New Ford F-250 - ughhh

I was a big car enthusiast in my younger days. For better or worse, I discovered girls.

Anyway, I have always been a critic of American car manufacturers. I want to buy American and I want to support the workers at the American car companies. However, sometimes I really have to wonder.

Here is an example of "What are you doing?" The Ford F-Series has been the best selling vehicle in the world for about 30+ years. But the grill/headlight combo on the 2008 F-250 has me wondering if the designer is on crack. Who the hell would buy this? Is Ford really trying to go out of business?

While I was car shopping after my Chevy S-10 Blazer was destroyed in a near head-on collision by some dumb woman not paying attention to the road, I test drove nearly a dozen vehicles. The list of vehicles includes:

Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo

Chevy Trailblazer

Chevy Equinox

Chevy Malibu

Ford Explorer

Ford Edge

Toyota 4Runner

Toyota Highlander

Honda Pilot

I was so disappointed with the Chevy and Ford. I couldn't believe it. The Equinox is the equivelant to a padded trashcan. The Explorer had ergonomics that would have satisfied an 8-armed alien octopus, but not a 5'4" guy. And you want power and braking? Yeah, the Explorer will think about it and get back to you.

I was impressed with the Malibu. The design of the new car is hot. It drove hot. It handled hot. It was hot. Unfortunately, Chevy knows it's hot and wasn't willing to negotiate the price. And after talking to people, I came to the conclusion that buying an SUV was the best thing for the moment. With gas prices the way they are, NO ONE is buying trucks. But since I have 3 kids who have friends and we go on vacation and sto sporting events, a truck is way more practical than a 7 squre foot Prius that runs on butterfly shit.

The 4Runner was great, however, like on the Malibu, Toyota was also not negotiating on price. The salesman even laughed at me when I asked about incentives.

I eventually bought a Honda Pilot. It's practical. It rides nicely. It has decent power. I miss the 5-speed of my Mercury Mystique and the truck sound of my Blazer, but the Pilot will do.

It's a sad state of affairs for Ford. They have lost their way and I'm not sure what it will take to wake up and realize what Americans want. We don't want ugly cars, first and foremost. And with gas prices at $3.50 per gallon, it'd be nice if they could produce a compact car that didn't look like some poor college kid with bad credit owns it. Why can't they make nice small cars? They don't get it!