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Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - bazza

Have you seen the new Ford Capri? What an absolute disappointment! It's an electric crossover , yet another one, boring, ugly, an insult to the name! Which got me thinking about their current lineup. What have we got? The EcoSport, totally average , the Kuga, totally average, the Puma, possibly slightly more interesting but what is it? Then the Ford Ranger, of limited interest and ability. Is there anything else? I remember so many interesting and fantastically sought after models, the Capri 2 litre & 3 litre, Escort Mexico, RS 2000, etc, Lotus Cortina, Cortina 2.3, Granadas, the list goes on. Even the later ST models were true enthusiast cars. There doesn't seem to be a single car for true enthusiasts in their line up these days, I wonder if they're serious about the European market?

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - badbusdriver

I wonder if they're serious about the European market?

Of course they are, why do you think the current lineup is as it is?. You may not like it, but they sell what the majority of buyers want.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - De Sisti

To me, it looks like any other boxy type SUV that you see on the roads today.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - SLO76
Such a sad end to a firm that built some brilliant affordable cars. They’ve slashed their offering to a few overpriced SUV’s and culled their dealer network, our local dealer has gone from being a large glitzy showroom with huge lot to being a tiny shop sized backstreet effort with 2 cars in it. Old Henry Ford must be rolling in his grave. Rumours that Ford are thinking of ending car sales in Europe are likely to come true.
Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Adampr

You can still buy a Focus if you just want a standard car. You can still buy a Mustang if you want a silly car.

Other than models based on motorsports, I'm not sure Ford ever produced anything very interesting. Certainly from the 80s onwards, they were just the dullest mainstream cars. Again, yes, there were Cosworths and RS200s but Capris were considered a joke at the time and the Escort XR3s and RS Turbos were garbage.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - focussed

Given that you think a Mustang is a "silly car" and that Capri's were "a joke" and that the current Focus is available as a standard car, what is your idea of an "interesting car"

A VW golf?

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - badbusdriver

I think maybe some clarity of what is meant by "interesting"?.

Fast?, fun to drive?, technically interesting?, stylistically interesting?, packaging?, etc, etc. There are different opinions as to what can make a car interesting. Much as I like some of the Fords mentioned, I wouldn't consider most of them interesting.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - SLO76
The Focus ceases production next year. The petrol Mustang won’t be long if it’s still on sale at all.
Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - John F

'Interesting' could be deleted from this thread's title. Although Ford is still a major presence generally on American roads, I was surprised by their paucity where my son lives in California (Irvine, a prosperous young 'techy' city - approx 45% white, 45% asian). Hardly any Fords to be seen. There was certainly nothing from Ford to tempt us when looking to replace our excellent (t)rusty old Mk 1 Focus automatic estate.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - daveyjp

The fact Ford entered into partnership with VW to share platforms and tech shows they don't have confidence in the European market.

I certainly don't expect to see many £50k Capris in my area.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Ethan Edwards

My friend...long term multiple Focus owner, every couple of years. Shiny new metal from Ford on his drive.

He's just traded his Focus for a Jag XE. Now that's anecdotal but something must be going on to lose such a loyal repeat customer.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - SLO76
Ford used to have an amazing (and often unjustified) loyalty from its customers. I remember being amazed that anyone wanted the early Mk V Escorts but we sold everything we took in no matter how awful they were to drive compared to every rival. I did have a fondness for many of their products over the years, particularly the Granada, Mondeo and Focus.
Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Andrew-T
Ford used to have an amazing (and often unjustified) loyalty from its customers..

We returned from Canada in the late 60s having grown up with BL cars (1100s). After living just across the Mersey from Halewood for a few years we became aware of the hazards of owning Fords - too many scallies had master keys, so locking the car was only partially successful. We stayed with BL/BMC until about 1984 when things there were well on the way downhill.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - galileo
Ford used to have an amazing (and often unjustified) loyalty from its customers..

We returned from Canada in the late 60s having grown up with BL cars (1100s). After living just across the Mersey from Halewood for a few years we became aware of the hazards of owning Fords - too many scallies had master keys, so locking the car was only partially successful.

