"We are absolutely going to do what it takes to keep our product fresh and keep it relevant in the market.” Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! A Ford exec making a public commitment to ongoing excellence. No more cut and run. No more vehicles dying on the vine or losing out to some new “flavor of the month.” Oh wait. Ford's truck marketing manager wasn’t talking about keeping it real for the core models. Ben Poore was celebrating the company’s decision to offer a Chip Foose edition F-150. Oh dear.
I’m all for “mass customization.” The MINI and Scion brands nailed it: encourage buyers to give a nice car enough individuality to make it their own– without destroying resale value. But these are niche brands. While the same principle may someday apply to mass market automobiles, most of today’s buyers still frequent dealers with hundreds of roughly similar vehicles waiting for a new home.
And that means that Ford’s big push for “limited editions,” its newfound faith in so-called “microsegmentation,” is yet more evidence that Ford’s fundamentals are broken. The Chip Foose Edition F-150 (450-horsepower 5.8-liter V-8 and Overhaulin’ stylin’), the Shelby GT-500KR (yet more horses for an overpowered death car) and the Funkmaster Expedition (Why not the Funkmaster Flex Flex?). All of these vehicles will do precisely nothing for the sales of the brand’s core products.
I know. They’re fun! They’re exciting! They create “the kind of buzz in the marketplace that keeps companies healthy." Anyway, that’s Ben Poore’s theory. And a plenty popular one it is too; at least amongst the people who really love muscle modded mainstream motors. As far as hard-nosed beancounters are concerned, it’s a less well established principle.
In 2000, Ford flogged some 200K Mustangs. The next year, they offered the 265hp 4.6-liter Bullitt edition. One year and 5582 Bullitts later, ‘Stang sales sank to 155K. In ’03, FoMoCo launched the 305hp 4.6-liter Mach 1. The company sold 9600 of those bad boys. The next year, Mach 1 sales slipped towards subsonic, dropping to 7100 units. Overall ‘Stang sales slid to around 140k units. In short, the hard core variants either cannibalized Mustang sales or did sweet FA to stop the rot.
Ah, but what of the so-called halo effect? Like many testosterone-crazed auto execs, Poore was implying that way cool Mustangs, F-150’s and Flexible Flyers will create warm fuzzies for the models’ more pedestrian stable mates, or the Ford brand in general, or something. It’s strange to see this trickle down branding concept re-emerge from the Glass House Gang– given that the automaker recently deep-sixed their entire SVT tuning division and pulled the plug on the world class Ford GT supercar.
And fair enough. As we’ve argued before, halo cars are a waste of time and energy that reveal company-killing ADD (Studebaker Avanti anyone?). Sure, Ford’s fire-breathing mutants make US happy. But we’re pistonheads. We love the extreme, the amazing and the unique (ish). Let’s face it: the vast majority of the American car buying public couldn’t care less about a 450-horse pickup truck, or any other wild-ass vehicle. They want vanilla. Plain, old, vanilla.
So never mind all the marketing gobbledygook about intangibles like a special model’s effect on “brand positioning.” At the sharp end, special editions are nothing more than a way to earn the dealer a little extra cash, or provide dealer drive-by props, or give the sales manager a cool car to drive instead of the plain Jane sedan he beats to an inch of its life. Again, you gotta wonder, why bother?
Never underestimate the impact of corporate culture on a company’s priorities. Toyota is on a mass market mission. Does ToMoCo have a halo car? No. Ford is… confused. Their culture is no longer about doing the hard work needed to endlessly improve and promote core vehicles like the Crown Victoria, Escape, Explorer or Freestyle. It’s all about finding a Hail Mary pass that suddenly saves the company from ruin.
High-priced limited edition vehicles are not going to save Ford. They’re not even going to help them. Truth be told, this showboat-load of special edition models only exist because they give Ford’s dispirited marketing and PR folk something “interesting” to do. What’s the bet Ford will provide DOZENS of high quality press pictures of the Shelby ‘Stang— while they remain oblivious to the fact they can’t provide one decent shot of the Focus. Or, for that matter, a decent Focus. Or, quite simply, maintain focus.
Again, don’t get me wrong. I celebrate automotive diversity in all its forms. But someone’s got to remind Ford that their brand isn’t about diversity, or horsepower, or Funkmaster Flex’ fanatical followers, or anything else that smacks of spizzarkle. Ford is about value for money. Period.
Nice editorial, Farago. In general, I think you’re right. Special editions won’t save Ford. However, saying that misses the point a bit. I don’t think Ford is expecting these vehicles to save the company. They want exactly the short-term sales bump that you describe. Ford needs to ride out the next 2-3 years of their restructuring plan and get their pipeline product into the market. If they can do that by releasing a couple flash-in-the-pan special editions, why not? GM has followed much the same path (in terms of riding out their restructuring plan) and seems to be seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
How many “special” versions of the Mustang are there? Like 2,765? I started tuning out a few special editions ago, and I suspect most enthusiasts did as well. The key to success is making great product, not four dozen indistinguishable variations on that product in an effort to goose sales by a few extra hundred.
The only thing a Foose Edition F150 will do is steal some sales from a Roush F150.
Both are pointless, time consuming exercises in futility, and does little for a company like Ford. It’s worse than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, because they’re taking the time to slap some “custom” badging and nice cushions on them first.
