It strikes me as cynical to blame gov’t mandates around EVs and fuel efficiency for Ford and its legacy brethren screwing up so badly in their approach to EVs.

When exactly did the government mandate the killing of small hatchbacks and sedans?

No, the manufacturers are run by shortsighted people who chase quarterly profits. The government didn’t have much at all to do with it.

The government didn’t mandate that Ford kill off all of its affordable offerings. Ford was simply following the cynical “build less, charge more” pricing model that a number of car manufacturers thought they could get away with in the wake of pandemic supply chain issues.

They all thought they could be Tesla on day 1.

The cheapest new Ford you can buy will set you back over $31,000 once fees are factored in, fully $10,000 more than a base Chevy Trax.

The perfect example of “lipstick on a pig”.

the most galaxy brained elon bullshit fix ive heard in a long time.

I never said it was a big, only “seems to be as big” The styling makes it look HUGE.

Is the pedal aluminum or steel? This will be key. Pop rivets work with aluminum, not for steel because of a variety of reasons such as galvanic corrosion and differential expansion.

To say the styling of the BMW XM is controversial would be the understatement of the decade, and apparently BMW likes it that way. In fact, BMW chairman Oliver Zipse said as much: “Of course it’s a plan, otherwise we wouldn’t do it. If you want to change design, any step into the future that is perceived as new will…

Hummer EV. We don’t need 10,000-pound tanks hitting 60 mph in 3 seconds on public roads that any goober is allowed to drive.

I did not give two shits about the V8 Wrangler, but now that I know they are $92K —I am outraged. Holy cow.  

I think you are being a bit overly dramatic here.  Aluminum pop rivets are widely used across many industries, and this little cover is going to not stress the damn thing at all.  I highly doubt the oxide coating is going to crack at all.

To their credit, I expected they'd just run a couple of sheetrock screws through and call it done. 

I am floored that this is being sold as a new car - if you told me it was a 2014 model I would’ve believed you. Every last piece of the interior looks dated.

I saw my first CT in the wild over the weekend. It is impressively large. It seems to be as big as a F250 extended cab with an 8 foot bed. It did stand out in the crowd of cars and drew the eye to notice it.

Penny Arcade Nailed it today.

It occurred to me over the weekend that it looks very much like the box a truck might come in. 

How quickly will the top of that single rivet wear out and drop out? A year?