I had a Zephyr stolen from the work carpark in 1967. After 5 weeks agreed a generous payout from the insurers only to be told the day after the car was in Longsight Police station car park and had been for the last 5 weeks. The original number was still visible so don't know why I hadn't been notified sooner.

When I brought it back I found a bunch of at least 15 Ford keys in the glovebox, which I handed in at our local copshop, they didn't seem surprised.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Engineer Andy
Such a sad end to a firm that built some brilliant affordable cars. They’ve slashed their offering to a few overpriced SUV’s and culled their dealer network, our local dealer has gone from being a large glitzy showroom with huge lot to being a tiny shop sized backstreet effort with 2 cars in it. Old Henry Ford must be rolling in his grave. Rumours that Ford are thinking of ending car sales in Europe are likely to come true.

Seems like quite a number of long-established manufacturers are 'pulling back' to their home markets or slowly disappearing altogether. A shame, given how much of the car market now is made up of barely different unit with as much style as a cardboard box.

I'm also amazed at how, supposedly with the drive towards much greater efficiency, cars are actually getting less, not more aerodynamic via their SUV / boxy styling, plus larger and heavier with each new generation.

Like a lot of 'modern' things, innovation and risk-taking has taken a proverbial back seat to staid copy 'n' paste jobs of whatever your rivals are doing, which mostly isn't that much either.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - alan1302
our local dealer has gone from being a large glitzy showroom with huge lot to being a tiny shop sized backstreet effort with 2 cars in it.

People on here are always complaining about huge dealers and their glass palaces - this should them happy!

Edited by alan1302 on 12/07/2024 at 22:41

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Engineer Andy

Presumably one of the trim levels will be called the 'Pants'...

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - badbusdriver

Presumably one of the trim levels will be called the 'Pants'...

Higher or lower spec than the 'Sun'?

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Engineer Andy

Presumably one of the trim levels will be called the 'Pants'...

Higher or lower spec than the 'Sun'?

Hard to say - the first is only on sale to wimmin but in any colour or pattern; the latter is only available in orange, apple, pineapple, pear, grape and other fruit-based colours.

Not exactly a bloke car this one! :-)

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - gordonbennet

Fords were always a favourite with working class blokes because you could fix the things on the roadside with a fairly normal toolkit.

Older blokes will recall if your engine or rwd gearbox went kaput you could sling pretty well any used engine or gearbox from any of the range in, 1600 Capri engine gone west stick a 2 litre in it, half a days job at home...clutch slipping? whip the gearbox out, 1 hour, nip the driven plate over to the lads at the reline shop they'd rivet new linings on while you waited, £10 cash job done.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Engineer Andy

Fords were always a favourite with working class blokes because you could fix the things on the roadside with a fairly normal toolkit.

Older blokes will recall if your engine or rwd gearbox went kaput you could sling pretty well any used engine or gearbox from any of the range in, 1600 Capri engine gone west stick a 2 litre in it, half a days job at home...clutch slipping? whip the gearbox out, 1 hour, nip the driven plate over to the lads at the reline shop they'd rivet new linings on while you waited, £10 cash job done.

Sorted! :-)

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Orb>>

clutch slipping? whip the gearbox out, 1 hour, nip the driven plate over to the lads at the reline shop they'd rivet new linings on while you waited, £10 cash job done.

I remember doing just that with a mate called dougie in 1977. Cortina 1600 in a car park. Box off, clutch round to be relined, back on. gearbox in. on axle stands and ramps too....couple of hours at best.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Steveieb

Ford spares were always cheap in the sixties and seventies and the Main dealers had most parts in stock or factors even cheaper.

Now Ford parts seem expensive and using pattern usually ends in grief .

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Ethan Edwards

So there you are sitting at the lights in your new Capri. And alongside comes a Skoda Enyaq more practical and cheaper but essentially the same car. How peed off would you be? Or a Audi Q summat, Cupra Born, VW ID whatever and so on.

