Oh and thank you for sticking your foot up your mouth by not even addressing how wrong you were about the WRX times.

You have no case. Give up already.

13 May 2006
By Robert Farago

I’ve never run a multi-billion dollar multi-national car company. But I’ve driven hundreds of cars, and every car I drive tells me everything I need to know about the company that builds it. Literally. What do I need to know about GM’s product development process that I can’t glean from the Solstice’s fiddly roof? What can Daimler-Chrysler’s flackmeisters tell me about the company’s strategy that I can’t appreciate by hammering an SRT-8? What does BMW have to say that their X3 doesn’t? And how can I be expected to take Ford’s “Bold Moves� campaign seriously after driving a Ford 500?

Someone forgot to tell Billy Ford that everything– sales, service, marketing, the money in his pocket– starts with product. First you build cars, trucks and SUV’s that do one thing better than anyone else, THEN you market them according to their unique selling point. If you want to sell ultimate driving, start by making damn sure all your vehicles ride and handle better than anything else in their segment (Boxster-beater my eye). If you’re selling safety, begin by building cars that get five stars in all crash categories (S40 four-star rollover rating my toches). If you’re starting an American revolution, it’s probably best to sell cars built in America. And if you want to be known as bold…

In one TV ad, a mother and daughter jump into a swimming hole. After affirming their generational courage, they motor off in a Ford Escape– a vehicle so generic I wouldn’t be surprised to find one for sale at Costco. The Ford 500, Explorer, Fusion, Freestar, Freestyle, Focus, Crown Victoria, Sport Trac, F150 and even the spiffy new(ish) Mustang GT are about as far from bold as you can get without hiding behind a rock. (The Ford GT was Starbuck’s bold blend bold, but they killed it.) You could argue that that Ford’s current management team inherited this less-than-audacious product portfolio, and that the Bold Moves campaign is more of a promise than a come-on. But you don’t have to be a Times Square pimp to know you don’t talk the talk before you walk the walk.

In fact, Ford’s Bold Move message borders on self-parody: be bold and buy a vehicle from a car company struggling for survival. Anyway, we’ve been here before. Back in November, I suggested that Ford’s customers want an innovative vehicle (the automaker’s last marketing mantra) about as much as they want an innovative toaster. What bright spark at FoMoCo suddenly decided that the company’s core clientele have moved on, from a non-existent desire for technological gee-whizzery to an equally fantastic desire for personal attention? Hey, I’m all for car companies taking risks. But I’m the kind of guy who lusts after a ’71 Buick Riviera “boat tail;” a machine whose bold design did nothing whatsoever to revive Buick’s fortunes.

I understand the genesis of Ford’s BM. It started with new Ford boss Mark Fields’ “Red, White and Boldâ€? shtick. Somewhere between the focus meetings and the Kool-Aid filled water cooler, the campaign’s patriotic thrust got ditched for the “There’s only way we’re gonna get out of this mess: take some chances.â€? Which is fair enough. Ford’s survival does indeed depend on losing their “play it safe and fail upwards” mentality. They need to take a chainsaw to their stifling bureaucracy and moribund product line. But they’re a mainstream motor manufacturer, not friggin’ Ferrari. Their customers are deeply, fundamentally, inherently, genetically conservative people whose prime motivation is to avoid risk, not make bold (i.e. risky) moves.

You want bold moves? Kill Jaguar. Kill Mercury. Sell Volvo. Sell Mazda. Sell Land Rover. Cut half the remaining models and plow money into the ones that survive. Re-invigorate your rear-wheel drive, box-frame car with new sheetmetal, a bad-ass motor and a killer cabin. Build a world-beating Lincoln luxury sedan. Make the Ford Focus the world’s best small car. Get the Explorer’s mileage into the mid-20’s. Develop a more powerful engine than the Hemi and stick it into everything– including a new minivan. Set SVT loose on the entire model line-up. OWN quality interiors. Don’t badge engineer ANYTHING.