But it does make me giggle…I can’t wait to see the Force Edition Focus…
All companies and institutions have a way of scaring off and getting rid of innovative people over time. Especially in bad times.
It works like this: We are in bad trouble, we will need to let a few people go. Okay, let’s get rid of Einstein and Bell. Those two just aren’t on board, how am I going to run this department with even less people when those two won’t do things as they are told. They are always arguing with me about the way things should be changed. Let’s keep more people like Joe and Cindy, I like them, they get along and do things they way I want them done. Besides, we all like to get together for dinner every week.
I suspect that real competence is no longer appreciated much at Ford. The culture has valued “getting along” for so long that everyone has learned it’s best to keep your head down and just go along.
The emperor could walk through the palace naked, and there is no one left who will care.
As my English friends would say, “Spot on”. I am approaching 40 years in the business- counting the years I washed cars at my Dad’s dealership- and it always seemed that the cream would eventually rise to the top and prevail. I do not get that sense from the blue oval boys anymore. Perhaps the special status of Ford family stock needs to be diluted to allow someone else to get the helm, even if it is just to beach the ship. But, if you have your name on the building, and do not have the impetus from that alone to sustain you, then all is lost. I hope not.
Never underestimate the impact of corporate culture on a company’s priorities. Toyota is on a mass market mission. Does ToMoCo have a halo car? No. Ford is… confused.
Toyota is on a mission of balanced market penetration. They have the upcoming Lexus “F” brand. And no, Toyota does not have a halo car … yet. The upcoming Lexus supercar will be exactly that, a halo car for Lexus and for Toyota in general.
Ford is simply acting on desperation. All these “special edition” models are desperate, knee-jerk attempts to boost sales of ‘Stangs and F150s, both of which are in decline. The Mustang by it’s very nature is a niche car. Ford cannot expect Mustang sales to remain strong for years to come. The F150 will continue to dcline in sales, simply because of increased competition in the full size pickup truck segment, namely from Toyota.
Indeed, this seems like more slight of hand, designed to get some smiling, positive press.
“Let’s face it: the vast majority of the American car buying public couldn’t care less about a 450-horse pickup truck, or any other wild-ass vehicle. They want vanilla. Plain, old, vanilla.”
Yes, but given the choice between budget artifical-flavored vanilla versus all-natural with crushed vanilla-bean, they’ll take the latter.
Once GM and Ford realize this, they’ll regain some ground on Toyota and Honda.
Regular, GT, Bullit, Mach 1, SVT, Cobra, Shelby, GT500, Hertz Ed., GT500KR, etc.
Some car companies introduce a special-edition model once every year; others do it once in a while, usually at the end of the model’s cycle to rejuvenante it so it can go out with a bang (e.g., BMW E46 M3 Competition comes to mind.) However, how special does the limited-edition Mustang you just bought feel when you know that there were a few limited editions athat came before it and a few more that will come after it, not to mention a limited-limited better-than-yours version that will be introduced the moment you take the your mrely-limited car off the lot?
Also, the thought of putting anything more than 200hp over a live rear axle just scares the heck out of me.
I think Ford is trying to keep the name alive, while they regroup.The F150 and the Stang are keeping the company alive,every little bit helps.
The big boy on the block is looking like Toyota.
when you take on the big guy you can,t go toe to toe.You hit em where his defence is weak.
Toyota has nothing for the Mustang buyer.And as Toyota has come to relize, loyalty amongst truck buyers runs fairly deep.
The term ADD captures it well. The US automakers seem to go wildly from one “GFI” (Great F___ing Idea) to another with the attention span of a toddler. The big 2.5 jump frenetically from fad to fad: Retro Cars! Now Hybrids! Now electrics! Now compacts! Now SUVs! Now special editions!
Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda (and increasingly, Hyundai and Subaru and Nissan) are the turtles in this particular Hare/tortoise race, methodically going one step at a time to capture the market with slow, steady progress. By the time the big 2.5 crash from their caffeine-induced buzz, they’ll look around at a market lost and wonder what happened.
That’s one reason I see the Tundra as such a threat to Ford and Chevy. Because even if this Tundra isn’t a hit, Toyota will simply redesign it and keep coming back. Like the Terminator, they are relentless in their pursuit of this market and they won’t take their eyes off the target until it is theirs.
“the vast majority of the American car buying public couldn’t care less about a 450-horse pickup truck”
What do you mean? How about the thousands of suburban homeowners who need to do quarter-mile sprints with a load of landscaping ties and mulch in the back?
Seriously, great editorial. As a sometimes-Ford-fan, it’s really sad to see an American institution getting away from their history. A Ford used to be a car that offered honest value, sometimes goofy but overall decent-enough styling, and agriculturally simple mechanicals that you could usually fix in your driveway. Maybe the market for that car doesn’t exist anymore, I don’t know. But it’s painful now to look at cars like the 500 and the Edge, which just seem like lower-quality copies of better vehicles.
Let’s see, the Arco with the cheapest gas in town next door has regular at $2.89 a gallon. With no real downturn in sight at least through the summer. So why not a couple of special 400hp additions to your lineup, you probably will sell them to the relative handful of folk out there who can be indifferent to gas prices. But, where was the Fit/Yaris fighter amongst all these press conferences? The Escape hybrid is supposed to cover all those bases? I too would rather be photographed next to the KLRH500 convertible and Foose truck, maybe a couple of “race girls” beaming at me. Let’s see, maybe they make $5k per 500 so that adds a bunch to the bottom line, $2.5mil. Oh, keeps the Gulf VI in the air for Fields and Mullally. We can’t say they don’t accomplish nothin’.
