Yeah. I was so disappointed when they announced they were discontinuing all of their sedans in favor of those obnoxious-looking crossovers that look like, and are only slightly smaller than, the shoe that old lady used to live in.

Edit: As pointed out, I was mistaken and they're not too much larger than a sedan. I was recalling what I think were Ford's early concept models.

Long story. But rumors were potential merger with VW. Or at least, heavy cooperation on platforms.

Currently VW Amarok is a Ford Ranger. Ford is helping VW further with commercial vehicles. In return Ford is getting EV platforms VW was already ahead on developing. Pandemic and other delays messed up product timelines though. To the point Ford decided recently they'd rather not be so dependent on VW.

But for next few years, if Ford releases a small EV, you can pretty much bet it's a VW MEB chassis underneath.

translated into ceo-speak: "we make more money selling these big monstrosities, and having a cheaper alternative would cut into that"

Used to be a Ford person until the sweet hands of Toyota/Lexus grabbed me. I like cars that last more than 200k miles and don't have parts falling off at 50k.

A machE is longer, wider, taller and way heavier than even the most bloated version of the focus. It's just another lame crossover.

Guess I'm never owning a car made after 2020

Love me my hot hatch.

Yeah but they're not priced slightly higher, they're priced exponentially higher.

I can't afford a Tesla, even if it'd save me money on gas. It may be cheaper to own with a TCO calculation but I was able to purchase my vehicle outright. I would have to take out a loan and do financing if I were to want to purchase an EV. I may pay more overall for the life of the car in gasoline, but ultimately that is an expense that's amortized over time, and doesn't have an interest rate attached to it.

I don't like leasing or financing. I find it to be a waste of money. I would rather generally wait and save up than amortize a cost with an interest rate. Canada's interest rates are incredibly high right now due to recessive market forces.

I am also Canadian, so take into account my currency's value is a little shitty.

I paid 38k CAD for my Mazda 3 Sport with AWD. That figure is probably closer to around 30k USD. For that price I could have gotten a Hyundai Kona, but there's no way I would have been able to afford a 45k USD BMW. The Kona is also closer to the hatchback form factor as a crossover, but it looks like it'd ride too high for my liking.