not surprising

not at all.

Mulally says he is aware of this and is going to do something about it, for Ford’s sake lets hope so.

the focus is the best selling car in Russia, again not suprising at all. but Ford NA needs to think over its head with its nxt focus. its horrifying. and they cut the htchbk with a dumb coupe. the fusion needs to be rethough or better yet replaced. they need to catch up to be as good as its europe and aussie market.I’m sure those aussie fords will be a hit if brought to NA.

I went back to Ukraine in 2001 to vist family that were still alive and yes there are lots of thoughs ugly ford fouces cut off things buzzing around there.

Crazy! Good products lead to an increase in sales! A BREAKTHROUGH!

Ford USA which is where the company was founded so one would think people who live there would get all the cars and trucks. We get the worst of the worst from Ford in the United States.

i thought russia was in asia, shouldt that be in the asian figures, just saying they are in europe because they have round eyes is silly.

Unbelievable that ford has the answer for NA and will not pull the trigger.

Stop being stupid, Ford!
Bring: Mondeo, Ka, Falcon (Australia)

Most Russians live in the European part of the country.

Indeed, there are many Fords here. The Focus, Fiesta and Mondeo are the big sellers, BUT WE HAVEN’T GOT THE MUSTANG!!!

Very few pickups are sold here, thank God.

Ford’s problem is that it is stuck in a production world while the rest of the US has moved into a “what I want, where I want it, whenever I want it” mode. People are no longer happy with having something just because it is produced. They want luxury, styling, status, reliability, etc…They want their neighbor to say, “you are so lucky”. They read Consumer Biased Reportsâ„¢ which says to buy Honda and Toyota. Nobody wants to be a commoner!

“Nobody wants to be a commoner!”

Exactly why I don’t like to drive Bimmer and MB unless I really have to.

I saw a Ka in the parking lot at wal mart not long ago. threw me off for a minute.
had mexican plates.
Wonder is I could buy a Chevy Zafira there …
Nah!
I’ll just go ahead with my planned Mazda purchase

Not surprised that ford’s doing well in europe. I was in ngermany not long ago, and there were a fair number of fords and opels. i think all the Chrysler Group products were imported. By U.S. soldiers

Profit margins keep the Focus out for now; we’ve discussed this ad nauseum in the past. It -will- happen now, but such things don’t happen overnight.

Unless you’re GM, and you want to lose money on every car you sell (the Saturn Astra) just so that you’re not stuck with the Aura and the Ion in the same lineup.

not surprising i saw the new mondeo today and it looks very good an improvement over the previous model. it looks more elegant and up class

Ford’s pickup in Europe is hideous. and Europe could use a Mustang. But Mustangs do not have that egg-crate face, so the EU might not let it pass through dealerships.

can anyone here sum up why it is such an issue for GM and Ford to bring these cars over? if not the cars, then at least their design and engineering techniques. the companies seem so resistant, yet they cannot be blind to the potential. i understand these things take time but it seems like something is holding them back.

You know, sometimes I believe Ford is *purposely* trying to decrease its market share in North America…I’m still trying to figure out a reason behind this. Seriously, they keep shooting themselves in the foot every damn time, they can’t get ANYTHING right in the Americas. Yet, in Europe they’re flourishing. Something just does not add up. :-/

Well duh the european Focus is pretty good & the new Mondeo is hot.

Ford seems to be strong everywhere but at home. Way to drop the ball, geniuses.

GREAT….I HOPE THEY CONTINUE……THEY NEED TO WORK ON THEIR HOME BASE.

Ford execs need to remember back to when they were teenagers dating that first girlfriend who wouldn’t give it up but kept saying someday soon she would. She kept asking you to wait, you kept going home and jacking off, and after a long while you got sick of listening to her promises about exciting future poon and you dumped her and went on to the next piece.
.
Ford USA is the frigid girlfriend, and Ford’s customers are the horny boyfriend who is now wildly impatient and looking at other, hotter ho’s in the neighborhood who offer what he wants. Ford needs to get bold and give it up (since it has it) to keep its customers. Otherwise it’ll be standing by the walls while everyone is dancing at the homecoming, and whom they blame for this will be irrelevant.

