Ford Escape Coming in August

[DonDNH]

On CNN Headline News just now.

The Ford Escape will be released in August.

Estimate production is 25,000.

30,000 have expressed interest to buy on Ford's web site.


Looks like another hybrid winner.

[Jerry P]

I hope they don't mess it up!! Bill Ford is probably one of the best-intentioned auto execs out there but he seems to be having a hard time changing the quality issues at Ford, though I have read that the Focus has improved greatly in the last 2 years. Ford may be able to pull itself together if the hybrids they are planning all come to pass. GM is currently run by a crew of head-in-the-sand ostriches and is doomed because they refuse to see that the automobile market is in the midst of great change.

I really hope at least one American car company survives intact.

[TonyPSchaefer]

I just wanted to share this little bit of irony.

As I was just reading this thread, my wife and I are watching "Singin' in the Rain". At this moment, the scene just came up when all the silent film movie stars watch the first demonstration of a talking movie. All the actors insist that it's a fad, it' vulgar, it'll amount to nothing. One of them projected that Warner Brothers would lose their shirts making "The Jazz Singer" and buying into this nonsense.

Made me think of all the other fads like the horseless carriage that will never replace horses, electricity that will never be universally available enough to catch on, the internet that will only be used by the government and universities, and the hybrid vehicle.

It's a good thing these temporary curiosities never caught on. I shutter to think what the world would be like.

But it also brings to mind those poeple who truly believed all these things weren't worth their while and have gone out of business hoping things would return to "normal".

[john1701a]

On NPR today, I heard comments about how skin color was regarded in some areas back in the 40's. That perspective really caught my attention.

Each lived in their own area, one type only. No one even questioned it. Then the 60's rolled in and the Supreme Court was forced to consider a change.

Some of us born after that monumental decision can't even image how that "life with blinders on" view of the world could have existed.

Well guess what, until this new Prius emerged, most people never gave hybrids a second thought. Now all of a sudden gas prices have surpassed record highs and there is no expectation of a drop throughout the entire summer. It will be as if overnight everyone recognizes that our future will be filled with diversity. The roads will be covered by a wide variety of hybrid technologies & system configurations.

The "one type only" mindset is dead now. There will soon have a whole bunch of different vehicle types on the road. The priustoric days are finally over! Yeah!!!

[aarons12]

someday maybe the post office will even realize that they are in the communications business, not the paper letter delivery business... just as the car companies need to realize they are in the transportation business, not the 'fossil fuel powered automobile' business

[PetersPrius]

Ford bought Toyota's old hybrid system for their Escape. Not as effective as the '04 Prius, but better than nothing for an American car company that is so far behind in this age.

[john1701a]

> Ford bought

Actually, they acquired it, through their ownership of Volvo. But that didn't work out too well.

So Ford actually did build a hybrid system of it's own. But they struck a deal with Toyota to avoid possible patent issues and purchased rights to their control system.

[aarons12]

actually there is extensive discussion elsewhere on this board about ford. i am not an expert but the consensus seems to be that ford did NOT buy toyota's old technology, but rather chose to pay them some licensing fees for stuff they say they developed more or less independently (ok, i'm not saying i believe that either...) and just did not want to get into any legal wrangling.

in any event, it seems that, although ford's system may not be as radically new as the 04 prius, neither is it back to the 'old' toyota system...

let's hope. i too would like to see an american car company survive and thrive. but i'm also not going to be the first to buy the first real effort by an american company. can anybody say '1984 olds cutlass diesel'? and not unlike this hybrid situation, foreign automakers had been making great diesel products for years before the americans came along and ruined it for everybody.

[siai]

We should all be glad that General Motors is not interested in Hybrid vehicles. The early '80's 5.7 Oldsmobile diesel almost singlehandedly destroyed the diesel car and light truck market. I owned a couple of those pieces of crap but didn't learn. I later bought a 6.5 litre GMC diesel pickup that also gave me fits. When GM dropped the diesel in the pickup they sent me a letter saying that nobody wanted diesels and that the 454 was such a great engine I should buy one in my next truck. To fuel a 454 you need to own your own oil well. Anyway, Ford brought out the powerstroke and thats what I bought. Then GM went on to praise the plug-in EV --- then they tried to destroy it by putting them in museums. They designed and built two generations of the EV-1 and when it finally looked like they might have a viable car, they pulled the plug on it (pun intended). You could only lease it in a couple of cities and you had to be "someone" to even lease it. No wonder they dropped it saying that nobody wanted EV's. Now they are on a misdirected hydrogen/fuel cell kick. I am sure they will build some, lease some to a few people in select citys and then drop them because nobody wanted one. I far as I am concerned, nobody should want a hydrogen/fuel cell vehicle anyway so skip the design, tooling, production and the hype and go straight to the museum.

[bookrats]

Originally posted by siai
Now they are on a misdirected hydrogen/fuel cell kick.

Re: Daimler/Chrysler and GM's pronouncements of support for hydrogen fuel cells, I've always assumed it's basically an excuse not to look into fuel efficiency technologies available in the here and now, more than a serious business plan.

They might as well say, "We're waiting for Mr. Fusion technology, like in the Back to the Future movies."