That’s one reason I see the Tundra as such a threat to Ford and Chevy. Because even if this Tundra isn’t a hit, Toyota will simply redesign it and keep coming back. Like the Terminator, they are relentless in their pursuit of this market and they won’t take their eyes off the target until it is theirs.
Some people naively believe that domestic loyalty in the truck market will continue to run deep forever. It must be mentioned that the Detroit automakers lost a lot of loyalty in the midsize truck segment, a segment that the Toyota Tacoma now commands.
Even if this Tundra fails to gain much ground in the market, like you said they will keep coming stronger and stronger. Toyota also has a huge marketing effort underway, and in the long term a lot of domestic truck owners and buyers will be open to buying a Tundra. If they come out with a heavy duty version, their credibility and reputation amongst truck buyers will only increase.
Loyalty in the truck market works both ways. I know plenty of people here in New England who now head straight to the Toyota (or Nissan) dealer when they need a new truck because of past favorable experience. Both companies have built a reputation for building tough little pickups that run absolutely forever. No amount of over-the-top jingoistic advertising can counter that.
Stuffing a monster engine in an f-150 and slathering it with cheesy biker graphics may land a small handful of fools with more money than sense, but it won’t help them build a market.
A handfull of fools with more money than sense?
That same logic could apply to every vehicle bigger than a Yaris.If everyone thought like thatI think Mercedes, Lexus, Porche Volvo would all be gone, or going.
Not everybody wants to drive a basic vehicle
mikey:
We’re talking about Ford.
mikey, European bureaucrats WANT there to be nothing larger than a Yaris available with their CO rules soon hitting the Euro auto industry like a Tsunami. Including Ford of Europe and GM of Europe. And Daimler-Benz. Which “may” be why DCX is looking to offload the anvil around their neck (Chrysler).
But with Ford not exactly being in the “best” of positions to offer the size of car in Europe that will soon be regulated and demanded, it’s like Ford’s one foot in quicksand (North America) will be followed by the 2nd foot being on a banana peel (the new EC regulations requiring far less CO).
Ford Europe do manufacture a lot of small cars, but essentially none of them are “enough” – and Europ profits will disappear like the proverbial cop-when-you-need-one.
Ford has maybe a couple of years to survive. I hope Ford’s will cuts Mazda loose, Mazda don’t deserve to be dragged down in the undertow.
Almost forgot. The US Supreme Court just grabbed Ford’s life-ring (as well as GM and Chrysler’s) and ran away from the quicksand, in a 4 to 5 decision which appears to mean that CO must be reduced in US vehicles, too.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070402160408.i1mdzqip&show_article=1
So how many of us in TTAC land think Ford can afford to down-size the trucks and SUVs that they never should have allowed to get so porkine in the first place?
I distinctly recall reading how Ford engineers had decided, in the development of the Ford Fairmont / Mercury Zephyr (introduced 1979) that “weight was the enemy”. These mid-sized family cars were similar in weight to the disastrously bad Pinto subcompact, if memory serves.
What happened to that idea?
I recall driving a new one back in 1979 to consider buying it, and the only “noticeable” thing different from the far heavier Plymouth Volare seemed to be the thinner glass, and better use of space in the Ford products (not to mention – some semblance of road feel and handling vs. the mopar crap “full power” steering and the crossways junky torison bars).
I disagree with this premise slightly. If done well with little added cost to the base vehicle and in moderation I don’t see anything wrong with special editions.
However, when done as the American companies do it can be catastrophic. For example, if a special edition drives major changes/cost into the chassis all models use, to support a feature on the special edition, I fail to understand the business case for coming out with it, much less several variations of it. When said vehicle is your bread and butter…
A friend of mine tried to buy a GT500KR and couldn’t, they couldn’t get hime one. So much for that
MW: the question is now what Ford can do about that. They screwed themselves back in the 1980’s, when Deming came through and showed Ford how to do it and they failed to pay attention. It’s probably too late now.
Well said. If Ford would turn some of its energies to updating the Focus (a real update not a nose-job) and into getting into the growing sub-compact market then that would go a long way to getting them back on track.
There is nothing wrong with special Mustangs – as long as you make your own. Anyone that’s even half informed can buy the parts on-line from Ford Racing Parts for a fraction of what Ford demands for it’s ‘special’ editions. For about $7K you can upgrade your standard GT to GT-H. Sure beats paying $250K at auction.
….and then you have dealerships that have insanely high mark-ups on the ‘halo’ cars. A colleague of mine, a fellow piston head with a restored/heavily modified 1966 Mustang Fastback, ran across a Shelby GT500 at a Ford dealership here in So. Cal. This particularly dealership had a $35,000!!!! markup on the car.
I disagree with the notion that halo cars are “a waste of time and energy that reveal company-killing ADD”, unless you are talking about the domestics. Eithout halo cars, your leading edge technology is never developed (unless you are a F1 sponsor).
Halo cars allow the engineers to push the limits, find out what works and what doesn’t. The halo cars and hyper-exotics are wonderful engineering creations that lead to innovations, and innovated uses of existing technology.
KTM – I’m not sure if a 500HP car with a live rear axle constitutes leading edge technology.
