Tan is fine *if* they choose an appropriately dark color for the surfaces that would be reflected. My 96 Taurus had a tan interior, but the dash was a dark brown - no reflection problems.

“Nailed It” on Netflix hits that same approach - people trying to bake some overly complicated cake and failing miserably. And they all have a good time laughing about it, and the professional chefs are actually quite complimentary and just give them advice on how to do better next time.

Try watching “Canada’s Worst Driver”. They put a giant tank of water on top of a car with an open sunroof and the drivers have to negotiate a course without jerky moves or else the water will slosh through the open sunroof all over them. :)

“ Being a street racer doesn’t make you a badass, it means you put others in danger so you can get your fix. “

This right here is why I found the show to be unwatchable. We don’t need to be glorifying idiots who go street racing... 

This doesn’t play into that at all.

Ford, and every other manufacturer, gets a standard for each vehicle they sell based on its size. The standard for both cars and trucks were set to rise by an amount that was considered equally challenging to achieve for all models and sizes. Sticking to all SUVs, CUVs, and trucks…

“primary motivator behind Ford’s decision to axe sedans and small cars seems to be immense pressure from Wall Street to maximize shareholder returns. “

The problem is this “maximize shareholder returns” approach is ALWAYS short-sighted. Boost this quarter, screw the future. 

Actually, it had another enemy: bad electrical grounds and integration relays. If you were lucky it would be a ground that would be easy to reach. But they could be painful to diagnose and a fair amount of labor to fix. I had two family members both junk their 98/99 Corollas over this issue - it wasn’t worth the labor…

Yeah, unfortunately my choices now look to be Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Chevrolet, Hyundai, or Kia. And given GM’s track record of making their midsize entries terrible, that leaves just Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Hyundai, or Kia. While the latter two have made great progress, I’ve been underwhelmed with their overall fit and…

And the last car Ford had in that segment was the Aspire, which many people referred to as the Perspire, because damn if you wouldn’t be sweating like a pig in that uncomfortable little rat trap.

Now I believe that crack is even stronger than I thought before. I’m 6'6", and can guarantee that the Fusion fits me very spaciously - better than the Focus. And when I’m in the driver’s seat of a Focus, the back seat is a cruel joke -NOT the case with a Fusion.

Exactly.

They’ve just given me a great excuse to buy a competitor’s vehicle. And if I ever decide to buy a crossover and have had a good experience with the competition, why should I go to Ford?

In related news, I won’t be buying another Ford when I replace my Fusion.

This is one of the dumbest, most short-sighted decisions I’ve seen a company make.

Some cars already do this to some extent, at least.

My 06 Fusion has a separate gas cap light to turn on for small evap leaks in the fuel system - so a leak like yours would have lit that light up and not the check engine light.

If Ford kills the Fusion, it looks like our next car (which will likely replace our 06 Fusion) won’t be a Ford.

google’s your friend. :)

A few years ago it was pretty widely reported that Chrysler’s costs were lower than Honda or Toyota. The real shame was back when reporters were claiming that UAW workers were costing $70-80 an hour compared to $35-40 at Toyota or Honda - because that was very clearly double counting benefits -…

And you’re still talking about a level of loading where we are nowhere near accurate enough in predictions of both the loading cases or the s-n curve to be able to engineer a part to last a precise amount of time and no more - not even to within an order of magnitude. They simply don’t have the precision to know if it…

The real question is what you would do with those extra taxes.

I would earmark roughly a quarter to road repair and maintenance (NOT expansion just yet) so that gas taxes fully pay for federal road construction. The rest I would use to fund a uniform tax credit like the “make work pay” credit from a decade ago - that…

You may have read it, but that doesn’t make it true.

An average vehicle takes roughly 30 man-hours to build today, including engine, transmission, stamping, and assembly. Are you seriously suggesting that Ford/GM wages are $67 higher per hour than the competition?

Even at its worst, the gap was only $30 per hour, and…

I’m 6'6" and drive a 1st gen Fusion and have more than enough space - and the current one is noticeably larger.

“small inside, big outside, slow, and doesn’t handle well”?

WTF are you smoking?

More front headroom, more front and rear legroom, more front and rear shoulderroom, more cargo volume, in a vehicle that is shorter than a Camry, just a hair wider, and widely reviewed to be one of the best handling cars on the market.

If…