Bill Ford doesn’t know me.

And whatever I do in terms of new vehicle purchases in the coming years, likely won’t impact his bottom line even by the equivalent of a micro speck of dust.

Forty-five days from now, I’m ending my monthly relationship with Ford.

That’s when I’ll get my pink slip to my 2016 Focus, and Ford will get its last check for $290.14.

There’s little doubt I’ll be visiting Manteca Ford again. I have absolutely no qualms with their service.

But the odds of me buying a new car from Phil Waterford as long as he is only selling Fords is nil.

Do not get me wrong.

After being raised by a father who believed if it wasn’t a GM product, it wasn’t worth buying, I became an absolute 100 percent convert to Ford in 2008.

That is when I was test driving a Ford Escape hybrid for a review in the Bulletin.

How impressed was I?

Six days later I left my days of no car payment behind and bought the Escape.

At the time hybrids were harder than hell to sell.

Between the test drive and my signing up for payments just under $400 a month for 60 months, I asked Bill Sexton what he thought of hybrids.

Bill was the owner of Tradeway Chevrolet that morphed into Sexton Chevrolet when they left behind their 1950s era dealership where In-n-Out Burger now stands. They built new digs on Spreckels Avenue that now houses J&M Farm Equipment.

Tradeway was made “famous” on regional air waves when the announcer was signing off advising listeners to look for the ugly dealership at Yosemite Avenue and Highway 99.

The announcer would then ask “How ugly is it?”

That would queue up the mournful howling of a coyote.

Yes, it was that ugly.

Bill’s observations were straightforward.

Hybrids were too new to have a track record in how well they held their value.

From that aspect, he viewed buying one as a big risk.

His outlook on the resale value being less than stellar was also based on his belief hybrids were a fad and they’d never catch on with the public.

This comes from a man who apologized in 1992 that he could not give me the absolute highest  Blue Book on a 1989 Volvo 240 I was trading in on a Chevy S-10 four-wheel drive. That was because the was not much demand for them in Manteca at the time nor at the used car auction he used that served the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

I got it.

The first thing I noticed about Manteca after moving here from the Roseville-Lincoln area in 1991 was that the six new car dealerships at the time — with the exception of one — all had predominantly new white vehicles for sale. And most of those were trucks or SUVs.

It was the complete opposite of the Roseville Auto Mall.

The exception, of course, was the Manteca Honda dealership that was fully contained inside a former furniture store across Main Street from Golden West School where NAPA Auto Parts is now located.

The joke for years with my friends in the Roseville area is I moved to Manteca and ditched my burgundy colored Volvo, bachelor life, and love of Frank Sinatra music.

Then, within two years, I was driving a four-wheel drive white “truck”, was married with an instant family complete with granddaughter, and had a fascination with Garth Brooks.

My decision — as laughable as it may sound — was tilted by a tinge of social responsibility.

I justified assuming a car payment on the fact the hybrid was producing less pollution as it was stretching more miles out of a gallon of gas.

It was a responsibility I felt I had after six plus years of driving through Bakersfield on the way to Death Valley to spend a week.

I was stunned at how polluted the late November and early December air always was as you rarely could see southern Sierra that rises sharply from the valley floor just 15 miles away.

It was do-able, so why not?

Of course, what made it do-able was Ford has slashed $7,500 off the price of what were then slow-moving hybrids that they needed to sell in order to meet a fleet mileage goal for California.

That brought the price down below $30,000 and into the upper limit of my range of pain.

I found out later, if I had done a bit of research and waited three weeks for Jan. 1 to roll around. I would have qualified for a $5,000 federal tax credit.

But I was not kicking myself as I was more than happy with the SUV.

I always averaged between 35 and 40 miles.

I’d still be driving it today if my youngest granddaughter hadn’t been in need of a car.

It also helped that my not wanting to roll the dice on an unfamiliar used car coincided with a Ford offer for zero percent financing for 60 months on select cars.

I’d always thought a Ford Fusion — that was included in the offer — was a dream vehicle.

I was wrong. It was the Ford Focus.

The Fusion felt like a tank — and an old man’s car —  when compared with the Focus.

