I visited this website - www.fordforum.com - for an insight into how US buyers of Fords view the company's current problems. I found it a bit depressing. They still seem firmly wedded to buying gas-guzzlers despite the clear indications that more fuel-efficient vehicles such as Japanese manufacturers supply are the way forward.
I think Ford should be ditching their current range in favour of importing (or locally manufacturing) versions of their Euro lineup. Fewer 20mpg machines and more 40 mpg ones.
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"I think Ford should be ditching their current range in favour of importing (or locally manufacturing) versions of their Euro lineup"
That is in the pipeline... for Ford, GM etc. at long last.
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Ford tried this in the mid 90's with the Contour nee Mondeo.
Sales were abysmal and it was dumped circa 2001.
What makes you think whatever cars are in the pipeline will be more successfull?
Americans dislike small cars... period.
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SO on the one hand you have american consumers saying they want huge gas guzzlers on the other California wants to sue the makers for making huge gas guzzlers. WHat a fab business model.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Show how out of touch the film stars ... er ... I mean politicians are.
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What makes you think whatever cars are in the pipeline will be more successfull? Americans dislike small cars... period.
Erm, no they don't. Rising sales of smaller more fuel efficient Japanese cars is precisely why Ford/GM are having their current problems. This factor is also affecting the US used-car market where the 'affair' with SUV's is over. The 'time to turn' (average time a used car dealer has a car on the lot before it sells) is now around 90 days for an SUV!!
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Erm, no they don't. Rising sales of smaller more fuel efficient Japanese cars is precisely why Ford/GM are having their current problems.
Really? It seems to me that in the USA, the Japanese manufacturers are not selling significanly smaller, more fuel efficient cars than Frod/GM.
1) While Honda have just recently introduced the Jazz (though they are calling it the Fit) and Toyota are selling the Yaris in the USA, I spent two weeks in the USA earlier this year, and I do not recall seeing anything smaller than a Focus / Civic / Corolla. In Europe, at least, the Civic and the Corolla are not significantly more fuel efficient than the Focus, and I would imagine that the same is true in the USA.
2) Japanese makes sell several kinds of SUVs (including some big ones) in the USA that they don't sell in this country. Toyota, for example sells 6 different SUVs in the USA, and Lexus sells 3.
Surely the basic issue is that Americans rate reliability as the most important consideration in buying a car (much more than we do in this country) and when it comes to reliability, no one can beat the Japanese makers.
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Depends what you mean by 'smaller'.
I was not really thinking in terms of supermini's like the Jazz, more in terms of 'smaller than SUV/full-size' - i.e. cars like the four-pot Accord, Camry, Sonata, Mazda6, which have all fairly fuel-efficient and high-tech have increased sales in the US at the expense of the relatively old-fashioned big and thirsty Ford/GM 'trucks'.
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Huge tax break for business owners in US to buy SUV's and write the cost off against tax.
When the tax break was introduced dealers almost had their switchboards going into meltdown.
Would seem this is settling down now but there must be a HUGE number of 3 year old SUV's out there for sale.
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Ford tried this in the mid 90's with the Contour nee Mondeo. Sales were abysmal and it was dumped circa 2001. What makes you think whatever cars are in the pipeline will be more successfull? Americans dislike small cars... period.
Imagos, 2001 seems light years away. Americans ARE now increasingly buying smaller, more fuel efficient cars, mostly from Far East manufacturers. That is not the same as saying they like them.
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The indications are that redneck, deer-shootn' middle America is actually hungry for bigger, more powerful SUVs which look more and more like Hummers. The new Jeep Commander 7 seater would bear this out.
As one Hummer owner said on TV a few months ago was "C'mon George [Bush], we OWN Iraq now, so why's gasoline still so expensive?"
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As one Hummer owner said on TV a few months ago was "C'mon George [Bush], we OWN Iraq now, so why's gasoline still so expensive?"
Sounds about right.
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Don't forget that outside the urban coastal areas the population is widespread and average journey lengths can be very high. Under those circumstances larger more psacious vehicles are a necessity and the cramped eurobox is just not going to fit the bill.
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Having driven US versions of European cars, they make the mistake of putting in US style slush boxes and gutless engines. Unless they can sort out the tranmissions (make them more efficient) you need a big lump just to make the darn things go. My old 1.6FSI Touran had more grunt than the 2.5l hire care I had last time I was in the US!
Having said that, the American Hemi engine sounds wonderful, and is very quick, especially put in a Monaro!
Joe
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