As for the markup – while its nice that Ford dealers are making money on selling these special vehicles, they are more or less fashion items that do not constitute a significant portion of Fords incomes. No point diverting engineering resources on a handful of profitable GT500s when you’re making losses on tens of thousands of bread and butter vehicles.
Robert: I think you are very right. And kudos to you for seeing beyond piston head to Fords (historical) core. Vanilla.
There is no accounting for taste, or sense. If they are making a bunch of money on halo cars, then the more the merrier. The point about the Yaris is right on. Few people “need” much of what we put into cars nowadays. They are almost all luxury vehicles. BUT…
… It was the model T that made Ford. It has been the F150 that sustained Ford. Ford needs a car that will sell in the millions per year – AT A PROFIT. The days of easy money SUV’s are gone. So instead of, or in a addition too, hiring Funkmaster and Foose, they need to do what Citreon and Volkswagen did. They need to take the best engineers and design a car that will sell lots of copies and can be made cheaply. If they can’t, they are likely doomed. It’s too late to try to go the porsche route.
World class Ford GT supercar. Would that be the one with the wonky drive shafts?
philbailey: I know, I know. But have you ever driven one? My God, what a fantastic vehicle. ttac.com's Ford GT review Call me a financially traumatized Ferrari refugee, but I'd take a Ford GT over a Ferrari F360 any day. Now, back to the Focus…
Both are pointless, time consuming exercises in futility
Absolutely. I find it astonishing that they devote any time and effort coming up with these. As pointed out upstream, they seem to have a special edition Mustang every quarter. Each more gouge worthy, er, expensive than the one that came before. Makes for great magazine covers, I guess.
The trucks are even more ludicrous (Ludicris?!). People pimp rides like these because they want their craptastic barge to be ‘unique’. Producing a Foose this or Funkmaster Flex that, even in small numbers, flies in the face of that desire for uniqueness.
As for the halo effect, two things: First, that often doesn’t work out quite like you had hoped. There is no shortage of Ford GTs collecting dust in dealerships in these parts with the prices drifting steadily downward. Second, I think they are misunderstanding the halo effect. The halo effect is: Honda makes reliable motorcycles that produce decent power from smallish engines. Honda makes reliable cars that produce decent power from smallish engines. Honda decides to build outboard motors. You need one. You have a high opinion of Honda, so you go check them out and buy one. THAT is the halo effect. It is not someone buying a frikkin’ Taurus because a handful of wealthy individuals are paying top dollar for a gussied up Mustang.
Speaking of which, and not to flog a dead horse (groan) but they really should have put their time and effort into improving the Mustang interior. That might have been money well spent.
Hey Nero, here’s your damn fiddle.
If I were sitting on the executive board of a company who paid their CEO 35m a year (I am available, by the way), I’m thinking that I would begin to expect something a little different than business as usual. We all know that Mullaly was hired as the savior of FoMoCo, we all know that he began his job last year, but what exactly has been done differently in this past year that hasn’t been done before? Mass contract buyouts, plant closures, special edition vehicles? Been there, done that. What does Mullaly have up his sleeve to save the company?
P.S. Anyone catch the financial article about the 46 Ford family members looking to “diversify” their 40 percent share of the company? That’s an inclusion to a future deathwatch if I’ve ever seen one…or one thousand.
Meant to write, in last post, the 75th anniversary of the 1932 Ford.
What I’d like to see is Ford should focus on enabling an atmosphere in which firms want to partner with them to satisfy market demand for specialized models. They could select a set of partners with which Ford would share product specs ahead of production. It could develop a Ford certified program that ensures that aftermarket parts meet Ford’s criteria for safety, quality and durability. And give dealers a way to make money helping owners personalized their new and used vehicles.
This way, Ford engineers can focus on what they need to do best: developing the best value vehicles in the market.
I was waiting for the imperial metaphor.
OK, so Ford needs to inject a little life into the F-150 and Mustang. As special edition Mustangs do tend to sell in their first year of production can you blame Ford for doing them?
Secondly, deathtrap or no, the Cobra and its juiced-up KTR brother are somewhat more than a hoodstripe and a new set of wheels, I don’t think you can accurately say it is just another knock-off.
Now let’s count off what Ford did so far this year: New 2008 Super Duty, new 2007 Edge, new 2007 MKX, revised 2007 MKZ, revised 2008 Escape and what is the marketing coup of the decade, they “New Coked” the Taurus :).
Whether you like those vehicles or not, Ford isn’t just painting and plasticking its “way fordward”.
And for Pete’s Sake, is there no one else out there in TTAC land that likes trucks?
Thank you Robert for pointing this out. Very well done! But as for the Ford GT, read this : Car & Driver also echoed it in a column a few months after I wrote this. The Ford GT is/was fatally flawed… It's also symptomatic of the problems Ford faces.
tony-e30 said: “P.S. Anyone catch the financial article about the 46 Ford family members looking to “diversify” their 40 percent share of the company?”
CNN-Money: “What would you do if $581 million of your family’s fortune had been vaporized in just 5 1/2 years? That’s a question that Bill Ford and the other 46 fourth- and fifth-generation members of the Ford auto dynasty are grappling with these days.”
Half of the total Ford fortune down the tubes…
“To make matters worse, the clan’s once-lucrative dividend stream has dried up: Payouts that amounted to more than $28 million annually as recently as 2005 have been slashed to zero this year.”
