucks use that setup.

Fair enough. But surely some of the work that goes into the mainstream F150 will make it's way to the Raptor. The 10-speed gearbox probably not, but the fact that they're trying to save weight on the base F150 probably means a new Raptor would be lighter as well.

Seeing how the current one has a leaf spring rear suspension maybe they could do a four-link with coils. I know it's more cost effective to just use what's on the regular F150s and the leaf springs are better for typical truck stuff. It would just be sick to see a really nice long-travel rear setup.

One thing that we can all agree on is that it's most likely going to be packed with Ford's various useless electronic entertainment, navigation, lane departure, etc...bullshit systems that will all fail right as the warranty expires. Oh and you won't be able to opt out of them because...Ford.