Boo Hoo. It doesn’t mention Aston Martin or Mazda sales.
Bring in the European Fords especially focus, s-max and next mondeo as the Fusion isnt good enough and the 500 is awful.

Good to see Ford working to try and right the ship. Hope they pull through and continue to improve. A new Focus would help as would the new 3.5 Duratec to replace the old 3.0.

Hope things continue to improve.

X2 Paul.
They managed to turn their European operations around with great products. GM likewise is starting to do the same here. Let’s hope Ford gets with the program…their european vehicles are well-received in the press.

Can somebody please tell me why Ford is still hanging onto Mercury? IMHO, they should just kill off that unit and make Land Rover, Jaguar, and Mazda just “a” model of Ford, not a whole brand on themselves.

Land Rover is very successful these days, posting record sales. Why would you kill that brand, #4?

They won’t kill Mercury because Lincoln dealers couldn’t hold on with just that brand. They need Lincoln Mercury to survive. They researched this.

#4 Yeah that makes sense lets kill the brand identity that Land Rover has spend 50 years making. Completly revamp Ford’s most profitable division by lumping it in with the rest of Fords lack luster domestic product.

#4 after that comment on a business strategy that would surely kill ford completely, i have to agree with you on one thing 1c3d0g. Your opinion is humble

Kill the Ranger, bring over the Falcon Ute.
“Bring in the European Fords especially focus, s-max and next mondeo as the Fusion isnt good enough and the 500 is awful.” S-Max absoultely, but bring over as a Mercury. The Fusion is selling (no need for the Mondeo-as much as I like it) but bring the Mondeo’s CDI engine to NA and put it in the Milan/Fusion. The 500 redesign so far looks good, and they need a big car. I don’t think the Fairlane or LTD from Australia would do as well, the safety ratings are great for the S80 based 500/Montego. Mercury could be Ford’s version of Saturn/Opel?

“Completly revamp Ford’s most profitable division by lumping it in with the rest of Fords lack luster domestic product.” The man responsible for the lackluster looks is no longer in charge of design in NA!!! As glad as I am about that, he did do a great job on the F150 (and the GT). The Mustang, too me only looks good modified or the Shelby (or Steeda, Saleen) versions, no middle ground with me on that.

Jaguar-what a mess. Where do you begin. Accept niche player status and attack it.

Volvo-need more than a redesigned S80 sedan, offer a wagon, and a crossover.

Mazda-they have a nice product lineup.

Lincoln-I doubt the new Navigator will sell (in decent #’s) vs the Escalade. The Aviator, saw one yesterday, “M” plate it might do well. Licoln needs two new cars in its lineup. LS dropped, Town Car likely axed (Wixom closing). The cars should be awd or rwd, if awd biased toward rwd. Its an American brand, keep it American. This means big, luxurious and comfortable. A decent ride, not floaty or darty, doesn’t have to be the quickest through the slalom, but it should be close enough to its competitors to make it interesting. The styling, should make it stand out (although this contardicts the wayback program).

My biggest gripe with Ford is they already have the product!! Its just in the wrong markets. When the Contour/Mystique were dropped, they should have been replaced with the Mondeo. It would have done some serious damage to the Accord and Camry sales. I do like the Milan, but the Fusion tail lights, they are so 5 years ago.

“My biggest gripe with Ford is they already have the product!! Its just in the wrong markets.”

I agree x eleventybillion!!!11!

Tony, Just because the Fusion is selling is no excuse not to bring in a better product. Its that reasoning that has led to the trouble the big three are in.

Tony as long as they don’t brand the euro fords as Merkurs

check out the european fords at http://www.ford.co.uk maybe even the Fiesta and Ka have a place in the US market

Wow, i didnt know mazda truck sales could decline below zero… who buys those? And jaguar, screw them.. Ford has really killed their image. And why not kill mercury.. but rebadge all the mercury models as Lincolns? Then lincoln would have a legitimate lineup and maybe those dealers could survive… beyond the POS Navigator and the Zephyr, and maybe the new aviator.

The new MKX is as badly styled and proportioned as a Rendezvous

#5: that sure is news to me. I have a hard time believing Land Rover sells anything these days… :-/

#8: hey, at least you noticed it was an opinion.

Number 16

Just look at the sales statistics almost 39% up vs last year and Land Rover will be introducing three new models over the next four to five years. Land Rover has the three hottest SUVs on the market right now and they are expensive enough that the people buying them don’t car about gas prices. In real world situations then can all get better then 20 mpg which compared to the competition is pretty good.

Tony, Just because the Fusion is selling is no excuse not to bring in a better product. Its that reasoning that has led to the trouble the big three are in.

Comment by Ben Doon, posted on June1 at 5:38 pm

But where would you position it? The Fusion is selling better than expected. True Mondeo would have been better than spending all that money developing Milan/Fusion/Zephyr.

“Tony as long as they don’t brand the euro fords as Merkurs.” Don’t get me started, Ford was going to bring over all those lovely Cosworth Sierra’s here to NA, than they bought Jaguar (1989?) and dropped the Sierra’s (Merkurs).

“The new MKX is as badly styled and proportioned as a Rendezvous .” I disagree, the proportions look good, I saw a Ford Edge today. The only thing questionable about the MKX is the grill.

maybe even the Fiesta and Ka have a place in the US market
I saw a Fiesta yesterday (an 80 or 81), almost stopped owner to see if he would sell it, but the I remembered the 1974 Mk 1 Capri in the garage.