For the rest of this CNN-Money story, see: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/16/8404294/index.htm?postversion=2007040205&CFID=14872696&CFTOKEN=55539857
jwfisher:
Noooooooooo.
Oh, the poor 4th and 5th generation Ford family members can’t live quite as high off the hog as they thought was their birthright. What a sad time for them. I’m all for earned wealth, but inherited wealth leaves more than a bit of a bad taste.
Special edition cars are a joke. They almost never have any long term value. Can I interest you in the Indy Pace Car edition of anything from the 1980s? Didn’t think so!
On the used car market most special editions five years down the road are worth next to nothing extra over their normal versions. The used car market is much more rational than the new car market is.
Ford never should have built that stupid recreation of the GT. Where is the updated Ranger, a long time bread and butter vehicle for Ford? How can Ford come up with the money to do silly special vehicles like the GT, Lincoln Blackwood, Thunderturd and such while the basics are left to go sour?
Mind numbing it is.
The purpose of special edition lodels for any manufacturer is to maintain interest/goose sales of models that have been out a while. Everybody does it. Haven’t you seen the Accord SE commercials? They do it every few years right before a new model comes out.
For the Mustang, the appeal of special editions is that you don’t have the same car as everyone else. It is one thing to be one of 400000 identical Accords, but to buy your Mustang and then see an identical one pass you on the road cut into the specialness of what is an emotional purpose. That’s why even the regular Mustangs have Pony package, California Special, stripes or no stripes, trim packages, all to make yours unique. All these other editions do the same.
As for the rest of Ford’s lineup, it is better than you think, and before you criticize – even the Focus – you should drive them 1st.
Ford’ biggest problem is advertising both quality and quantity. When was the last time you saw a commercial for the Focus, 500, Escape, Explorer, Expedition or even a Mustang? You only see weak commercials for the Fusion and horrible commercials for the Edge. Nobody knows what Ford is selling these days…
two interesting things about high powered f-150’s;
First isn’t it great timing these things are rolling out in time to meet the $3.00 plus summer gas season. Sure some wealthy playboys will buy these things but joe sixpack is going to think twice even about the regular v8 trucks. Second, Detroit made their money for 100 years by tweaking their best selling models every year or two. You change grilles, tailights, fins, interior fabrics and colors exterior colors etc. In other words you liven up the experience for joe, he then has a reason to trade his 200 horsepower car or truck for another one that makes some sense to him. He doesn’t need 400-500 horsepower for much more money.
Yep, Vanilla. That’s Ford. Honda and Toyota? Really high quality vanilla IMHO.
The sad irony of all this is that it comes in the year marking the 75th anniversary of the ultimate tuner car: the 1932 Ford model “A,” the venerable and beloved “Deuce.”
The key to this car’s success was simply that it enabled the buyer to do a variety of things with it – and they have. There are literally thousands of variations of a theme, running around, some built back in the heyday of hot rodding, now restored by the sons of the original owners.
People such as Dan Gurney, who succeeded in all forms of racing, and Phil Hill, who became America’s first F1 champion (in 1961), started their automotive enthusiasm in ’32 Ford hot rods.
Some of those variations can be seen at the National Auto Museum’s current display on the hot rod, in Reno, Nevada. Others can be seen in Los Angeles, California, at the Petersen Museum (whose namesake, Robert Petersen, recently passed away, started his fortune with Hot Rod magazine, which celebrated the ways the Deuce could be configured.)
What Ford needs to do is build a 21st century version of the Deuce. Make it inexpensive but relatively quick – and design it so that owners can make it even more quick, or highlight certain aspects of the exterior design to make it more expressive.
The future for Ford is not building factory hot-rods that take all the fun out of the equation, as well as sucker people into buying a vehicle whose final sticker exceeds the cost of the add-on parts by 1.5 to 2 times.
What Ford needs is a machine that allows interactivity and creativity, such as the ’32 Ford did. Call it going back to the future. It won’t be easy and it will take all the skills and talents of the Ford engineers and designers. My hunch is they can meet the challenge, if managment would just get out of the way.
The sad truth about the Mustang is that it isn’t a special car in any flavor. It looks great from a distance but that’s about it.
The Fords I want to buy are available here: http://www.ford.co.uk/ie/all_cars/-/-/-/-/-/-
Some of them are available stateside as Mazdas and I expect to be buying one soon.
I don’t see why GlennA thinks Ford Europe is going to suffer from proposed emissions regulations, its the German luxury marques who would really hurt and small car makers like Ford, Peugeot and FIAT would benefit.
As for special editions gimme a Golf gti. Or maybe a SL55
Terry,
The 1932 ‘Deuce’ was a model B. They introduced the flat-head V-8 engine.
Another interesting note on those. There are said to be more registered 32 Fords in California alone than were ever produced by Ford. Of course many of them are reproductions or replicas. Pretty strong continuing demand for a car is it not?
If Ford wants to do a special edition, maybe they should produce exact 32 Fords only with modern drivetrains, and the most minimal changes needed to make them legal now. I venture if they were well done, they might sell more than the Mustang SE’s though still not in huge numbers probably.
You’re right – I think – Esldude about the 1932 Ford “B” having a V8. I have only seen one stock such car, at an auction way back in 1989. That was the first year for the flathead V8 and that’s what this car had – its original engine, as I recall (a real rarity).
Most ’32 Fords get so changed, you never know what they started as; and I have heard the “A” referred to as a “Deuce.”
