Of all Ford's fiascos to flail-on about, FoMoCo's "F" fanaticism seems the most fantastic. And yet Detroit News columnist Dannny Howes figures "Ford's 'F' fixation fouls its future." Howes focuses on the fact that Ford's new "Fiesta" joins a farrago of F-named product, and fustigates Ford for its Fabian fustiness. The fastuous scribe's also freaked about the Flex. "Are they really gonna call it the Flex, a person familiar with the situation tells me the new guy asked. Yes, Chairman Bill Ford replied, echoing [VP of Marketing Jim] Farley's skepticism. Then the über-boss added that Mulally wasn't too keen on the name, either. Which ought to tell you something, and it's this: 17 months of the Mulally era — a $23 billion recap plan, a landmark contract with the United Auto Workers, a global effort to coalesce Ford's fiefdoms into a single unit — have failed to relegate the past to the past and instead focus intensely on the future." It tells me that Mulally's minions have made their mentor meable to Manichean mansuetude. Or something like that.
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My head is spinning after reading that. Too many words to look up in the dicitionary.
This article was brought to you by the letter “F”.
Fastuous should be fatuous.
If Mulally can’t reign in this naming nonsense, especially at Lincoln, what kind of leader is he? Is there anything more fundamental than the name of the vehicle? If he knows the Flex name sucks and doesn’t change it, he must assume all blame for it. This is a mission critical vehicle for Ford.
Ford certainly fucked the equity out of alot of their vehicle names, but they do at least still have the kind of recongition that hundreds of millions of ad dollars have to be spent to buy, hundreds of millions that Ford doesn’t have.
That said, I think the Fiesta name is appropriate.
Damned if they do…damned if they don’t.
Go with a historic global name (Fiesta)—-go with a new name (Flex)—it doesn’t matter—Ford will be crucified by somebody.
Personally—I have no problem with Fiesta (I mean really—it will be competing with wimpy names like Fit, Versa, and Yaris). I would have stuck with the concept Fairlane name instead of Flex. Regardless of name—both of these vehicles should be hits.
Donal Fagan : Fastuous should be fatuous. Fastuous: adj, arrogant; showy. Although fatuous may have been a better choice… umterp85 : I've got no problem with Fiesta. Still sounds jaunty; it's a nice name for a sub-compact. But the wider point about Mulally's lack of control of the Ford mothership is a good one. Shouldn't the guy at the top get the final say-so?
They actually have a good name in the corporate closet for the “Flex” … call it the Fairlane just like it’s concept car was called. Cool name, lots of history and starts with F. Everyone should be happy.
Flex is just dumb. Of course Edge is a dumb name to.
Robert: If we take Howes reporting as fact (re: Mulally did not like Flex name yet still let it go because Bill Ford liked it) I agree with your point.
jthorner: If you think the Edge name is dumb—so be it—-but I guess you are conceding dumb name has nothing to do with sales success. Edge sold 135K+ Edge’s in 2007—pretty solid numbers considering the dumb name.
Save the “Flex” name for something small and hybrid-ish.
Is this the extent that detroit columnists are allowed to criticize domestic automakers? Seems to me using F-names is the least of Ford’s problems.
Fiesta is a great name, even if it tanked back in the 1970s. Latin culture is everywhere these days, it’ll work.
Fun little car being associated with a party? Well, duh!
But nobody gives a crap about the name Flex, or any of those idiotic three letter names that Lincoln uses these days. The only reason people care about the Fusion/Edge is because its (good) design overcomes the forgettable names. That is, if the Fusion was called the Taurus from the git-go…
If AM really doesn’t like these names, he should have the clout in his downsized Ford management heirarchy to do the right thing and give Fordy names to Ford products.
This is terrible. What was wrong with Verve? The Fiesta brings back memories of a crappy old car and sounds cheesy. I’d be embarrassed to tell someone that I drive a “Fiesta”.
They should really change the name for the NA market. A car with that kind of styling needs a cool name to go with it. Verve is good. A car named “Fiesta” should have dorky/cartoony styling, like an HHR.
Holy alliteration, Batman!
