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Automotive News & Views What about the future of Ford Inc?? 
1858 messages, Last post on Oct 16, 2006 at 6:25 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: nippononly (Aug 17, 2005 6:40 am) nippononly: What does that mean, that once again Mercury will go on with rebadged Ford leftovers, while Ford gets new stuff? At this point, Mercury is lucky that it is getting ANYTHING. On another website, a reputable industry insider claims that Ford has reviewed shutting down Mercury three times in the past several years. Which, realistically, is probably the wisest choice. I'd put more money in Lincoln, and expand its lineup to make up for the loss of Mercury. Interestingly, volumes of both Mercury and Lincoln are down by 1/2 since 1999! |
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Since everything old is new again, perhaps we're just moving into a time when Ford, and others, are more or less "rebooting". Maybe the "lost marques" are simply going into hibernation, taking us back to those times when a Ford was a Ford and you could have any color as long as it was black...OK... maybe I'm a little over the top there, but simplification may be a key to survival. Get the core biz back to where it's functioning well, THEN re-expand. I bet they avoid the Edsel this time around 
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they're really trying to simplify and "reboot", the very FIRST thing they should do is kill Mercury. The second thing is plan to cancel all Lincolns that are obvious rebadges of Fords within the next two to three years. The third is sell off all PAG brands that have lost money more than one year in a row. Then, when all that is done, they should draw a breath and work on a styling direction, something between Chrysler-chic and GM-stodgy-we-think-its-the-90s-again. |
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You have to wonder about how the people at Jaguar feel knowing that if Ford decided to sell them off, they'd cease to exist. Jaguar is roughly the size of Porsche when it comes to yearly sales volume; well actually Jaguar is a little bigger. I would think they could ask Porsche how they do it. Porsche would then tell them how Toyota showed them how to keep the books in order to maintain independence while being such a small carmaker. Whatever Ford does they should never get rid of Aston-Martin and Volvo, their two most precious brands, imo. I too think Mercury should go, but only after Lincoln is built back up. If they kill Mercury now most Lincoln dealers wouldn't have enough product to sell. When you really look at it, Mercury is probably the most redundant brand in all of cardom. Even GM's gaggle of brands have more distinct identities, even if it is by just few lug nuts. Yeah...either get rid of Mercury or bring over all those cool European Fords as Mercurys as many have suggest over the years. Better yet just bring them over as they Fords they are and let Mercury RIP. M |
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L-M dealers, why couldn't they just pick up Ford to replace Mercury, much the way GM is aligning Chevy with Cadillac for combo GM dealers? It would make a better business case than having Mercury as the second brand, I think. If that is going to be very expensive for dealers to do, perhaps FoMoCo could offer some financial assistance to make the transition, since it is in its long term interests for them to do so. Mercury needs to go.
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I think this may have been suggested in another thread, but what about making Merc the "retro" brand? Going retro with the T-bird and Mustang seems to have worked (for a while). Perhaps they should leave that sort of thing to Mercury.
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Replying to: varmint (Aug 18, 2005 10:22 am) A crazy idea, I know PF Flyer Host News & Views, Wagons, & Hybrid Vehicles The Subaru Crew Chat is on tonight. The chat room opens at 8:45PM ET Hope to see YOU there! Check out the schedule
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Replying to: pf_flyer (Aug 18, 2005 10:27 am) |
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there was a company that did something like that with 60's GM intermediates. They'd take something like a '66 Tempest or Chevelle convertible that still had a sound body and frame, and put in a generic Chevy 350 crate engine, which put out around 220-250 hp by then. I think it was mated up to the 4-speed automatic truck tranny. Radial tires disc brakes up front, nice sound system, but they tried to keep the interior as stock as possible. I think they'd also go through the suspension and replace all the rubber parts with harder polyurethane parts, which improved handling, but would make it ride firmer. And they'd also put musclecar badges on it, so the Chevelle would become an "SS", the LeMans a "GTO", the Cutlass a "4-4-2", etc. So in the end it wasn't a totally-updated car, but it wasn't a restored-to-original car, either. Somewhere in the middle. They were sold as used cars, but had a 1 year warranty on them. I remember a magazine like Automobile or someone like that tested a '67 Cutlass convertible, and it was priced around $25,000. Nowadays, that doesn't seem too unreasonable, but back then it sure seemed like a lot of money. I guess it was, too, considering in '94-96 you could get a loaded Impala SS for around $25-26K. They also only did GM cars, because the Ford and Mopar intermediates were unit-bodied, and more expensive and troublesome to restore. |
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Ford needs some new ideas, not more retro cars. The Mustang connects with buyers because it has been on the market continuously for 40 years, not solely because of its retro styling. Buyers know what the Mustang nameplate means, and while the styling is retro, it is also attractive. The Fusion is a good start for a new corporate "face." It's very distinctive yet attractive. Ford needs to build upon this. And get a new Focus here...yesterday! I just saw clear photos of the production-ready Civic sedan and Si coupe. That car is going to spell trouble for both the Cobalt and the Focus, as long as the price isn't too high. Ford can't wait until 2008 for a new Focus. |
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