Ford's new idea...

[85_Ranger4x4]

Its original, gotta give them that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...-us-cars/ar-AAwltjG?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=ASUSDHP15

 

[adsm08]

I don't know that I blame them. I really think I would have made a similar decision years ago.

The Fusion, while a good selling car, has always been in an odd spot in the lineup, and Ford has a bad history of doing this. Since the 80s they have had a compact car, Escort or Focus, a mid-size sedan, the Taurus, an even smaller, mostly useless compact, Fiesta/Festiva, and then a bunch of cars between the compact and mid-size sedans. The Tempo, the Contour, the Fusion, these were all pretty much the same bad idea sitting in a lineup slot that just makes sales slower on the cars on either side.

I agree the Fiesta and Fusion should get axed. Since the Crown Vic is gone I think they should hang on to the Taurus (look what happened the last time it went away). The C-MAX should also go bye-bye and be replaced by a gas/electric hybrid version of the Focus, if that is an area they want to stay in. They already have a full electric version.

 

[wildbill23c]

Too many vehicle choices and none worth buying is the problem across the line of all automakers...not to mention they all look the same. They have ridiculous prices attached to them as well.

I had a Ford Tempo, pretty decent car pretty decent fuel economy, averaged 36mpg on the freeway at 65mph with the AC on. The cars they build today can't even get that with all the so called eco junk they put on them...oh and that car didn't even have overdrive just a simple 3 speed automatic. Goes to show adding a bunch of gears doesn't get the job done.

I'll stick with my Bronco 2 and Jeep. I don't feel like crawling in and falling out of the damn low rider cars that are being built today that have absolutely no ground clearance to them.

Ford hasn't done themselves any favors, as well as other automakers. They bring back old vehicle names trying to hope for better sales but at the same time tripling the sticker price on them which makes customers either go buy used, or they buy a truck for the same price that car would have cost them.

Vehicle prices are ridiculously over-inflated, and worse, people keep paying those over-inflated prices which continually drive up the price of the next year's models. Add to that the junk they keep adding to them so the idiots who shouldn't be driving in the first place can drive.

What people want are a well built economical car to get them to and from work, not a damn $50k luxury car made out of plastic that sits in the repair shop on a weekly basis waiting for parts that don't exist. Many that are driving what people keep calling SUV's today are doing so because the prices on them are about the same or cheaper than a car and allow them to pack around all their soccer mom necessities since today's cars have no damn trunk space or rather can't get anything in the trunk because the damn opening is ridiculously small.

What they need to do is dump their stupid ecoboost shit and get back to building real engines and stop adding gears to their transmissions trying to get 1/16th of an mpg better. Get back to the basics of automobile manufacturing, a vehicle that takes you from point a to point b in one piece. If you want to play with your electronic devices do so on your couch in your living room your vehicle is no place for any of that so they can save thousands right there by removing those stupid in dash touch screen devices that don't work most of the time anyhow and cost a fortune when they don't work.

All automakers have the same problem their vehicles all look the same, they change the names on them to cover up previous problems and make several vehicles that are very similar to each other to offer a different engine...use the same damn vehicle platform and offer the different engines in the same platform just as they used to do.

How about a diesel/hybrid carry all, or a diesel/hybrid pickup. Just keep the enviro-nancies out of the damn assembly process and build process and you'd have some pretty damn fuel efficient vehicles.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I agree the Fiesta and Fusion should get axed. Since the Crown Vic is gone I think they should hang on to the Taurus (look what happened the last time it went away). The C-MAX should also go bye-bye and be replaced by a gas/electric hybrid version of the Focus, if that is an area they want to stay in. They already have a full electric version.

Agreed. And there for awhile you had Mercury thrown in the mix with pretty much the same cars with different grilles.

I think lack of updating has to hurt them too. The Taurus came out in 2011 and really hasn't had a whole lot of changes. It was a great car in 2011 and is still pretty much the same car today in 2018.

It is kind of like when the Ranger went away, they don't put any money into it, wonder why it won't sell and then decide the market shifted and kill it.

Model oversaturation is ongoing with SUV's, Ecosport, Escape, Edge, Explorer, Expedition, Bronco and whatever the new Focus thing is going to be.

5-10 years gas prices will go nuts, people will be clamoring for cars and Ford will get caught with the pants down... again.

Their new CEO is big into pushing for electric cars though, I really don't know how that will play into it. But I would think an electric car would go farther on a charge than an electric SUV.

I had a Ford Tempo, pretty decent car pretty decent fuel economy, averaged 36mpg on the freeway at 65mph with the AC on. The cars they build today can't even get that with all the so called eco junk they put on them...oh and that car didn't even have overdrive just a simple 3 speed automatic. Goes to show adding a bunch of gears doesn't get the job done. s any favors, as well as other automakers.

My brother's '11 Mustang reliably puts down 28mpg before we get into ethanol/80mph speed limit country on our way to Sturgis. Running 70mph on the interstate, 420hp V8, 6 speed manual with 3.73 gears and summer only performance tires. She ain't built for fuel economy but is pretty darn respectable.

Running about 83mph with ethanol it dips down to the low 20's... still 2x the big blocks of yesteryear at 50.

 

[1996xlt]

I don't blame them from the dollars stand point and reasons others have already mentioned but, leaving an open segment (as they discovered when their competitors went back into the mid-size truck market) they'll end up losing out initially and getting back in. I just hope when they do, its something less vanilla.

 

[rangerenthiusiast]

Too many vehicle choices and none worth buying is the problem across the line of all automakers...not to mention they all look the same. They have ridiculous prices attached to them as well.