Two companies are working together (now) to produce a 1932 Ford lookalike with a modern drive-train: Hot Rods and Horsepower of Branford, CT and AC of Southgate, Michigan. It is called the Dearborn Deuce Coupe . The former provides frames, suspension and (usually) an engine; while ASC designed the body – making a steel reproduction isn’t easy – and builds the all-steel bodies. Reportedly 154 were built as of June, 2005, when Car and Driver‘s Jim McGraw did a piece on this car. The price was estimated to be $125,000. Of course, the economies of scale would come into play, if it was a major effort and the cost, per unit, would drop.
The fact that they call this car the Deuce tells me that that word has come to mean all ’32 Fords – real or fiberglass – probably in the same way that Scotch tape can be made by anyone now.
But a 21st century “Deuce” wouldn’t have to, probably shouldn’t look like the old car; just evoke it. That of course is a considerable leap. If Ford could pull that off, everyone from Wall Street to Main Street would be impressed.
I think what they might want to do is look outside the building, so to speak. Pull some designers in such as (maybe) Chip Foose or, if he is still around Harry Bradley, people who could understand that the new car would have to interpret the old one, not mimic it.
All this talk about Deuces and other classic Fords makes me wonder if all that is left are past glories, and variations shadowing them. Deuce, Boss, GT, Shelby – all reruns and nothing new and leading edge. No new ideas, nothing to show what Ford engineers are truly capable of accomplishing. Defensively settling for less.
What is it that takes Ford into the future?
Apparently it’s trash like the Funkmaster flash.
Apparently (at least for the domestic Fords) it’s not leading-edge technology, state of the art engines, or class-leading handling dynamics Granted, safety is a plus, thanks to Volvo).
Instead, we have product plans cancelled right and left (thanks to Billy Ford who cancelled Nasser’s product plans with a vengence), aged engines (soon to changeover to over-reliance on big displacement), an all-new but suspiciously delayed V-6 (too many teething problems resulting in a severe impact to the products) which doesn’t do anything standout, a stone-age Mustang with too much power for the suspension (bordering on dangerous) and declining sales, a cancelled performance program (SVT) whose products had lousy quality issues, and enthusiasts sitting around talking about the old days, past glories, anything but a vision of the future that the company doesn’t have the wherewithall to go to anyway. And an enormous debt load and mortgaged factories. And the UAW who will continue to snatch every dollar possible at the expense of the company and the country.
And with quarterly results looming, even more doom and gloom on the balance sheet.
Ford of Europe’s line-up is (properly) spread through the entire range from the small Ka through Range Rovers with V8’s and Jaguars with V8’s.
Adapting to the new CO2 limits being put forward by the EC is going to knock about 75% to 90% of their products off the shelf. Quite simply, the company will have to re-do a huge portion of their vehicles – “downsize” them and the engines, adapt diesel-hybrids perhaps – none of which is going to be cheap. And probably, none of which Ford can truly afford – AND keep Ford NA going (as the major loss-making operation in the worldwide operations). For that matter, it cannot afford to keep the notoriously naff Jaguar pound-pissing operations going either, nor can it afford to down-size those cars (not that a Focus-sized front wheel drive Jaguar with a 1.4 liter diesel four would probably sell, anyway, even in France!)
So what’s hard to understand about how that is going to affect Ford of Europe?!
Yeah, Porsche is also screwed (is this why they are trying to gain control of VW?) as are BMW (Mini production is going to be ramped up in India in addition to the UK, I read yesterday) and Daimler-Benz (could this be why they want to “lose” Chrysler – to concentrate money on downsizing Mercedes cars for Europe – in order to survive?)
Glenn: I see your point about the range of brands but you are ignoring volume. Ford accounts for almost 80% of group sales in Europe, Volvo for most of the rest. Land Rover and Jaguar sales aren’t really significant, especially since the PAG is already losing money and really depends on US sales for any hope of profit. Most recent sales figure are here.
http://www.acea.be/files/PRPC-0207-TOTAL%20EUROPE-FINAL-MV.pdf
Many of the cars Ford sells in Europe already meet 2008 CO2 emission requirements. “Fleet average” CO2 emissions aren’t far off target. 2012 emissions targets are stricter but Ford is as well placed as anyone else to meet them. So yes of course there will be an impact but the outlook is not as dire as you suggest.
BMW, Audi and MB already make small cars and diesels. The sales mix is also very different if you compare the average MB sold in the US to the average MB sold in Europe. In any case Germans regard high performance cars as a god given right so if it looks like the 2012 targets can’t be met there will be some sort of fudge or extension.
jwfisher,
The Ford GT article you cited affected early MY 2005 production cars, of which many were fixed even before delivery.
If you visit http://www.fordgtforum.com, you’ll find the vast majority of owners are extremely satisfied with both the performance and quality of these stunning cars….and don’t forget that another 100 HP is just a pulley/ECU tune away!
Except for the 400+ that were already in the field. And think about the A-list types of people people who got those earlier cars… Ford flubbed their quality image again.
Then note that SVT’s own track events Ford GT garked it’s fluid at several different events (driven only by an SVT engineer assigned to the site), before Ford rebuilt it’s engine and tried – and failed – again. Only to withdraw it. The car cannot be driven for 20+ minutes at 9/10ths in a hot climate without over-heating.