It's only Unique Selling Point is it has a Capri badge. What a sad world we have now.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - ElHombre

So there you are sitting at the lights in your new Capri. And alongside comes a Skoda Enyaq more practical and cheaper but essentially the same car. How peed off would you be? Or a Audi Q summat, Cupra Born, VW ID whatever and so on.

I imagine that most would not be in the slightest "peed off".

All it seems they care about is "new", theirs is newest and thus best.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - badbusdriver

So there you are sitting at the lights in your new Capri. And alongside comes a Skoda Enyaq more practical and cheaper but essentially the same car. How peed off would you be? Or a Audi Q summat, Cupra Born, VW ID whatever and so on.

I imagine that most would not be in the slightest "peed off".

All it seems they care about is "new", theirs is newest and thus best.

I agree, the vast majority will neither know nor care that the new Capri is VAG under the skin.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - daveyjp

The Ford at the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb is interesting,

A 2,000bhp Transit EV.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - badbusdriver

The Ford at the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb is interesting,

A 2,000bhp Transit EV.

I trust it was more successful than the (equally powerful) Lotus Evija?

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - daveyjp

The Transit EV won the hillclimb, just beating a Subaru WRX.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - umani

I've owned over 45 cars, the last ford I owned was a 3 litre Capri back in the 1980s.

Says it all really :)

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - badbusdriver

I've owned over 45 cars, the last ford I owned was a 3 litre Capri back in the 1980s.

Says it all really :)

Well it doesn't actually say much to anyone other than you, because nobody else knows why you haven't owned a Ford since then. For example the Capri might have been very unreliable, putting you right off Ford's?. Or you may simply have become a badge snob and decided Ford's were beneath you?.

The last Ford car we had was a Fusion in 2005 and that was a fantastic wee car. But the last Ford I had was a 2005 Transit Connect van I bought for my work in 2010 and only replaced in Dec 2018 following an incident on a wintery road. It was a great van though, better designed and more comfortable than the 2009 VW Caddy which I got next.

Edited by badbusdriver on 14/07/2024 at 13:02

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - umani

>>Well it doesn't actually say much to anyone other than you

Reliability. I've owned more Japs than you could shake a stick at, Datsun, Nissan, Toyota, Daihatsu (micro van) Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Suzuki. Never owned a Mazda though.

2 Frogs, an AX and a BX

BMW 3 Series and 5 series (old ones) 1 Golf and 2 Sciroccos.

I won't mention the BL's.

BTW, I quite like the new Capri, but I wouldn't throw 50 big ones at it.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - Andrew-T

Reliability. I've owned more Japs than you could shake a stick at, Datsun, Nissan, Toyota, Daihatsu (micro van) Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Suzuki. Never owned a Mazda though.

After that many cars it sounds as if you changed them due to boredom, as they wouldn't have had time to become unreliable ?

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - umani

>>After that many cars it sounds as if you changed them due to boredom

I've been a car nut since the 1970s. I'm a proper nut now as I forgot the Ford Focus I owned in 2005.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - FiestaOwner

I find it quite strange that Ford has pulled the Fiesta from sale. While VAG still seems to be able to sell 4 cars in this segment (Ibiza, Fabia, Polo & A1).

Same story with the Focus, which they are about to pull from sale too. VAG is still able to sell in this segment too (Leon, Octavia, Golf, A3, Scala).

I do wonder if it's due to the bad reputation Ford has for the 1.0 Ecoboost engines and therefore frightening potential customers away. Virtually all Fords in these 2 segments have this engine.

I don't get why they launched the new Capri, it looks nothing like a Capri. BMW and Fiat showed how to do retro cars with the new (launched in 2000) Mini & 500.

