just read an article starting on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, "Big Dealer to Detroit: Fakes How You make Cars,"

In the Fort Lauderdale dealership of a huge national company called AutoNation Inc., that sells 4% of the cars sold in the U. S., the manager of the store, Mr. Devan, "recently pulled up data on Expedition sales on his computer. Although Ford offers about a dozen versions---two in four-wheel drive, long and short wheelbase---Mr. Devan says just three types account for 75% of the sales in all of South Florida. 'those are the ones I'll order,' he said, touching a finger to his display screen. 'Anything else, I'll pretty much stay away from'"

When I read something like this, it reminds me off the feature-crazy engineers I once worked with in Silicon Valley. This makes it sound like Ford (and other US automakers) have been taken over by the engineers.