Canada May Become the Most Expensive Place in the World to Build Cars

[Falcon500]

Apparently America does. Motortrend rated it above the new Honda Accord, which makes no sense whatsoever. I was expecting the Accord to win.

Of course you did NSXtype-R why with a name like NSXtype-R id expect you to be completly impartial to a review like that hey NSXtype-R

While not a great car im sure it would do a fine job also rember its the staple of taxi drivers and other such departments there in the us so while not world beating im sure itll be an ok car at least.

[fpv_gtho]

They could look at Europe as another potential export market.

They could, and IMO they'd make more money doing it that way but they'd be up against more hurdles than trying to sell in the US. The local product would be looked down upon for quality in Europe, whereas in the US its likely to be seen as equal or better quality to US domestic vehicles. A vast lack of diesel engines here would mean they'd have to stick with simply the performance and luxury equivalents and try and sell on value for money rather than outright features. Right now, only Holden are capable of producing LHD vehicles as Ford are still a few years away from integrating that flexibility into their local models.

[NSXType-R]

Of course you did NSXtype-R why with a name like NSXtype-R id expect you to be completly impartial to a review like that hey NSXtype-R

While not a great car im sure it would do a fine job also rember its the staple of taxi drivers and other such departments there in the us so while not world beating im sure itll be an ok car at least.

Of course.

[Ferrer]

They could, and IMO they'd make more money doing it that way but they'd be up against more hurdles than trying to sell in the US. The local product would be looked down upon for quality in Europe, whereas in the US its likely to be seen as equal or better quality to US domestic vehicles. A vast lack of diesel engines here would mean they'd have to stick with simply the performance and luxury equivalents and try and sell on value for money rather than outright features. Right now, only Holden are capable of producing LHD vehicles as Ford are still a few years away from integrating that flexibility into their local models.

Well Chrysler (tries to) sells here the 300C, the Sebring and the Avenger which, altough having no exprience with Australian cars at all, I think they are worse than either the Falcon or the Commodore.

On that basis I don't think Australian cars are in that bad of a psotition. At least as you say they could sell the HSV Commodores as Opel VXR8s, just like they do in the UK, and I'm sure that the market in continental Europe is bigger than that in the UK. And if promoted properly it could even become a sort of a halo car for the European Opel lineup.

Another option, quite more radical I admit, would be to phase out completely the Mondeo and Vectra and replace them with Australian-built Falcons and Commodores. If we compare the Mondeo (2850mm WB, 4844x1886x1500mm) and the Falcon (2829mm WB, 4930x1864x1444mm) it isn't that much bigger. This way Ford and GM could rationalise their world car lineups and achieve greater economies of scale.

[fpv_gtho]

I dont think replacing the Mondeo with the Falcon would work too well. They tried that here locally about 10 years ago by bringing in the Taurus and Mondeo in an attempt to phase the Falcon out. The only problem was the Ford dealerships didnt want to sell the Mondeo and Taurus, and kept swaying people into Falcons. Theyre still like that, in that alot of the salespeople arent interested in making the sale unless youre interested in buying a Falcon. They'd probably have better success keeping the Mondeo as is, and leveraging the RWD feature of the Falcon and pass it off as a more performance oriented choice.

[Ferrer]

I dont think replacing the Mondeo with the Falcon would work too well. They tried that here locally about 10 years ago by bringing in the Taurus and Mondeo in an attempt to phase the Falcon out. The only problem was the Ford dealerships didnt want to sell the Mondeo and Taurus, and kept swaying people into Falcons. Theyre still like that, in that alot of the salespeople arent interested in making the sale unless youre interested in buying a Falcon. They'd probably have better success keeping the Mondeo as is, and leveraging the RWD feature of the Falcon and pass it off as a more performance oriented choice.

But look at Ford's line up, the Fusion, the Mondeo and the Falcon all similarly sized saloons all based on different platforms and with different engines. Surely rationalisation is the key here if Ford (and GM) wants to survive.

Furthermore economies of scale would mean better products since the development costs would be spread over a wider number of units.

[fpv_gtho]

Well the Fusion and Mondeo are different products to the Falcon, being based on a FWD platform. AFAIK, they plan to put both the Fusion and Mondeo on a singular platform, and then have Mustang, Falcon and Crown Victoria on a seperate RWD platform.