It's seasonal and only available in 20 lb bags! You made me spit my coffee with that response.Is that something Costco sells?!?
Manufacturers (Ford at least) have been doing competitive analysis (tear-downs) in-house for at least 50 years to my knowledge. They have teams of experts to do this, not sure why they would engage some third-party to do this on a consulting level.Agreed, but I think that is part of his schtick. Like BMW comes out with a great new design, Mercedes wants to steal as much of it as possible (without running afoul of patents). Mercedes hires someone like Sandy to buy the new BMW, tear it apart, and explain to Mercedes what BMW did so they can copy it on their competing model.
I guess we already digressed on this 12V battery stuff.If they had just included a normal key hole and door handle on the door, we wouldn’t be nearly as obsessed with the 12V battery as we are. The thought of being locked out of your car just because of a dead battery is a little frustrating.
Except for the contracts Ford has with suppliers (to keep the cost down), I don't see the need for a 12V with the cranking power designed for a V8 engine either.About the 12V battery thing.. the mach-e has an emergency hood opener by applying 12V to two wires inside a lid at the front. As far as I have seen it does not connect to the battery, but to a release something to open the frunk/hood. What I do not understand is why it could not just have connected to the 12V battery so the battery could be charged from those two wires, rather than just opening the front, and then having to connect the same booster to the terminals of the battery? Not having a 300A starter to run it should not take any more (in theory) than connecting a USB power bank to the car to have the electronics running enough to open the doors and possibly getting the charger running from the HVB.
I guess the reason for all is that it should not be necessary. There is no starter to run so there is no huge power draw like in an ICE starter, the battery just needs to have "some charge" to power the electronics, and when electronics is running it will power the charger of the 12V battery anyway.
I would love if you or someone can explain this a bit more. Did you mean that soon (when the release is enabled) it won't come with dividers?But what he was told (or at least how he said it) was 100% incorrect. The release button has been in the design and implementation since the reveal in 2019. Last summer Ford apparently found out that they didn't meet the regulations for the frunk release exactly as stated, so they came up with the workaround of the dividers (only in the US). As such, they didn't change the mold for the frunk to have the holes because they were working with whatever agency gave them flak about the release. Starting very soon the frunk dividers will not be part of the process (and thus no holes drilled at the factory). That is also when we will get the ability to open the frunk electronically from the APP, B pillar buttons, and the LCD screen.
"Job 2" is a designation for the next batch of Mach-E and they will not have the dividers. The front license plate mount is also a choosable option (no-cost), so you can opt out if you don't want it.I would love if you or someone can explain this a bit more. Did you mean that soon (when the release is enabled) it won't come with dividers?
I actually rather like the dividers as I can put various small things there without them rattling around. But I'd also love if they were easily removable and replaceable without dealing with popping out the plugs.
Funniest part to me is to watch this video where he says "I hate the frunk divider/tub" and then go back and watch the first impressions video from earlier where he grabs a couple of beers, puts them in the frunk and says "this is the best thing ever--that's an amazing and intuitive design and I didn't need to read a manual to know how to use it... Everyone can learn something from how great this is."I decided to take one for the team here and 1.5x'd my way through his long-winded video. It all came down to:
a) There's lots of parts;
b) That's more parts than Tesla;
c) More parts = bad;
d) The purpose of my company is to tell other companies how to package things more cheaply;
e) I used to work at Ford. A long, long time ago.
f) Did I mention I used to work at Ford?
I will humbly admit that I am not engineer, and certainly know next to nothing about packaging, heat exchange systems, designing reliable mechanical systems, etc. However, I will say I've learned nothing of use in this video.
YMMV, I guess.
Both. He likes the frunk, but not it's assembly, especially what's hiding behind it.Which is it, Sandy? Your first impression or your dramatic impression? LOL.