Ford: Shitty Shitty Bang Bang

Big surprise... Ford is no longer #2. Toyota is the new #2. In fact, there is talk that Ford may need to declare bankruptcy. No surprises here, they have run away from every possible right decision.

i used to own a '94 Explorer. i really liked that truck. Note i say truck. This was before they made the Explorer more car than truck in regards to chassy, suspension, and ground clearance. i was a young environmental consultant, lugging loads of equipment from lab to lab, running samples from stream side to lab, and otherwise talking my truck to riversides with equipment. All requiring the clearance and storage room the Explorer had to offer.

Outside of work i was going up snowboarding whenever we got significant snowfall. i remember a particular drive transporting my friend and i up to the slopes (at regular highway speeds) in over a foot of unplowed snow to make virgin runs down fresh powder. What a day, what a vehicle.

Throw frequent camping, hiking, and mountain biking trips in and i more than justified the need for such a vehicle. It took me where i needed to go. My love affair was not guilt free however. In the back of my mind i was always concerned about the environmental implications. With soccer moms and emasculated new dad's feeling the need to get urban assault vehicles which never left pavement, i realized that too much was too much. No matter my personal justifications for such a vehicle my morals (not to mention my gas card) were getting taxed.

And then the news came out: Ford was going to release a hybrid Escape. The 4 wheel drive i desired, the conservation i required. What a matching. At that time the only hybrid on the market was the Honda Insight (far too dramatic a jump from an Explorer's room and capabilities to a tiny 2 seater with 2 wheel drive). This would be the second hybrid to hit the American market. i eagerly awaited.

Then more good news. Ford had a video showing off their new hydrogen fuel cell car affectionately called the Fusion. Close to ready for public consumption all that was needed was hydrogen stations to fill up, according to the video at least. Then it happened: Bush came into office. The date for the hybrid Escape kept being jerked away like a dollar bill tied to a string and the Fusion: they quickly tore the fuel cells out, crammed in a combustion engine and a 4 wheel drive drivetrain.

Tired of waiting i started to look elsewhere and then it happened: the 2nd generation Prius came out. What a vehicle. What fuel efficiency. The world would forever be change. And then it happened: fuel prices grew like a penis in a strip club. And then it happened: global climate change became the 900 pound gorilla that could no longer be ignored.

Ford scrambled to recover. No longer sucking the teet of the large SUV profit margin they had nothing lined up to compete in this new market. Setting up an agreement with Toyota to use part of their hybrid technology in the Escape meant that there profit margin was compromised and, except when needed to save face, not much was done to push the vehicle in the market.

Large dinosaurs move more slowly and easily fall victim to changing environments. Ford is slipping and we know that slippage of this kind, in this market, means it will never rise to the heights it once held. A series of bad, bad decisions sprinkled with the momentum of generations of company greed. The inventors of the automobile fall victim to the very environment they helped to damage. How long before GM starts to follow suit?

Toyota holds a level of hybrid technology that would take years of research to match, and they keep improving it. Those companies with no competitive technology will either fall as Toyota and Honda rise, or be forced to buy rights to use their technology. Either way American car company's days are numbered.

Super Bowel

i'd like everyone to take a moment here to acknowledge all the hard work that the city sewage systems in you local vicinity have done this evening. With all those Super Bowl heart and colon clogging meals and snacks being consumed the lowly sewer pipes are bound to be working overtime.

Actually, this post is to acknowledge my enjoyment of the Super Bowl. It is the one night a year that i can go out and do whatever i want and never have to bump into a single football fan. What a night... the world belongs to those of us who care nothing of American football.

i'm currently working on an event that would result in all the republicans staying home, locked to their TV screen in unison, one night a year. Oh wait, i guess that's been the State of the Union Address for the last 7 years. Never mind.