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Sedans Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable What Are Your Thoughts on the Return of the Taurus/Sable?
530 messages, Last post on Aug 22, 2008 at 10:00 PM
You are in the Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: nvbanker (Feb 18, 2007 4:01 pm) The 1999 Navigator still uses the same body with fairly superficial front and rear modifications. The 1999 windshield will fit in the 2007 Navigator. The same front windows will fit. Under the thick chrome, it still uses the same exterior doorskins. Sure, some customers don't see it. But the vehicle ends up looking much the same year after year after year. I think the fact that Navigator, Expedition, Explorer, Ranger, Focus, Sport Trac, etc. all lost their sales leads speaks to the arrogance of a company that believed that they could fool most of the people and save money by recycling sheet metal for 8, 10 , 12 years or more. Yes RESKIN it as you say, and put the Hurricane in it. Great! Except it sounds like no reskin at all, but the Ford way of keeping the same body, changing the front clip, and doing some updates underneath. How many more years before they discover that GM's way actually sells more vehicles? The ony reason the F150 is still ahead is that the 2004 re-do was complete. Not one body part carried over. Now, the F150 has the new Silverado lapping at its heels. What happens with the 2008 model year? Even if it stays in front, that "new" 2009 will be at a big disadvantage if it has to carry the same greenhouse, etc. for another long model cycle.
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Replying to: gregg_vw (Feb 18, 2007 5:32 pm) It hasn't to me, and I'm not sure it has to the public either. I look well beyond the skin in a car - and I discovered that GM may change the windshield, but have the same old engine under that new hood they had in the 60's (ala the 3800, 231cid Buick engine still used with EFI). Pushrods and carburators were the technology for GM is the 80's and early 90's while Ford had fuel injection on all of their engines by 1986. While Ford had multi port FI on all of their engines and some OHC and DOHC engines on line in the early 90's, GM had throttle body fuel injection finally on all their old engines, oh, and the NOrthstar - in one line of cars, that had a severe oil consumption and carbonization problem. I could go on and on - but up until very recently, the past 2 years, GM was losing market share faster than Ford was, with their carryover doors and windshields, but air conditioned seats, independent rear suspension and rear seats that powerfold - something GM still can't make work in their SUVs, but hey - the windshields are new. 
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Replying to: nvbanker (Feb 19, 2007 10:57 am)
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Replying to: pnewby (Feb 19, 2007 11:10 am) I could be wrong, but when people walk into a Ford dealership, they see showroom stuff that looks much like the units on the pre-owned side of the building. Ford has adopted a pattern of making their redesigns look like other companies mid-cycle freshening. Not changing the stuff people see first (the superficial outside shape and skin) may discourage some people from even trying the vehicle out, and thereby realizing there are substantial improvements underneath. There is a long tradition of sheetmetal change bringing people in for a look. It is ancient history of course, but just for an example take a look at the 1960 Galaxie and compare it to a 1961, then 62, then the 63 then the 64. These were all in the same product cycle, but each year they re-bent all the metal. Is it important, really? No. Except that it sold more cars. Ford neglects two things over and over: innovative styling and keeping up with the hp wars. I sometimes think they got so conservative styling-wise in the late 90's because of the strange 1996 Taurus. This car went past polarizing, and into wacko weird. Fear of stepping outside the lines has led to a careful recycling of bodies that used to sell well. But neither "wayout weird" nor conservative is doing it for Ford. The lesson is that the first Taurus did have groundbreaking style. Unlike the 96, it wasn't weird or different just to be different. It saved the company then. They need a couple vehicles like that now.
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Replying to: gregg_vw (Feb 19, 2007 11:56 am) The latest editions of the Expedition and the Explorer are both great vehicles but came out at the moment that gas got up to $2.50 - $3.00 a gallon. That sucked all the air out of those releases. I think the real shame there is that Ford continues to drag on bringing a diesel to these vehicles. If you could get an Expedition that got 25-30mpg, they could call the 500 what ever they felt like. With the F-150 there is real brand equity and they cannot afford to make a mistake there. How would they rebrand that one? |
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Ford neglects two things over and over: innovative styling and keeping up with the hp wars. Can't argue with ya there, gregg - GM seems to be able to do it more efficiently, their HP is bigger, and economy a little better most places in the line. Ford also neglects advertising, and the advertising they do is "lifestyle" ads - if I were ARM, I'd fire their agency, and whichever Ford family member works there, and get someone in there that will show THE CAR in the ads for a change!! Surfboards and cute girls are fine, but I never saw the car! C'mon!!
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Replying to: nvbanker (Feb 19, 2007 12:46 pm) Taurus and Sable ads should definitely emphasize the power, the room and the quiet. Forget the "all new" horse puckey and brag about what's real. (Of course it doesn't matter much what they do in ads for Sable, since the company apparently has already decided mercury is a goner.)
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Replying to: gregg_vw (Feb 19, 2007 1:27 pm) |
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Replying to: barnstormer64 (Feb 17, 2007 11:08 am) Yeah-I heard this guy going off on everyone who drives a car for more than four years because they are too expensive. NObody says this! Everyone knows it's personal prefence. Driving new cars has nothing to do with people getting imports. THey just choose them because they like them. No one is out to get ford. You're over reacting a little bit. And no one says domestics are no good. THey just say "in their oppinion" LExus has better quality than Lincoln-justifying their purchase. It DOES seem though, that a lot of people have been talking about how much better their Freestyle is than other crossovers. |
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Replying to: barnstormer64 (Feb 18, 2007 4:49 pm) I don't want to get off topic, but I usually look at what I get for my money and keep in mind that if there is a substantial price difference between two brands there must be a reason for it. To me the bottom line is not related to price difference alone.
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