I guess you could say Ford is fastly fading towards flatlining, flatter than flapjacks, or a floozy on a foam futon. Or something like that.
It’s not the f words that got me, it was the M’s at the end.
Meable?
Manichean Mansuetude? I looked these up, and it meant what I thought it did. I still don’t get it.
Sorry going to have to disagree with the premise and the way the comments are going. Just my opinion but AM set the strategy for the turn around etc etc but he shouldn’t micro manage.
Let me explain more, now he should ask questions and make people accountable. In the case of the 500 he asked the right question, why didn’t you use the Taurus name. Its about the same size car is it not. Ford has already spent a lot of marketing money establishing what a Taurus is etc, Why would the marketing folks not use that and try to spend money explaining to the public that the 500 is Ford’s larger car etc.
There probably was silence as nobody defended dropping the Taurus name or the answers weren’t convincing. That doesn’t mean he should micromanage everything. Hey boss should we call this a Verve or a Fiesta? hey boos should we…As long as your underlings can step up to the plate explain and defend their actions with convictions and facts to back them up and satisfy you that they know what they are doing then you let them do it. In the case of the 500 versus the Taurus I honestly don’t think anyone stepped up to the plate answer AM’s questioning.
Ford is fuc*ed by the fickle finger of fate.
Using the Fiesta name is a stroke of genius, not stupidity. Not only does it maintain the 30 years brand equity in Europe, synchronize the name across the globe, it also is a Spanish word. Since Hispanics are the Uss fastest growing ethnicity, it only makes sense to use a Spanish word as the name of a car. See Hyundai for all their Spanish/Southwest names: Tiburon, Santa Fe, Tuscon, Veracruz, even Accent :).
I think the Flex should be named Taurus…along with the Fiesta.
Bring us the Ka and the Sport Ka
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The F names, does someone at Ford have flatulence?
Robert Farago: “Shouldn’t the guy at the top get the final say-so?”
I don’t think so. The guy at the top should set direction, allocate resources, make business-wide decisions (like we’re getting out of trucks and into motor homes or some such), make sure the right scum is floating to the top to ensure the next generation of leadership and probably make some but very few critical implementation decisions.
For product marketing (styling, naming, other things), Ford should have a good team in place that makes the right moves (or implements a broad strategy set by above). Ditto engineering and the other disciplines. Things that affect enough resources to require a final approval from above should routinely get it, if the teams are good, unless money is too scarce and then the CEO picks a winner.
KixStart :
I don’t think so. The guy at the top should set direction, allocate resources, make business-wide decisions (like we’re getting out of trucks and into motor homes or some such), make sure the right scum is floating to the top to ensure the next generation of leadership and probably make some but very few critical implementation decisions.
So what was all that about Mulally dictating that the Five Hundred should be renamed the Taurus? You can’t have this both ways, folks.
Ahh…A Fiesta had the distinction of being the first FWD car I had ever ridden in (back in 1978).
Too bad it wasn’t the last.
Ford should fast focus fastidiously on it’s foundering fleet of fluff, ‘fore it finds falling fares and flatlined figures. Fancy fantastic flivvers? Fugheddaboudit!
Lets not forget the E issue either
1. Escape
2. Excursion
3. Explorer
4. Edge
5.Expedition
6.E series Van
F is not the only letter they use over and over again.
Fastuous: adj, arrogant; showy.
Is that why he has three ns in his name?
The Flex aside – the Fiesta was not named Fiesta in the U.S. just to satisfy some need to have “F” names or to harken back to 1978. The Fiesta was named Fiesta because that’s what it’s called in Europe. That’s what it will be called in China. That’s the name it will get in Brazil, India, Thailand, etc. etc.
This article has a point with the Flex – it is a somewhat less than stellar name. But, it’s sort of a damned if you do/don’t. If Ford had gone back to Fairlane (or something else) after Farley questioned it, there would have been a hayday on this site (and others) about how Ford keeps changing names.
However, Howes’ rant about the Fiesta as a demonstration of Mulally’s inability to lead the company into the future? Just complete idiocy.