The biggest problem is multiple architectures because of group politics and regional requirements for cars. Basically, the U.S. got the last Focus, which was good, but botched with poor quality powertrains and build quality. Why? They can’t sell the Focus here for as much as they go for in Europe. Now, with the Euro at an all-time high, Ford and GM are in even less shape to do the one-for-one switch.

That’s going to change as they both move towards worldwide platforms that will be basically the same underneath, share styling cues on top, but have different levels of luxury, features, etc. In 2010 or ‘11 when the C2 Focus comes to the U.S., it will probably start around 15k (in 2007 dollars), but because they’ve built for different markets, it will be the same platform that goes for 20k-22k in Europe, just with different equipment and maybe less costly components in some areas.

Wise words Robert. If I’m looking at exchange rates thinking “hmm everything s so cheap in the US maybe I should have another long weekend in NY” then Ford Execs are thinking “Yikes, the exchange rate is so bad it’ll be a real nightmare bringing over that nice Focus and Mondeo”

Exchange rates are one factor not under the control of Ford, at the moment they are not favourable to Ford, and may well be the one major factor which would kill any profitability in bringing the cars over…

btw the 1st Mondeo (in 1991/ 1992?) was supposed to be Fords first stab at a “World car” – Monde means world in many European languages. I can;t say why it wasn’t a hit i the states – too bland a styling if I recall… and not sold as a Ford?

Unless Ford starts bringing some of their great European product here to the states, they will continue to fail in North America. Not selling the Mondeo in North America is just plain dumb. There’s no excuse for it. Mullaly is a complete idiot on that basis alone.

If Bob Lutz was at Ford, you could guarantee the Mondeo would be sold in the U.S.

Ford is a global company. It’s time they started operating like one.

“btw the 1st Mondeo (in 1991/ 1992?) was supposed to be Fords first stab at a “World car” – Monde means world in many European languages. I can;t say why it wasn’t a hit i the states – too bland a styling if I recall… and not sold as a Ford?

Comment by spud, posted on July16 at 5:52 am ”

I owned one of Ford’s first world cars, a 1996 Ford Contour SE. It was a V-6 with a 5 speed manual. I loved that car – it was a blast to drive, and pretty much was a poor man’s 3-series the way it drove. It was on Car & Driver’s 10-best list for several years, and received numerous favorable reviews, especially for the SVT version which came out two years later. Yet, it never caught on well here. Part of the problem was Ford had watered down the U.S. version of the Mondeo so much that it was only about 80% of the Euro Mondeo – smaller brakes, softer suspension, no quaife differential option, smaller wheels, etc. Ford felt the Euro Mondeo was too much fun for American tastes so they softened it up and cheapened it since they felt Americans don’t know how to drive anyway. Idiots.

Then, they made the base model so weak and pedestrian that it quickly became a default rental car for Hertz. However, a stripped base 4-cylinder automatic model that you would drive at Hertz was basically an entirely different car from a loaded V-6 SE with a manual. Yet few people knew that. They thought a Contour was a Countour – weak boring rental car.

Size was another issue – it was a bit smaller than its competition which included the Altima, Accord, and Camry. Then Ford completely failed to market the car. Three years after it came out, most people still didn’t even know what a Contour or a Mystique was. Nobody knew about the SVT unless they were car nuts and read the reviews in car mags. I don’t think Ford ever marketed that car.

if i want a focus coupe ill buy a 1998 mitsubishi mirage

Z06irfied:

I think part of that was a marketing blunder. They sold the U.DS. Mondeo (the Contour) as the replacement for the Tempo, when it was really a much better car. They should have sold the Tempo another year, so customers could see the difference between the two.

You’ll notice that the Escort and Focus were sold side-by-side for a few years in the U.S.

A4: a mirage? is that a joke?