As I find myself more and more in need of a pickup that can swing DD duty, the new Ranger actually fits a lot of what I want. The question is if I can justify the price over a ~5 year old F150. As someone who tends towards smaller, sportier cars, I don’t see a real significant, functional difference between a crew cab …

twist-bear rear suspension

I doubt the Ranger’s 2.3 will be spec’d like the Mustang. Probably more likely to get the Explorer-spec motor, which makes 280hp/310tq.

Uh, yeah.  Fox platform was Granada based, or close enough for a dumb joke.

Hey now, the Mustang was only Granada-based for, urm, 25 years.

Yes, but if your Double Big Gulp is full, you’ll only see a combined 56mpg from the Blue and 53 from the SEL and Limited.

Curious how the 2.3L EB is gonna be in a full “mid”-size truck and how the performance and mileage will compare to the 2.7L F150.

The best feature I ever had on a car was on mid-80s Mazda-built Mercury. The outermost vents on the dash could be switched from HVAC to outside air. It was FANTASTIC because in winter I could have the heater on full blast on my feet while still getting cool fresh air from outside. Never have I seen a car before or…

“Amazingly affordable”?  Have you priced out a hachi these days?  Takumi tax is very real, man.

Does CA do down payment assistance? I thought the assistance programs were just reductions in the percentage of minimum down, not that you’d get money towards your down.

That’s really odd. Typically RWD Ford cars have way too much bar up front, so you need more bar out back to balance out the understeer (ideally you figure out how to fix other issues up front that lets you go to a smaller front bar, but that’s a whole other can of worms).

What sort of handling issues did you have…

That interior does not look like a place I want to spend any time in. It looks like it’s trying to split the difference between TRON and country kitchen, and it’s not doing a good job of it.

Because a Celica isn’t a 4-cylinder Supra, a Supra is a 6-cylinder Celica.

IANAL, but why did Ford make a stipulation that the purchasers couldn’t sell their GTs for 24 months instead of a stipulation that said if the purchaser wished to sell, Ford had first-purchase rights at a value to not exceed the original MSRP?

See, that’s the thing about law in this country. As much as they try to tell you different in court, it’s not about whether or not you violated the law, it’s whether that action makes you guilty of a crime, and those two are NOT the same thing (this is the whole point of a jury of your peers, read up on jury…

It’s not that hard to figure out; you drive a Lamborghini because you want people to see you driving a Lamborghini. I assume there’s some joy seeing one in your garage, and being able to fire it up and listen to it whenever you want, but ultimately it’s about being seen in it.

It’s like they looked at the headlights on a Juke and said, “let’s do that, but with taillights.”

Yeah, a new one is infinitely more comfortable, has much better handling, actually stops, gets double the fuel economy for the same/better power, much quieter inside, doesn’t leak when it rains, won’t kill you in a crash, and has more computing power than the entire planet did back in ‘69.  It’s more expensive because…

Why are you focusing on the looks? It’s an “eco friendly car”, it’s gonna look like a suppository.

I would really like to see this. Or a Prius XRS. I don’t need blistering 0-60, but I would like a hybrid or electric car that at least tries to be responsive and have decent handling that doesn’t cost $100k for the privilege. So far, the only option out there was the CR-Z, and that really needed an Si version.