The Astro/Safari was always a separate product. It's rear wheel drive and larger than the Lumina and successors. My uncle had an '88 Astro that he kept for years, and it was a great traveling vehicle. I also spent two weeks putting a bunch of miles on a '96 Astro a couple of years ago during a summer camp job, and it functioned superbly-it could haul a bunch of people or a bunch of stuff.
Where do you get this stuff? The Pathfinder and Explorer are totally separate-abeit competitive-products. When the Pathfinder first came out, it was intended to compete with the Bronco II and the like(the BII was effectively replaced by the Explorer in 1990). The second gen Pathfinder(1995) was unibody, while the Explorer remained body on frame through 2010. With the current generation they are once again competitive as both are FWD unibody "Crossovers."
Yes, the Quest and Villager were the same product for a few years, but that's the extent of the Ford/Nissan relationship as far as I know.
My family has been a dyed in the wool Ford family for many years. Looking at my extended family, we've had multiple Rangers, Escorts, Explorers(across several generations), Tauruses(again, several generations), Focuses, Grand Marquis, Continentals, Town Cars, and even my much beloved LS. No one has had any abnormal trouble, but then my family believes in something called preventative maintenance.
Ford has really ramped up their quality in the past few years, and has been near the top-if not at the top-of reliability lists for probably the last few years.
The past few days I've been looking at an '01 Jaguar XK8(I've talked to Ari a fair bit about it). The XK8/XKR was the first completely new Jaguar model after Ford bought them. Reviews of the early 2000s XKs have consistently praised the reliability of them-something that's pretty much unheard of in a Jaguar. I think that in 2001, JD Power ranked Jaguar #1 in reliability. For a company with a horrible reliability reputation, that's impressive and pretty much everyone "in the know" credits it to the Ford takeover.
The Mercury Villager is a minivan that was manufactured and marketed by Mercury for the model years 1993–2002, in a single generation. Internally designated as model VX54, the Villager was arebadged variant of the Nissan Quest—a product of a joint venture between Ford and Nissan, manufactured at Ford's Ohio Assembly plant in Avon Lake, Ohio.
1. I never said that. I simply said that not EVERYONE would want it, Would my 85 year old grandfater want it? nope. Would my 50 year old mother want it? nope. Not EVERYONE wants them, I never said no one did.People aren't stuck back in 2000 like you. If people didn't want any of those features, they wouldn't be offered.
People would still be carrying around Walkmans and flip phones. We'd also be reading paper maps.
As times change, people have to also. Just because you don't like infotainment systems doesn't mean they are distractions. Audi MMI/BMW iDrive are some of the best pieces of technology out there. They work great and improve the driving experience IMO.
What? The Toyota Entune system is one of the most idiot-proof systems out there. If my 60-year old father can pick it up in a week, you know it's easy to use...
Just because the commercials say it comes with those features doesn't mean they all do. In 2015, cars have trim levels. Your friend bought a base-model RAV4. He shouldn't be expecting leather, NAV, sunroof, etc. If he wants that, he's gotta pay for it.
2. Some still do, I see people still using flip phones, just because it's a bogus smartphone era, doesn't mean EVERY wants one or needs one, nor does it make them a freak of nature because they DON'T have one. They still sell paper maps at gas stations, so obviously, people still use them, they still have "Map" Lights in cars. even 2015 ones, so obviously people use them.
3. It has nothing to do with not liking it, I never said I didn't like them. I've never used them, and don't want to. It IS just a distraction behind the wheel, and now cars having internet in them? Seriously?
4. It's a SHE, and it's in her dad's name, he gave it to her because her stepmom didn't want it. Her DAD didn't want GPS or anything extra, didn't ask why, probably because it's wasted money to do so.
I never said you don't need GPS I stated It doesn't need to be BUILT IN, what's the point? Maps for the car wont be offered after X number of years, you have to pay $200+ extra for the OEM GPS (you can buy a seperate GPS unit for $60, or use your phone's GPS.Because you have to adapt to competition.
If you sit around and stay complacent, you end up like Dodge/Chrysler.
You don't need to travel to use GPS. I know the roads, yet I still use Google Maps/Waze on my iPhone. Why? Changing road conditions. Blocked streets, construction, traffic, etc.
If a way I go is closed, I just go past it, GPS reroutes me to the next turn, simple.Even if I know exactly where I'm going, I still like to use the GPS when I'm traveling for ETA and other information.
Plus, as you said, it can be a huge help when navigating around a familiar area if there's a traffic back-up or whatever else. I know alternate routes in downtown Louisville pretty well, but with ongoing major construction I often find myself twisted around in all manner of ways with things like closed on-ramps and underpasses. Not too long ago, I was trying to get on I-65N at about 4:00 in the morning(start of a road trip). Because a lot of construction is done overnight, I found 3 on ramps in a row which I would have normally used closed-GPS saved my rear end.