Why do buff books and big sites feel compelled to be a cheering section for the home team? When these guys catch a glimpse of a Detroit concept car they like, the gloves they took off for their reviews of home-grown product are put under lock and key. And out comes the brass section. Paul Eisenstein over at The Car Connection has tested not one but three FoMoCo ain'tgonnahappenmobiles. Obviously, there's not much there there– other than Ford designer Peter Horbury calling the Toyota Prius the Toyota Pious, albeit "impishly." (I guess he missed the memo on Ford's plug-in hybrid dreams.) So, has Ford green-lighted the Mustang-based Interceptor? "In the future, we have to go in a different direction," cautioned Horbury, adding that "especially with tight budgets," Ford can no longer afford many of these wild and wacky concepts. "We're not going to waste time and money showing something that has no chance of being put into production." Don't you just hate it when they play coy like that?
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AFAIK, the Prius was first referred to as the “Pious” on the South Park episode “Smug Alert!”. Funny stuff, that.
What bothers me is that Horbury is still looking down his nose at the car that Ford needs to replicate for the mass market. If his arrogance is representational of the wider corporate culture, well, my God.
With Ford’s track record of turning concept cars into production vehicles (500 to Five Hundred, anyone?), they might as well give up on the concept car game completely.
The “concept car” thing strikes me more and more as the haute coture crap you see on the Paris runways – designers creating stuff that nobody would/could wear, as a “look at me…I design outrageous stuff” thing. Meaningless. If they aren’t gonna sell it, why show it?
They can seperate their car show concepts in the couture stuff and the drivable stuff, I guess we can call that (according to Babelfish) prêt-à-conduiser
My take on concept cars is, this is what the designers and engineers would like to make, but the bean counters and marketers (backed by reams of focus group data) insist wouldn’t sell. Which is why there is a glut of uninteresting sheet metal rolling down the road, all crafted to be inoffensive.
Bah.
It doesn’t make sense to make another car that will straddle the lines between existing models and steal from both of them. Family types that buy Mustangs or the sportier (snicker) version of the Fusion would probably gladly buy this car if it was offered with a similar range of engines as the Mustang ranging from the high to the low end.
The Fusion and the Mustang would feel the bite.
…. yawn ….
Good, but I think the Chrysler 300C already flooded the market for large RWD…
I love the interceptor concept and wish that Ford would build it. Instead of making it Mustang-based, they ought to update the Panther and skin it like this.
Here’s where I contradict what I said yesterday about loving downmarket luxury…It would break my heart and offend my sensibilities to see the Interceptor with black rubber trim and 16″ wheels and white paint. There’s a Chrysler 300c SRT-8 near me that totally looks the business with it’s big chrome mesh grille, 19″ chromed alloys, big brakes, low suspension, etc. It totally flys in the face of all the rent-me white 300c with 16″ all-seasons.
I wish Ford would build the interceptor *exactly* as shown and no other way. Leave a boring Panther body for taxis and cops and oldsters, but make the Interceptor premium and something lustworthy.
And yeah, build a Ford Prius. Seeing as how FoMoCo can’t make cruise control not burn your house down, a hybrid should be just the ticket…
Not a bad looking car. Ford, please use this concept to reskin the Crown Vic.