and I love my Nissan.. hell, all three of them, but you said it exactly how I feel... Ford really out did themselves this time...

I'm just happy to see Ford building performance vehicles. Except for the Cobra, and Cobra R, and FGT, Ford has built crown vics with fancy sheet-metal and tiny back seats and called them mustangs for years.

In 2005 when I was working as a sales rep at a Ford dealer, I was ASTOUNDED that the new GT had 235/55/17 rubber all around. A whopping 300bhp. It was a complete pile of junk regarding performance. Build-quality was a huge step up, but in essence, it was a dog turd when it came to performing.

I think for 2011, all that has changed. The "regular" 5.0 is a pretty mean car, and the Boss takes it to another level.

I am hugely impressed with Ford's new direction. They haven't been competative since 1992 , excluding the more limited models (Cobra, FGT, etc.)

Maybe GM, Dodge, and Nissan will get scared and do a little better.

To be fair though, LS is a tight track, with a 300 meter straight being the longest. If you put the Boss up against the GT-R or the Z06 on a longer track, I think it would take the loss.

Either way, it's going to be a dead ringer for (or beat?) the base C6, and the 370Z isn't even in the running. The Challenger/Charger have mad power, but handling?Oink Oink. Same for the Camaro SS. It's no faster than the 1998 Camaro SS, for that matter.

If all you care about is owning a pretty nice car (I think the new mustangs, vette's, 370's are all nice. Not European nice, but nice.) that puts down the best performance in the near 40K range, Noone has a damn thing for Ford.

you have to wonder, what crawled up their butt, and made them decided to actually do work? could it be all the Ford jokes over the years? or tired of just plain sucking... even the GT had a ton of issues when it 1st came out..

as for dodge.. the Challenger, is by far the best looking of the big retro cars.. but wtf is all that power for if your car weighs 8000 pounds.

If i get a chance I will be driving one of the new 5.0s and def will give the boss a run.

Ford got lucky with the down turn in the economy. They had just sold off brands for a lot of money that they wouldn't had been able too just a few months later. They took advantage and bought parts for less and were already deloping new engines with better MPG. If they didn't have to worry about the union I bet they would have cut pay and made massive lay offs too.

When GM and Crysler are trying to get back into the game ford took their advantage and kick the others while they were down.

It was Alan Mulally in 2006. He saw the direction the market was headed and decided every car Ford built had to be a class-leader. There is a hugely different corporate culture over at Ford compared to the GM and Chryslers of the world these days.

I knew the Boss was going to be pretty badass. I knew a lot of people here doubted it but the proof is in the pudding, as they say. Tastey, delicious pudding. :yum:

They didn't get lucky at all with the downturn. They just refinanced all their debt in 2006 before the market turned south. That's what saved them. If they had waited any longer they would have been in the same boat as GM and Chrysler, requiring a bailout. Their restructuring started well before the economic downturn.

IMO, it all really started with the Fusion. When that car started winning quality and reliability awards the market started to take notice... Ford was up to something unusual.

flashburn, I see you there. :stirthepot:

Will... not... buy! Must... Resist!

I'm not so much wondering that, as when Ford will get back in the game near the 6-figure point.

We need an updated FGT.

Viper is coming back in a year I belive, and the Z06/ZR1 are still strong as hell.

Ford needs something that can play with the big boys, and I am very curious what it will be!

:stirthepot:

I will buy for my DD. :p

Exactly my point. Ford got luckily with their timing. And since they had extra cash when everyone else's investments were going down the drain. Ford was able to reinvest in themselves at a lower cost. Luck and timing.

I wouldn't call deciding to get fiscally sound and push quality asap as getting "lucky". I'm sure they took quite a bit of short term quarterly profit hit to get there.

It was a lot of smart decision making. Honestly, it never would have happened without Alan Mulally. After turning Boeing around he came in and started making wholesale changes.

He's got an engineering background which really helps with the end products, too. He knows what Ford needs to be making and focusing it's attention on to succeed. One of the more notable things he's done lately is issue notice to all Ford engineers that, if any new model after 2012 is not, at a minimum, 250 to 750 lbs lighter than the model it's replacing it will not be approved... no exceptions.

That's pretty cool because then you figure the 50th Anniversary Mustang (MY2014) will be around 3,350 lbs at maximum with likely ~450 hp in V8 form. :drool:

AND we're likely to see the 3.7L V6 replaced with an EcoBoost 4 banger.

Ok, I admit it, I just got sprung.
:D


Edit: Great article on what m4a1 said: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-explorer.html