Then it breaks, and they point the finger at the engineer.

I work in the industry, it’s not a delusion to say that they are separate. Is there overlap, sure, but they both have completely different goals.

Ever worked in the industry? Honestly, it’s like the designer says “we want it this way”, the engineer says “that’s dumb and stupid and not a good engineering design”, and then management says “yeah but the designer thinks it looks better, so we’re going with that”.

The biggest offender in this design is that they relocated the mirrors to the door body, but then just filled that triangular area of the window in with BLACK FUCKING PLASTIC!!! The whole fucking point of door-mounted mirrors is to allow you to make that area out of stuff you can see through, like glass, and reduce…

But....you have to hold it down for 10 seconds!

That’s because the baddies never remember to turn the traction control off.

It also has marginal to poor occupant protection, if you read the report.

1st gear: Jim Hackett is the former CEO of Steelcase. During his reign he led a massive transition of a large dinosaur manufacturer into a distributed and far more flexible modernized model. This included large scale downsizing. I have assumed from day one that he was brought in by Ford to do the same thing.

“The crash regs have become so doctored, so specific to such ridiculous situations that it’s forcing vehicle engineers to design vehicles that aren’t as safe as they should be.”

Forget electronics or stars, the front impact rating is 50%.
Which is downright terrible for a new car sold by a major manufacturer.
The re-styled Fiat Panda (a model from 7 years ago) scored 45%.
A good car scores 90% or better (I’m always talking about front impact ONLY).
Even the new Suzuki Jimny (same body on frame…

What’s this guy doing in here?

Maybe don’t name your child something moronic if you don’t want yourself (and your child) ridiculed for the rest of their life. And this from a guy who named his son after his favorite Top Gear presenter.

My understanding is that a RWD Conti on this platform was in the works, but has since been cancelled. 

the only thing those have in common is four wheels at each corner

Cadillac’s answer? A FWD XT6, probably only available with a 230 hp 2.0T and 310 hp V6.

Lincoln has been killing it lately with their SUV/Crososver lineup. I am no fan of crossovers but with 450Hp/600Lb-ft and that interior, as a family vehicle, why the hell not?

Maybe the 4.2L TT will be going in the they-swear-its-coming-any-day-now mid-engine Corvette.