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from the It's-electric.-Boogie-woogie-woogie! dept.
Ford Motor Co. confirmed plans to build a fully electric F-Series pickup, which industry observers called an unexpected move that protects the truck franchise against Tesla and other competitors.
“We’re going to be electrifying the F-Series — battery electric and hybrid,” Jim Farley, Ford president of global markets, said Wednesday during a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Global Automotive Conference in the MGM Grand in Detroit.
In framing the company’s redesign, Farley said a move toward all-electric and hybrid would “futureproof” the billion-dollar F-Series franchise, which he called a “global juggernaut.”
[...] Creating an alternative to the combustion engine is crucial if Ford plans to protect its pickup franchise.
“Tesla is talking about coming out with an electric pickup. And look what Tesla has done in the luxury segment. They’ve clobbered just about everybody,” McElroy said. “You can’t pooh-pooh that people won't be interested in an electric pickup. Rivian Automotive is coming out with an all-electric pickup. These are the crown jewels for Ford Motor Co., the F-Series. Ford has got to react to competitive threats.”
Ford recently announced it would exit the market for cars to focus on its pickups. This announcement is another sign of the shockwaves Tesla has sent throughout the automotive industry.
[Ford is likely also keeping a watchful eye on Workhorse. --Ed.]
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Friday January 18 2019, @10:54PM (3 children)
2002? That's impressive. We run our cars until it's more expensive to fix them than replace them, but we rack up the miles fast so the older of the two vehicles we have is just from 2010 and has 150k miles. Our 2007 minivan with 187k miles needed $6,000 in repairs in 2017, so we ditched it.
I know a lot of people with shitty finances that buy low end new cars over used ones because the value of predictable costs outweighs the value of lower costs. An $18,000 Toyota Corolla that is Toyota's problem if it breaks for the first five years is often better than a $6,000 used car. If the $6,000 used car loses a transmission before it's paid off the buyer probably can't fix it or get finances approved on a replacement while they still owe a good chunk of the $6,000, so they're really in deep trouble. But in our case we could have afforded something older, we bought new for luxury. Our two year old minivan is a Chrysler Pacifica and the magic feature that made us spend all that extra money was: 8 USB ports. That way there isn't a five way fight over who charges their electronics every damn time we get into the thing. I'm hoping we're going to buy used going forward.
Shopping for vehicles is always a mess. When our previous minivan died I contacted six different Chrysler dealers asking for a quote on the trim level and color we wanted. All six had that exact model in stock listed on their websites, it's a common combination. Three of the six got back to me, but two of them only said, "Come to the lot to check it out." One gave me a price by email. We bought it there, and we told them they won the sale because nobody else would even show us numbers up front. We were renting a replacement minivan for $500 a week, with the benefit of hindsight I should have just rented it two more weeks and bargained harder with the dealers. I probably could have saved at least another $1000, which would have covered the rental cost. Some people got the same trim for $3,000 less than we did. You live, you learn.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 19 2019, @02:09AM (2 children)
Our miles are low: 1991 2 seater owned since new, 115Kmi daily driven until about 4 years ago, but we never lived too far from work... Needs more love than it gets, but I'll be damned if I'm selling it for the $3K it might bring on the open market. I bought this one during the first Gulf War, good deals on new cars were easy pickings for a couple of months there.
1999 2 seater - auto trans for the wife, 110Kmi when we bought it off Craigslist for $2500 about 5 years ago, about 130Kmi now. Have been treating it right, might have $2K in maintenance/repairs, might be able to sell it today for $3K or so, but I'm pretty sure it has at least another 20Kmi in it before anything expensive goes, maybe 70Kmi or more...
1999 truck owned since new, 145Kmi - gets parked a lot because of the cost of fuel, but seats 6 and does "truck stuff" really well. I'm guessing it will be sticking with us until at least 200Kmi. Maintaining things like tie-rod ends, shock absorbers, etc. really keeps it feeling fresh. The dealer we bought it from was happy to let it go for $500 over invoice, it had been on their lot unsold for over 6 months...
2002 bought ~3 years ago with 45Kmi, currently around 95Kmi - big Benz, family car, gets most of the miles these days - only paid $12K, so not much to lose on the depreciation side. Some day it will get expensive to repair, but so far it has been pretty reasonable. Compare with the 2014 Hyundai Sonatas and Dodge Chargers we were looking at when we bought it - they were running around $20K with ~20K miles, it takes a lot of gas and a lot of maintenance to eat up an $8K cost differential, and the big Benz is a much sweeter ride along the way. The dealer had a $11,750 price in the window when we saw it, I think bluebook was $11,500 at the time - when we came back for a test drive the next morning window sticker was gone and the first price they quoted us was $13K - managed to drive it off the lot for $12,000 total after all their BS fees and the state registration stuff, but not sales tax IIRC - I think their "price" on the final deal was $10,500+++. Pretty happy with it even if we did pay $500 over "excellent condition" in the book, it was right down the street from home, the next closest similar car with similar miles was listed 300 miles away... These cars listed for $80K+ when new, insane. Even more insane, bluebook value on the car is now down around $4K.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday January 22 2019, @03:48PM (1 child)
The Benz is S-class, right? Nice.
I work full time remote since late 2013. But from mid 2001 to present my wife and I have put a combined 700k on the vehicles we owned, so we're averaging more than twice as many miles per year as you. Some of that's work, some of it is being dumb enough to settle in suburbs and have four kids we have to drive all over.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:45PM
Yeah, a "bottom of the line" S430 - really sweet car.
I had been looking for a smallblock 1969ish Buick Skylark or similar to restore with good A/C and probably a fuel injection conversion (drop-in carb replacement), the wife wanted a new-ish Sonata or maybe Charger... the S430 was a great compromise.
🌻🌻 [google.com]