I was also sold on the better mileage plus the more whistles and bells the Focus had.

Six years later, I have never averaged less than 33 miles a gallon. And when I’m in the eastern Sierra it is closer to 40 mph.

As for the Escape, it is still plugging along carrying great-grandson Wyatt, parents Katelyn and Michael as well as overall great grandchild No. 4 that will be joining the world in the coming weeks.

Bill Ford’s company, of course, concentrates not only on selling vehicles way above my threshold of pain, but they’ve yanked the plug on gas hybrids and sedan sales in the United States.

As for me, I’m not 100 percent sold on electric because of three things in descending order of importance:

The fact PG&E would be my fuel supplier.

The fact a 100 percent electric car could be problematic for me to reach various remote trailheads.

The exposure you have to potential five-figure battery replacement costs.

I assume technology will reduce the jitters regarding the last two items.

I’m not so sure anything can be done to alleviate legitimate financial and reliability concerns anyone has about being 100 percent dependent on PG&E to power your car and your household.

But given I’m in California and we are advancing closer to the 2035 mandate banning the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles, I’m confident things will happen.

Those things will address various concerns and likely will include adjusting the mandate in some manner to reflect reality.

That said, Bill Ford as Ford’s executive chairman said something in a New York Times interview last month that made me realize I’m blind to a new reality because I live in California.

Ford said electric vehicles have become collateral damage in the culture wars.

“Some of the red states say this is just like the vaccine, and its being shoved down our throat by the government and we don’t want it,” Ford noted.

And while all of us may share that sentiment to a degree, if you have open eyes and a memory you can see why specifically reducing fossil fuel emissions in a hemmed-in air basin like the San Joaquin Valley or the Los Angeles Basin has been essential.

That doesn’t mean the  EV mandate won’t need to be tweaked somewhat in California — the last place on earth that anything can ever be one size fits all.

The Biden Administration made a wise move in elevating the importance of exploring other fuels such as hydrogen.

Not only are there some serious concerns about the ability and effectiveness of EVs in meeting all transportation needs, but to roughly half the nation’s population it’s not about air quality but tyranny.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com

Bill Ford doesn’t know me.

And whatever I do in terms of new vehicle purchases in the coming years, likely won’t impact his bottom line even by the equivalent of a micro speck of dust.

Forty-five days from now, I’m ending my monthly relationship with Ford.

That’s when I’ll get my pink slip to my 2016 Focus, and Ford will get its last check for $290.14.

There’s little doubt I’ll be visiting Manteca Ford again. I have absolutely no qualms with their service.

But the odds of me buying a new car from Phil Waterford as long as he is only selling Fords is nil.

Do not get me wrong.

After being raised by a father who believed if it wasn’t a GM product, it wasn’t worth buying, I became an absolute 100 percent convert to Ford in 2008.

That is when I was test driving a Ford Escape hybrid for a review in the Bulletin.

How impressed was I?

Six days later I left my days of no car payment behind and bought the Escape.

At the time hybrids were harder than hell to sell.

Between the test drive and my signing up for payments just under $400 a month for 60 months, I asked Bill Sexton what he thought of hybrids.

Bill was the owner of Tradeway Chevrolet that morphed into Sexton Chevrolet when they left behind their 1950s era dealership where In-n-Out Burger now stands. They built new digs on Spreckels Avenue that now houses J&M Farm Equipment.

Tradeway was made “famous” on regional air waves when the announcer was signing off advising listeners to look for the ugly dealership at Yosemite Avenue and Highway 99.

The announcer would then ask “How ugly is it?”

That would queue up the mournful howling of a coyote.

Yes, it was that ugly.

Bill’s observations were straightforward.

Hybrids were too new to have a track record in how well they held their value.

From that aspect, he viewed buying one as a big risk.

His outlook on the resale value being less than stellar was also based on his belief hybrids were a fad and they’d never catch on with the public.

This comes from a man who apologized in 1992 that he could not give me the absolute highest  Blue Book on a 1989 Volvo 240 I was trading in on a Chevy S-10 four-wheel drive. That was because the was not much demand for them in Manteca at the time nor at the used car auction he used that served the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

I got it.

