Um can you name one care besides the Taurus that was indeed ‘great’ during that era? Most cars of that time (GM rebadging nightmares, beauties like the Aztec, the Escalade was literally a Chevrolet with a different badge and wood trim-Chryslers K cars were worse somehow-the minivan saved the company but was class leading for 12 minutes until competition arrived) from domestic OEMs were a mess-and the damage from those many misses of that era lead to the demise of many brands during the 2005-2008 era of reorganization.
I was using the word "great" as in reliable. My Dad had a Chevy pickup from that era that went nearly 200k miles before he sold it to someone else. But other people had tons of problems. Similar to Tesla. Some people have absolute basket cases while some people never have an issue. It's not a design problem, it is execution.
No question the legacy manufacturers have been slow to make the switch. But now that they have they will be applying their vastly better manufacturing capabilities to EVs. They still have work to do regarding battery packs and such but it's coming. Ford recently announced they are bringing battery production in-house.
I think you're still living in the world of Tesla circa 2014. I have been hanging out in the Refresh MX thread for over a year. It seemed like every single vehicle that was delivered needed to immediately go in for service due to some wrong, missing, or broken. That includes mine. Legacy manufacturers do not have that poor of product quality. They fix these things before they leave the factory.
All you need to look at is the profit margin and one can plainly see that Tesla can lower the price of their vehicles by a LOT compared to the OEMs.
The one striking difference is there is some ‘greatness’ in the engineering or the noteworthy products of that era. Domestic OEMs featured pushrods when overhead cam engines were in vogue, badge engineered, and badly manufactured in that era. Hondas were reliable and innovative in the sector. (The text book definition of ‘great’) Camrys offered Lexus like isolation, efferent fuel management and again reliability. Lexus etc Mercedes S class of that era etc were feats of engineering. Which is why that statement was curious IMHO. I don’t get the parallels between 80s-90s domestic cars and Tesla. Again there was very little in the way of innovation in those products vs teardowns of Teslas which revels quite a bit of such execution.
Well your ‘research’ of hanging out in an Internet forum might be flawed. Unless:
Actually, I think the biggest problem the traditional manufacturers have, is they are forced (required by law) to sell through their dealers. Unless they can get control over their distribution, it is not going to go well for them. Ford is trying, by requiring potential E dealers to fork over millions per location, just to retain access to the product line. I just can't imagine that will go well for them.
Mazda and Honda for instance absolutely do not have the resources. Porsches IPO specifically stated that a large portion of capital raise will go to software development-another (very expensive) area in which legacy OEMs are very behind. I’m not sure a Cadillac IPO for example raises enough capital.
The F-150 orderability is largely based on when you signed up and price. If your BIL purchased one of the expensive models like the Platinum ($80K+) in the first few hours he should be able to order. If he was like me and picked a cheap ($60K) and signed days late he may have longer to wait. Potentially a lot longer. It very reminiscent of Tesla and ordering Plaid vs LR, Performance vs SR, ...
I have multiple acquaintances who have received Pros (and standard range XLT's, and Lariats, and Platinums) now. The line is rolling and deliveries are happening. There's even a couple in dealer stock in my area. This is something Tesla won't be able to say for a year, minimum, but make sure your dealer signs something fixing the price so they can't ADM you at delivery!
I know the line is running, but I still cannot order. Were your friends Say 1 orders? I am a week or two after they opened and still cannot make the final order.
