Well, it is tough for new brands to get in the game. If there was a company that started this year to compete against VW, VW would win because the competition is too tough. VW has experience, and can crush 1st years. Car companies are fragile and to compete with the other companies, they had to start at their 1st year.
The Ranger is on it's way back for 2019, at least of the US. I don't like the looks, but it's a Ranger. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/2019-ford-ranger-25-cars-worth-waiting-for-feature
yeah, but in the past you would either need to design an engine that is up to par with the likes of VAG/GM or buy engines from them (or more likely honda etc). Whereas with electric vehicles it is a new ball game fro everyone, meaning it is possible for certain car companies to try and get in on the action like Tesla did. For example small time car manufacturers (for the western market at least) like Isuzu and Suzuki could put some R&D into electric vehicles and potentially reach some success with them. On a side note, Windows spell check seems to want to correct Isuzu to Suzuki which is rather entertaining imo.
I'm guessing here, but maybe the new Ranger with a topper on it. Or something completely different only time will tell.
Thats kind of what I'm expecting, but if it looks anything like the orange one in that article, that would just be another crossover in Ford's lineup.
My Mustang is in the recall. I disconnected the airbags because why be wimpy and die with them? Have fun and die without them!
I'll be honest, and call me a backwards rube if you want, But I don't like airbags. I'm not saying they don't save lives, They do. But I'm not terribly excited about having some armed explosives a foot away from my face at all times, that may or may not be detonated from a rough road. Is it likely? No. But I have seen them detonate from large bumps.
I suppose I should keep that in mind, since I tend to headbutt speed bumps and have been known to accidentally find a curb or two in a dark, snowy parking lot.
If the airbags detonate from going over large bumps then a. stop running people over. b. you have probably got bigger problems with the car & or your driving since they shouldn't inflate in low speed crashes (<10 mph) never mind bumps. Also think of it less as an explosion and more as a fast chemical reaction usually resulting in lots of Nitrogen, hence inflating the bag. Equally without airbags side impacts are often lethal, to the point where if a car is not fitted with them then they refuse to do side impact testing since it will destroy the crash test dummies. One thing that I have found surprising is that US airbags and International standard airbags are different. Internation airbags are designed to provide the best protection possible for people wearing seatbelts, While US airbags are designed as a compromise between protecting people who do and do not wear a seatbelt. Meaning compared with an International one it may not be as effective for people who wear seatbelts (although still very effective as opposed to nothing). The issue with the Takata recalled airbags is that they cheaped out (which you really shouldn't do with safety equipment...) and as such under hot and humid conditions they can fail and fire shards of metal into the driver, which ofc is bad. But the majority of air bag deaths are by far children, mainly because people don't seem to take notice of the safety stickers which are increasingly f'ing everywhere on new vehicles. Especially if you fit a rear facing child seat in the front and don't turn off the front air bags. However many modern vehicles will detect the scale of the impact, figure out if a seatbelt is being worn and then are able to inflate the airbag in a way to best try and protect the occupant in those circumstances. Which is pretty damn awesome.
I was just thinking about it, and you have to wonder why so many car companies waste opportunity with half-effort. Take the Lincoln LS, for example. If you don't know much about it, you could assume it's a hidden gem, the 3-series killer that got hosed by anti-domestic bias. That's what it should have been. What it was was a half-effort. I suspect what really ended it, even above and beyond the lack of significant updates as cited on Wikipedia, was that it was still too Lincoln to steal buyers from BMW. 3-Series-seekers would have been able to tell quickly that the 3600-pound barge was not the driver's car it tried to be, especially when its (apparently rather doofy) manual transmission was available only in very small numbers and only on the agonizingly slow base models, while the V8s and the vast majority of V6s made do with an ancient 4-speed auto. Going even further back, remember the Ford Probe? Remember how that was going to be the fourth-generation Mustang? Remember how that idea was so sacriligious that even in the dark days of the late 1980s, when few people had home computers and even fewer had home internet connections, it produced mass outrage and forced Ford to continue building the Foxbody for another several years while they tried to come up with a real Mustang? You really have to wonder why, if these people are so smart and educated, so many of their decisions are roughly equivalent to "HURR DURR HOW DOES I CARS".
