Yes well... we have progressed some since the war...
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
The Mini (the small one) was in part a reaction to those "bubble cars" (very different than the Japanese bubble-era cars...) whose popularity increased following the fuel shortages caused by an Anglo-French proxy war fought by the Israelis in Egypt... The Mini successfully showed that foul, two-stroke greenhouses-on-wheels were not the only way of cheaply perambulating. You could squish yourself, your spouse, and your legless children into a Mini with a modest amount of luggage while still achieving commendable mileage and driving dynamics, no thanks to the hoary and senile Austin A-series engine. Anyway... Minis, Golfs, and a whole load of intermediate rubbish later convinced the Yurps that they "needed" real cars (not real cars: those have V8s, carburetors, and an aging Boomer behind the wheel) and their growing prosperity, as the war years faded to memory, allowed them to indulge this "need".
The Japanese, with their government subsidies and minimizing tendencies, continued in the vein of the keijidosha to the present day. To my knowledge, the only foreign car to meet the requirements was a version of the Smart ForTwo sold nowhere else in the world.
I hope you've enjoyed my history of why Europeans drive real cars, but not real cars, and why the Japanese do not.
I disagree; I can find no evidence suggesting that the Ford Ecosport was sold to the European public in 1945. It is now, ipso facto Europe has regressed.
"Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
"No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"
I have little idea what Ford sells here beyond the Mustang and F-Series... Maybe the aforementioned Mercury Sable.
"Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
"No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"
Mustang, F-150... and Mercury Sable would be quite lineup for Ford.
We should lobby them to cancel everything else they make.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Worse, we get to have the Mustang Mach-e electric crossover. It's like the forum's least favorite things mashed together.
"Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
"No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"
You know, even the iconic V8 I think is only in the Mustang. Everything else is Ecoboost V6 and I4. Ford is quickly turning into Mitsubishi. I can't name more than 5 of their offerings off the top of my head if you kill off the sedans.
Escape, F-150, Explorer, Mustang...?
Why, though?
This thread made me think a lot about Ford's lineup; I even went to their website.
To quote a wise man: Not good!
Then I was like, its OK, they are a conglomerate. They have... Lincoln.
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Oh. Stagnation.
There are still V8s in tthe F-Series. Maybe not on the 150 but on the others. In fact Ford makes a 445 cubic inch big block V8 for the Super Duty. I wonder if it fits under the bonnet of the Mustang...
The European Ford lineup is the one you want. You get all of the American Fords you want (i.e. the Mustang), with none of the ones you don't want (i.e. all of the others).
Plus you get all of the Fords you want, you know the ones with handling and whatnot.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Or the EcoSport...
Yeah the Euro lineup is enviably well balanced. I'd say we actually had a better lineup than you folks a few years ago, just in the breadth of choice, but not no more.The European Ford lineup is the one you want. You get all of the American Fords you want (i.e. the Mustang), with none of the ones you don't want (i.e. all of the others).
Ford US has relied on only one model at a time for a while; the idea of a "lineup" seems anathema to the numbers creeps at corporate headquarters. Going back through my lifetime, those cars are:
Taurus
Explorer (one of my least-favorite vehicles ever made)
F-150
They have, in that time, also done well with fleets with the Crown Vic joining the cars above and the Fusion supplanting the Taurus at some stage and then back to the Taurus. The last five years, before the Great Purge/liquidation-of-everything-that-isn't-an-SUV, were the closest they got to an actual lineup. They had small cars that were about the equal of the Japanese and Koreans, medium sedans that were leagues better than their American competition and not much worse than the imports, the Taurus for those without taste that must buy bad cars, a host of forgettable, but cheap, SUVs catering towards the previous audience, and the evergreen F-Series selling 4.5 quintillion units per annum to the hat-but-no-cattle crowd.
Oh look, all those cars were made available immediately prior to the 2013 peak in the stock... After allowing its models to rot on the vine for the last half-dozen years, so too the stock has withered.
Less the F-150, I don't think the SUVs or the fleet sales are enough to keep them afloat. I also don't think the Bronco will make as big of a splash as they hope. I see it more like the Mustang; good for their public image and always in the black, but not contributing greatly to their bottom line. This doesn't seem like the healthiest place to be, no wonder their stock is doing poorly.
Also: apparently the EcoSport is sold here? What the **** is that about? Why is there no Lincoln EcoLTD Mk.IX?
As an unrelated aside, why are all of the European-designed vans that we get made of such flimsy steel? I've seen three and four-year-old Transits and Sprinters at home (bone-dry Southern California) with holes rusted into them. Do they degrade like that in Europe? Is there some Chicken Tax-style regulation that states imported commercial vehicles must be bodied in cheese?
Last edited by f6fhellcat13; 08-11-2020 at 07:03 AM.
"Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
"No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"
I completely forgot about the pickups!
Repeat, I completely forgot about the pick ups! That's how many F's I give about pickups. When they look like tractor trailers parked next to my small crossover, you know they're way, way too big.
Stagnation for sure! The EDM Ford lineup is infinitely more interesting than the American one. I really liked having the Focus RS here on this side and now we have nothing. It was nice to have the Golf R, WRX STi and the Focus RS duking it out.
Ford is financially the most sound US automaker, but is that solely because of the F150? I hope they have some other cars to sell when the market gets saturated with SUVs and pickups and the economy is bad.
Wait what, they cancelled all their cars? Oops.
Well, you still have the Mondeo... although I think it is on its way out soon. I suppose this also means no more Mondeo for us either...
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
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