I had a Ford Tempo, pretty decent car pretty decent fuel economy, averaged 36mpg on the freeway at 65mph with the AC on. The cars they build today can't even get that with all the so called eco junk they put on them...oh and that car didn't even have overdrive just a simple 3 speed automatic. Goes to show adding a bunch of gears doesn't get the job done.

I'll stick with my Bronco 2 and Jeep. I don't feel like crawling in and falling out of the damn low rider cars that are being built today that have absolutely no ground clearance to them.

Ford hasn't done themselves any favors, as well as other automakers. They bring back old vehicle names trying to hope for better sales but at the same time tripling the sticker price on them which makes customers either go buy used, or they buy a truck for the same price that car would have cost them.

Vehicle prices are ridiculously over-inflated, and worse, people keep paying those over-inflated prices which continually drive up the price of the next year's models. Add to that the junk they keep adding to them so the idiots who shouldn't be driving in the first place can drive.

What people want are a well built economical car to get them to and from work, not a damn $50k luxury car made out of plastic that sits in the repair shop on a weekly basis waiting for parts that don't exist. Many that are driving what people keep calling SUV's today are doing so because the prices on them are about the same or cheaper than a car and allow them to pack around all their soccer mom necessities since today's cars have no damn trunk space or rather can't get anything in the trunk because the damn opening is ridiculously small.

What they need to do is dump their stupid ecoboost shit and get back to building real engines and stop adding gears to their transmissions trying to get 1/16th of an mpg better. Get back to the basics of automobile manufacturing, a vehicle that takes you from point a to point b in one piece. If you want to play with your electronic devices do so on your couch in your living room your vehicle is no place for any of that so they can save thousands right there by removing those stupid in dash touch screen devices that don't work most of the time anyhow and cost a fortune when they don't work.

All automakers have the same problem their vehicles all look the same, they change the names on them to cover up previous problems and make several vehicles that are very similar to each other to offer a different engine...use the same damn vehicle platform and offer the different engines in the same platform just as they used to do.

How about a diesel/hybrid carry all, or a diesel/hybrid pickup. Just keep the enviro-nancies out of the damn assembly process and build process and you'd have some pretty damn fuel efficient vehicles.

But how do you really feel?

 

[rangerenthiusiast]

My brother's '11 Mustang reliably puts down 28mpg before we get into ethanol/80mph speed limit country on our way to Sturgis. Running 70mph on the interstate, 420hp V8, 6 speed manual with 3.73 gears and summer only performance tires. She ain't built for fuel economy but is pretty darn respectable.
.

That’s way better than my 2000 Jetta with a four-banger; it’s amazing how things swing back-and-forth. I had an ’85 Golf with a 1.8 DOHC and stick that got about 45 mpg. Fast-forward 15 years and you get a VW sedan with a 2.0 SOHC that gets 25 mpg on a good day. Sure, it’s a bit heavier and has an auto trans, not a stick. But, man... really?

And yeah, I remember driving lots of V8 cars from the 60s and 70s that got anywhere from 8-12 mpg. Fine when gas costs .69 a gallon (like it did when I started driving). These days? No way.

Corporations cater utterly to their shareholders, so “profitability" will always be a relative term. Profitable companies will lay off tens of thousands of loyal workers at the drop of a dime, if it means bumping up the value of the shares a point or two. Lots of good points made here about the redundancies of Ford’s car lineup, but I do think it may bite them in the ass in the long run. It’s also interesting that the article cites the cost of pricier raw materials including aluminum for declining profits. Did customers really ask for aluminum F150s to be built?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Did customers really ask for aluminum F150s to be built?

“In the 21st century why are trucks still rusting out?”

So maybe kinda sorta.

 

[adsm08]

“In the 21st century why are trucks still rusting out?”

So maybe kinda sorta.

Well Chevy and Dodge seem to have taken it as a challenge to see how fast they can make it happen.

I saw a 2015 GM truck the other day with most of the rear wheel wells gone.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well Chevy and Dodge seem to have taken it as a challenge to see how fast they can make it happen.

I saw a 2015 GM truck the other day with most of the rear wheel wells gone.

I saw a 09-14 F-150 the other day with an orange cab corner.

Ford was better than the others but it has been a common complaint since the beginning of time.

 

[adsm08]

I saw a 09-14 F-150 the other day with an orange cab corner.

Ford was better than the others but it has been a common complaint since the beginning of time.

And it has only gotten worse around here since they started using that brine stuff on the roads.

But I know that truck was actually a 15 because I was talking to the guy, it didn't just drive past me on the road.

 

[Ranger850]

I saw a 09-14 F-150 the other day with an orange cab corner.

Ford was better than the others but it has been a common complaint since the beginning of time.

What is a "Orange Cab Corner?

 

[Ranger850]

OOOOOhhh rusty metal in the corner of the cab. Duh

 

[rangerenthiusiast]

“In the 21st century why are trucks still rusting out?”

So maybe kinda sorta.

I hear ya. But manufacturers have been using shitty steel and stretching it as thin as possible for decades now. When I was a kid, everyone bagged on Toyotas for having rotted wheel wells because they used cheap, thin steel with bad spot welds. Now everyone does it to pinch pennies and inflate profit margins. They could do far better without going all the way to the aluminum route, but maximum profits take precedence. Now they can jack the price by using aluminum as a selling point. It will work for a while, until people realize that when you have a fender bender, putty won’t fix it. I can only imagine what a dealer wants for a replacement aluminum body panel.

 

[Ozwynn]

I was at the stealership today having them look up a part that was discontinued in 2006 and the salesman that sold me my last 2 cars told me they were discussing that very thing during their morning meeting.