And then consider that this latest and worst SVT engineering failure was probably the last nail in Coletti’s coffin after the huge numbers of service actions in the 2003/4 Cobras. SVT was then brought down and he “retired” quote-unquote. Not likely a coincidence there.
As for that forum, it’s a mutual admiration society, as are many such forums. Have to take anything there with a huge grain of salt.
And yet another problem caused by lack of thorough testing, so typical of SVT: http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070403/FREE/70402012/1528/FREE
Yup, I want my half-shafts breaking loose while accelerating!
For a company that’s enjoyed such a strong aftermarket following in the past, Ford seems to have an especially poor understanding of “special editions.” The day your PR dept. starts telling customizers how they want their vehicles to be “personalized” is the day you lose their hearts and minds.
Honda hardly even acknowledged the tuner following of its ’96-’00 Civic, yet it arguably became the Deuce coupe of the last decade. How? By being overengineered for its price point, reliable, and able to take poor tuner’s abuse.
I was under the impression that Europe was going to soon dis-allow “anything” being sold new which couldn’t meet 130 gm/km CO2, which equates to “about” 42 mpg US (roughly 52 mpg Imperial). Perhaps I am wrong. Anyone got any links to the news about this? This has repercussions for the Detroit 3 as they obviously are tied to their respective European car operations and if large changes are afoot, “somehow” they have to figure out how to pay for this.
I looked in my British car books showing the official taxable CO2 levels and hardly any cars met the limit, mostly A and B class cars – in other words, almost nothing larger than a Honda Fit. The few cars that did okay, and were larger, were the lower powered diesel C class variants (mostly French), the Honda Civic IMA (virtually invisible in the UK – didn’t see ONE when I was there 2 years ago on holiday) and the Toyota Prius (only saw 5-6 when I was there for 2 plus weeks – I was amazed). Prius is 106 g/km CO2 or about 50 mpg (62.5 mpg Imperial). This is incredibly low considering it is a D class car, and lower CO2 than some SMART cars with 2 seats.
IF 130 g/km CO2 is put forward AND no new technology is utilized, I was under the impression that SUV sales and sports car and luxury car sales (as we know it) would end in Europe. Obviously the European engineers are going to be dragging out the old “Fish” carburetor blueprints (tongue-in-cheek).
Perhaps I misunderstood something? Obviously, the Europeans are planning on either down-sizing OR fighting the EU bureaucrats and pushing back the CO2 requirements (much as the oil companies and car companies here pushed CARB away from electric cars 12 years ago). I just watched “Who Killed The Electric Car” last evening, and it was interesting, even from a car-guy perspective. I personally think we should skip the “hydrogen economy” and go straight to the “electron economy.”
As the “resident historian and old car expert” around here, I have to let everyone know that the 1932 year-model Ford were available new as the Model B (an updated Model A, with 1932 styling but four cylinders) priced new from $410, and the Model 18 (the first Ford V8 – NOT the first mass-produced single piece block V8 engine, as Ford historians would lead you to believe). Prices started at $460.
The V8 Fords outsold the fours, yet fours were still offered as late as 1935 in the USA.
I believe the 1930 Oakland was the first “modern” one piece cast block V8 (albiet valve-in-block, as the 1932 Ford V8 was), and became a single-year Pontiac V8 offering in 1932, it’s last year, when Pontiac took over from the 1931 Oakland V8. 1932 prices started at $845 for the Pontiac V8 and $635 for the six.
The first modern “single-piece” casting V-8 was used in the 1929 Viking, the companion car to Oldsmobile.
As for the 1932 Ford V-8 – it’s ironic that it is being praised while the Ford GT is bashed for its troubles. The first-year flathead was riddled with problems. Some of those problems – such inadequate cooling – weren’t solved for years.
Glenn, My understanding is that the current voluntary agreement between the EU and Automakers is a target of 140g/km by 2008 and 120g/km by 2012. This is calculated across the fleet so for a company like Ford the (many) small cars would offset the (few) Jags and Land Rovers.
What is being discussed now is introducing mandatory regulations but it is a long way from agreement.
And the first year Chevy small block didn’t even have an oil filter! But none of these comments has anything to do with, quote, “We are absolutely going to do what it takes to keep our product fresh and keep it relevant in the market.”
They sure do. And most of it is misleading. And they are also dumping a lot of $ into cheap lease deals and rebates.
What is so misleading about Toyota’s marketing effort? Please elaborate.
… This just in … March sales reports are out. Here is an alarming fact: ALL fullsize pickups (Ram, F150, Silverado, Sierra, Titan) were down in sales for March … except for the Tundra. The Tundra saw a sales increase.
March sales for Ford Motor in the USA down over 9% from March 2006 (even with an extra sales day in March 2007), Chrysler down over 4.5%, GM down over 4%, Toyota – up 12%, Nissan up almost 5%, Mazda up over 50%, Hyundai up 0.5% (the steam has come out of that roller – little wonder, after the fiasco my 2002 Sonata is starting to become – just AFTER the extended warrantee pooped out – no more “merely okay” cars for ME – I’ll stick with Toyota, Honda, Subaru and Mazda, in future, thanks.)
Assuming Subaru and Mazda finally pull their fingers out and do hybrids or electric cars, that is.
Just had a discussion with a friend and colleague about Ford. I said I think Ford has one foot in quicksand and the other on a very wet rotten banana peel, and that I hoped part-owned Mazda did not go down in the undertow – wheras I figured Volvo Car, 100% owned by Ford, is a gonner (along with Range Rover & Jaguar).