The first thing I noticed about Manteca after moving here from the Roseville-Lincoln area in 1991 was that the six new car dealerships at the time — with the exception of one — all had predominantly new white vehicles for sale. And most of those were trucks or SUVs.

It was the complete opposite of the Roseville Auto Mall.

The exception, of course, was the Manteca Honda dealership that was fully contained inside a former furniture store across Main Street from Golden West School where NAPA Auto Parts is now located.

The joke for years with my friends in the Roseville area is I moved to Manteca and ditched my burgundy colored Volvo, bachelor life, and love of Frank Sinatra music.

Then, within two years, I was driving a four-wheel drive white “truck”, was married with an instant family complete with granddaughter, and had a fascination with Garth Brooks.

My decision — as laughable as it may sound — was tilted by a tinge of social responsibility.

I justified assuming a car payment on the fact the hybrid was producing less pollution as it was stretching more miles out of a gallon of gas.

It was a responsibility I felt I had after six plus years of driving through Bakersfield on the way to Death Valley to spend a week.

I was stunned at how polluted the late November and early December air always was as you rarely could see southern Sierra that rises sharply from the valley floor just 15 miles away.

It was do-able, so why not?

Of course, what made it do-able was Ford has slashed $7,500 off the price of what were then slow-moving hybrids that they needed to sell in order to meet a fleet mileage goal for California.

That brought the price down below $30,000 and into the upper limit of my range of pain.

I found out later, if I had done a bit of research and waited three weeks for Jan. 1 to roll around. I would have qualified for a $5,000 federal tax credit.

But I was not kicking myself as I was more than happy with the SUV.

I always averaged between 35 and 40 miles.

I’d still be driving it today if my youngest granddaughter hadn’t been in need of a car.

It also helped that my not wanting to roll the dice on an unfamiliar used car coincided with a Ford offer for zero percent financing for 60 months on select cars.

I’d always thought a Ford Fusion — that was included in the offer — was a dream vehicle.

I was wrong. It was the Ford Focus.

The Fusion felt like a tank — and an old man’s car —  when compared with the Focus.

I was also sold on the better mileage plus the more whistles and bells the Focus had.

Six years later, I have never averaged less than 33 miles a gallon. And when I’m in the eastern Sierra it is closer to 40 mph.

As for the Escape, it is still plugging along carrying great-grandson Wyatt, parents Katelyn and Michael as well as overall great grandchild No. 4 that will be joining the world in the coming weeks.

Bill Ford’s company, of course, concentrates not only on selling vehicles way above my threshold of pain, but they’ve yanked the plug on gas hybrids and sedan sales in the United States.

As for me, I’m not 100 percent sold on electric because of three things in descending order of importance:

The fact PG&E would be my fuel supplier.

The fact a 100 percent electric car could be problematic for me to reach various remote trailheads.

The exposure you have to potential five-figure battery replacement costs.

I assume technology will reduce the jitters regarding the last two items.

I’m not so sure anything can be done to alleviate legitimate financial and reliability concerns anyone has about being 100 percent dependent on PG&E to power your car and your household.

But given I’m in California and we are advancing closer to the 2035 mandate banning the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles, I’m confident things will happen.

Those things will address various concerns and likely will include adjusting the mandate in some manner to reflect reality.

That said, Bill Ford as Ford’s executive chairman said something in a New York Times interview last month that made me realize I’m blind to a new reality because I live in California.

Ford said electric vehicles have become collateral damage in the culture wars.

“Some of the red states say this is just like the vaccine, and its being shoved down our throat by the government and we don’t want it,” Ford noted.

And while all of us may share that sentiment to a degree, if you have open eyes and a memory you can see why specifically reducing fossil fuel emissions in a hemmed-in air basin like the San Joaquin Valley or the Los Angeles Basin has been essential.

That doesn’t mean the  EV mandate won’t need to be tweaked somewhat in California — the last place on earth that anything can ever be one size fits all.

The Biden Administration made a wise move in elevating the importance of exploring other fuels such as hydrogen.

Not only are there some serious concerns about the ability and effectiveness of EVs in meeting all transportation needs, but to roughly half the nation’s population it’s not about air quality but tyranny.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com