sorry guys but the only explorer you should ever care about or want is this one

 

looks super

 

I think Ford will kill off GM completely. They are headed in the right direction.

 

I like it. Especially now that is is built on a car frame vs. truck frame it might ride a bit more car like. The hard core off roaders who need the crazy off road talents & high tow capacity ratings never really bought these cars anyways. I would get a V6 version, though the new Jeep Grand Cherokees look nice as well.

 

100%

 

I am a little hesitant to heap praise on the car. I kind of like the looks of the Edge. I see them fairly optioned up and selling in the Sunday ads new for $22k. What gives? Then I checked some of the owner reviews to find them filled with hate. Huge dash, poor visibility, bad driving dynamics, extremely poor gas milage. It was very easy to find owners who just hated them and its a fairly new design. I guess I was fairly surprised because I think Ford has done some really good things lately.

I also know a handfull of people with Explorers from the last few years or so and they pretty much universally hate them. Including my brother who can't wait for the thing to die. He'd get rid of it but the resale is poor and he says he is lucky to get 15mpg in the thing and it is routinely in the shop for nickle and dime stuff.

Then I read the article about how this new design has dropped from 5000 pounds to 4900. Which leads me to belive milage will only be marginally better and I can only guess at the long term build quality given the history of the vehicle line.

It LOOKS good from the outside, but its still a pig that most likely suck gas. And maybe it will be reliable. There are so many SUV offerings to choose from that I don't know I would put my money here.

 

It looks like an upgraded Ford Edge from the exterior profile. It's nice, though.

 

That's a pretty broad statement, I understand that there are some fat cat higher ups who don't deserve the paper their check is printed on. However, I've watched my father who's worked on assembly line his entire life work and earn his pay accordingly. The UAW is responsible for many beneficial education programs, diversity training, etc. I think our country's line workers deserve a bit more respect than the statement you originally posted that's all.

/Rant

With that said I'm very excited about the direction Ford is going in!

 

Nice, Ford is coming along nicely.

 

Yeah, unions exist for a reason and it's not greedy workers. Organized labor is a direct and legal response to the abuses of the early industrial age where people were basically indentured servants. Did the mob get in on the act? Yeah. Are there some lazy bums milking the union system? Sure? Is the average Joe and Jane a decent person who wants to be proud of the job they do? I think so.

I'm a former Fortune 100 exec now working in private equity. I'm supposed to hate organized labor. Virtually all of my brethren do. But, my father was a union carpenter and I know first hand that he was obsessive about "getting it right". He used to argue that unions would be the undoing of their membership if they persisted in unreasonable demands. My uncle was a union electrician and the union made sure he was qualified with training and certification programs. Another uncle was a union machinist and he was about the most honest and well liked guy I've ever met. On the other hand, I've personally seen union members sit on a toilet in a mens room reading the paper for an hour to hide from their work. And I've seen a union send five guys to do a two person job so that a couple of guys end up just standing around bored out of their minds. I've also seen grievances filed because an office worker changed their own light bulb. So rather than bash a few bad apples, I've always tried to look at the root cause for mistrust between labor and management. There's always plenty of blame to go around. There's a bountiful supply of stupid and precious little reason.