He opined that perhaps just perhaps Volvo could survive and he hoped it would be so. Maybe Volvo Truck could buy their sibling from bankruptcy court, if they could afford to do so?
Or perhaps Mazda could do worse – Mazda and Volvo actually complement each other as auto makers, in many ways.
Wow, Fords (lack of) fortunes are sinking fast. The F100’s and Exploders – whoops Explorers – are languishing big-time, and this (was) Ford’s only “means of support.”
Well, Studebaker “only” lasted from 1852 to 1966 as a transportation manufacturer….. so maybe Ford will only last from 1903 to 2007 or 2008?
Sad to see but if there is one thing the world continues to see, it is CHANGE.
jwfisher,
I wasn’t the one who originally brought up the Ford GT’s woes or held up the 1932 Flathead V-8 as an example of what Ford needs to do today. Just pointing out that the past wasn’t always quite as rosy as it now seems – especially since there was no internet to quickly spread word of an exciting new car’s flaws.
Glenn A has told it, the March sales are in and ford is in the tank again. How long are we going to hear that they are still cutting loose fleet sales. It must have been that half of their sales were to fleets. The F-150 (read cash cow) is going down with or without a 400hp motor. The regular motors mpg are scary enough if fuel goes to $4.00 this summer. If you think a modest success in mid sized cars like milans will pay the bills at ford you are smoking weed. Ford either needs a runaway success in an average profit car or huge hits in suvs and pickups. None of the big three is liable to see that this year just look at the numbers and the gas hasn’t even hit $3.00 yet.
geeber’s right, I stand corrected. Viking (sold by Oldsmobile dealers as a “companion make” DID make the first monobloc V8 engine in 1929 a year ahead of their sister division Oakland (which became Pontiac).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_automobile
As for Ford’s problems, well, I’m kind of cringing about it all (living in Michigan and all). Plus, my dad worked at Lincoln-Mercury when I was born (in fact, he worked at Wayne Michigan plant where Mercury cars AND senior Edsel cars were built – until he was laid-off in the spring of 1958 and not called back until months later, to build Thunderbirds at Wixom).
How many guys can say their dad was a trim repairman on the Edsel senior car line?! (This was a top-of-the-watermark job in the plants at the time). And yes, he said the quality was awful and he was extremely busy repairing a LOT of the Mercury cars and senior Edsel cars coming down the line.
Then gradually, the mix of Mercury to Edsel cars tilted towards Mercury, and then there were blank spots in the line where scheduled Edsel cars “would have been” and of course, then the line slowed down I believe, and then he was laid off.
No UAW bennies then – you were laid off? Your pay stopped.
He says he laid concrete at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on the runway for awhile then when that ran out, sold his (farmer) brother’s maple syrup door to door to make ends meet.
He remembers that bank robberies skyrocketed in the Detroit area in 1958. Tough times, that 1958 recession.
What a time for Ford to bring out their Edsel. And what a name. And what a look. (Pundits said “it looks like an Oldsmobile that sucked a lemon.”)
Ford had moved from a family business in 1956 back to offering stock, and essentially threw away tons of money on this fiasco. At the time, Ford was strong enough to take such a blow.
Now, with gas prices hovering at $2.65 (and over $3 a gallon in Hawaii, California and NY in spots) Ford Motor Company may end up to be the first to try Chapter 11.
It’s like watching a sad soap-opera, only it involves real people with real lives and jobs and children.
OK I’m going to stop now before I get upset about the incompetence of the Ford management, because when things go great, they don’t mind taking ALL THE CREDIT so when things go to hell in a handbasket, guess where I’m going to place the blame?
Clarification: Dad was a UAW member in the 1950’s. But the union essentially only provided a cover for the mafia to sell drugs in the plants and steal parts from the plants. Plus your pay got dinged for the union dues.
Here’s what my pal at work wrote via email yesterday in our discussions about Ford.
“Yeah, you’re really grasping at straws when the car that’s supposed to save you from bankruptcy is a rebadge of last year’s sales failure as a car that was last manufactured as a fleet-only vehicle. They are in serious, serious trouble.”
Something else Ford needs to consider is that some of their dealerships function much like the Mr Norm’s (for Mopar) and Baldwin Motion (for Chevrolet). One of the local Ford dealerships here even has different stages, starting with a cosmetic upgrade and finishing with a body kit, special paint, and a variety of substantive performance and handling upgrades. Shell out the money you would for a 500KR and they will sell you a one-of-a-kind Mustang with more power than you are ever likely to use.
As my final positive thought on this issue. Wouldn’t it be nice if ford’s special edition cars and trucks were especially fuel efficient. Be they clean diesels, hybrids, or whatever, a way to get 20% better fuel economy instead of 20%worse. then the same big spenders could step up and say I have the largest vehicle (f150) sold in the US that gets 20+mpg. Now that would be refreshing.
Ford is doing what it has always done. When it has dealer lots full of unsold cars by the acre, and more new ones rolling out the factory door every day, then you have to come up with a gimmick to pull people into the showrooms. Ford, of course, wants to do this without spending a dime in development. Bingo: slap on the plastic and the go-fast paint, whip out the snake/horse stickers, and all hail the latest retro flashback.
Lipstick on a pig, Ford. We all know it’s just more lipstick on the same old pig…