Lose the glass fishbowl; redesign Ford showrooms to look like a modern retail outlet. Trim the dealer network and sell cars on the web. Undercut everyone’s price with every vehicle. Interact with every single customer on a regular basis via internet. Institute no-haggle pricing. Make financing cheaper. Drop 80% of your print budget and dominate the web. Do it all, and do it all at once– regardless of cost. Then sell value for money. Ford: the best car money can buy.

I’d like to think that these ideas are on the table at Ford. I like to think that Billy Ford has the juice and the courage to reinvent his family business. And then I drive a Ford 500 and despair.

You don’t know, you are just making stuff up, because their isn’t anything wrong with them that a few cheap aftermarket can’t fix

A mustang has never been the cheapest, or the fastest, or best handling car on the market, but what it has always been is the best bang for your buck. What other car can you pick up for almost free, build up with a combination of readily available junkyard and aftermarket parts to way way past super car performance levels in any form of driving (road racing, drag, auto cross, etc)?

Oh and the chasis of the GT500 was redesigned to accomodate a 5.4 V8 with that much horsepower. For crying out loud go read up on the cars before you say anything about them.

All the car needs to do is survive in name. The late 70′s, 80′s and 90′s weren’t nice to any car, all of the “muscle cars” were relying on name. But not all survived to be remodelled.

Look at the Camaro concept now and check the original sketches for the ’05 Mustang made years ago. See familiarities? Yeah I thought so. GM cannot even come up with something to compete on its own. Chrysler’s too scared to lose money so they don’t take risks and come out with bland cars or low production “collector” items. The Mustang’s the only true muscle car left to this day.

And what is honestly wrong with the falcon or mustang II chassis that sub frame connectors and a cage can’t fix?

That is the beautiful thing about the mustang, even a blind person can drag his car through the local speed shop, picking up whatever sticks, and they can get ridiculous amounts of performance for a fraction of the cost of any supercar.

Mustang is an American icon, there is no arguing that. I can’t think of a car that symbolizes American vehicles more. The comment you made applies much better to Audis, now there is a bland car that just fades into the background and nobody notices. That is because many cars like Audis have no soul, they are just glorified econo-boxes with nice interiors. The car needs to inspire you, and let’s just say, a A4 won’t end up on any of those cheesy inspirational posters that high school counselors put up.

http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060503/AUTO03/605030329&SearchID=73244131459867

Just so you know the Focus is the number one car selling in Britain, the Fusion received amazing reviews and is in no sense of the word a beater, and of course the Mustang has survived every decade where the Challenger, Camaro, GTO etc could not. The Mustang has 500 hp for under 40k, that’s innovative. Put 2k more into the car and you have 638HP to the rear wheels. For 42k nothing is remotely close to that. The Corvette is doing well for one reason. The bumped up the class. They’re calling it a super car, no longer is it a nice muscle car. The only way they could rise the performance is by rising the price. Oh and balsa wood as a core in the floor helps as well… just when you crash in it and die, don’t go blaming us, blame GM.

Its a live axle because that is what most mustang owners want and it keeps the cost down. Take a look around a see how many 2001-2004 cobras have had their IRS swaped out for a live axle (SVT was actualy smart enough to keep all the mounts in there so the GT axle will just bolt in)

There was a picture of the GT500 on stage with text up behind it talking about “innovation”. Is there even one thing innovative about this car? Of course not; particularly not when using a live axle. A little surprised they didn’t complete the package and use leaf-springs.

It’s not innovative. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Pretty innovative stuff, that.

The resurrected Hertz’ will feature Ford’s Racing Performance Group’s Power Pack which added 25 horsepower and 10 pound-feet of torque to the 300-horse Mustang GT 4.6-liter V8. The package includes a five-speed automatic transmission, Ford Racing’s 9…

Some dealers wanted big premiums for the Ford GT…the Viper carried a premium for a while…if you don’t want to pay what dealer A wants, just go to dealer B. It’s your money, no one is forcing you to buy anything.

Remember when the Miata launched back in the day? People paid a huge premium to be the first to own one.

People need to wake up and remember that these are mass-produced autos. Ford is building a LOT of them. There are plenty to go around.

Being the first on your block to own anything is only cool until all of your neighbors have the same thing in their garages one week later.