Having owned and driven various Fords, I find it really sad that a company which used to sell good cars has ended up in this position.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - bazza

I don't understand their decision to pull their range of small to medium ICE cars so hastily, I have read that they planned to go fully electric and upmarket with collaboration with vag in Europe by 2030 but are rethinking based on slower than predicted sales of EVs. Perhaps there wasn't enough profit in that market. The new Capri is going to be over £50k! And as mentioned is a rebadged VW. The original Capri was a slightly naff poor man's coupe, but with a bit of style and performance thrown in on the higher models. There was even a 1.3 version which was hopelessly slow. They had notoriously poor grip and lethal in the wet, however ford sold bucket loads of them in the 70s as they were such good value.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - FiestaOwner

I don't understand their decision to pull their range of small to medium ICE cars so hastily, I have read that they planned to go fully electric and upmarket with collaboration with vag in Europe by 2030 but are rethinking based on slower than predicted sales of EVs. Perhaps there wasn't enough profit in that market. The new Capri is going to be over £50k! And as mentioned is a rebadged VW. The original Capri was a slightly naff poor man's coupe, but with a bit of style and performance thrown in on the higher models. There was even a 1.3 version which was hopelessly slow. They had notoriously poor grip and lethal in the wet, however ford sold bucket loads of them in the 70s as they were such good value.

I think Ford are pricing themselves out of the market. Ford traditionally sold cars because people thought they were value for money. Your example with the price of the new Capri demonstrates this perfectly.

I have just done a national search on Autotrader for the cheapest brand new Ford. It's a Puma ST-Line 1.0 Ecoboost (125) @ £23,310

For SEAT it's an Ibiza FR 1.0 TSi (95) @ £17,304

For Skoda it's a Fabia SE Comfort MPi (80) @ £17,000 or if you want the TSi (95) it's £17,490

For VW it's the Polo 1.0 (80) Evo Life @ £18,942 or again if you want the TSi (95) it's £18,990

Even a new Suzuki Vitara is £20,495.

I honestly believe that Ford is pricing themselves out of the market.

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - sajid

Ford c*** ri....

Why?

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - galileo

Ford c*** ri....

Why?

Dyslexic spell checker?

Any - The slow decline of interesting Fords - badbusdriver

I find it quite strange that Ford has pulled the Fiesta from sale. While VAG still seems to be able to sell 4 cars in this segment (Ibiza, Fabia, Polo & A1).

Same story with the Focus, which they are about to pull from sale too. VAG is still able to sell in this segment too (Leon, Octavia, Golf, A3, Scala).

I think you may have inadvertently included the explanation(!) in your statement and it comes down to economies of scale. The Fiesta and Focus platforms are not shared with any other manufacturers, so Ford and Ford alone has to foot the entire bill for developing new platforms.

With VAG, not only is the bill for a new platform split between the budget of four separate manufacturers, but the combined total sales for all four cars will make it much more financially viable to do so.

But also worth bearing in mind that just because the A1, Ibiza, Fabia and Polo are currently sold, that don't mean the situation will be the same at the end of each current respective models lifespan. Ford may have simply got ahead of the game.

I do wonder if it's due to the bad reputation Ford has for the 1.0 Ecoboost engines and therefore frightening potential customers away. Virtually all Fords in these 2 segments have this engine.

I don't think so. We surely know from numerous posts on the forum over the years that most people are completely oblivious to any "known issues", because most people simply don't bother (or aren't interested enough) to do some research and find out.

I don't get why they launched the new Capri, it looks nothing like a Capri. BMW and Fiat showed how to do retro cars with the new (launched in 2000) Mini & 500.

Each to their own, but I don't see this (modern cars made to look like old ones) as being a good thing. Both BMW and Fiat have painted themselves into a stylistic corner with no means to escape or move forward. Fiat have avoided the issue by basically keeping it the same, but with every new version, the Mini seems to be evolving into an ever more ridiculous looking caricature of itself. The front end of the most recent models remind me of those anti-stress toys where squeezing them makes the face mouth and eyes pop out grotesquely!.

I don't really have any problem with Ford resurrecting the Capri name. And while I don't particularly like the car, it does make some kind of sense seeing as the new Capri is a "coupe" version of the new Explorer. Also, the simple fact is it's been 38 years since the Capri was last on sale in the UK* (more than twice as long as its lifespan), maybe time to take off those rose tinted spectacles and move on..............

*It was actually withdrawn from everywhere other than the UK two years earlier.

Edited by badbusdriver on 15/07/2024 at 17:24