Ford's PR machine is working overtime. Before 10 AM, FoMoCo sent out seven press releases. The first missive trumpets the fact that the 2009 Focus will be available in a SEL trim line with a lot of standard stuff that's optional on other Focii. And all Focii will now have electronic stability control (standard on the Hyundai Elantra). The next release tells the world that $1,995 buys you a glass roof panel for your 2009 Mustang. Release three: The Blue Oval Boys are moving up the introduction of an "industry-first innovation" (the Blind Spot Mirror) by a year, and making it standard on the 2009 Edge. Release number four reveals the pains to which FoMoCo goes– "driving, shaking, baking and freezing the vehicle"– to keep the Flex from living up to its name. Another news flash! The Lincoln MKS is available in luscious White Chocolate, Sangria and Cinnamon (dieters can delight in Tuxedo Black Metallic, White Suede, Brilliant Silver Metallic, Smokestone, Light Ice Blue and Dark Ink Blue). The penultimate press release brags that the MKS "outsold the Acura RL, Infiniti M35 and Cadillac STS" in July, thanks to "unique marketing and education efforts underway since the vehicle was introduced in November." Finally, Ford wants us to know that their powertrain lineup "underscores four key pillars of the company's 'Drive one' communications effort: Drive Green, Drive Smart, Drive Quality, and Drive Safe." Interestingly it says nothing about driving me crazy. And the day's not over yet…
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They should just give a press release that says “Wait until 2010”.
I have to admit, that glass roof is cool, but I imagine costly to replace and I would rather Ford have offered a sunroof instead.
And at least the MKS is only 4th from last in the luxury sedan sales.
“Smokestone”
So the people at Ford are smoking rocks ?. That explains alot.
“Drive Green”
So the folks at Ford WANT us to buy Priuses from Toyota ?……
“Drive quality”
….AND Hondas ?.
With advertising like that no wonder why they’re losing market share.
I’m still waiting for Ford to come out with an Eddie Bauer edition Focus.
SEL Focus – Makes sense, the majority of the Focii we sell are the highly optioned ones, so bring out a new highline package.
Mustang Glass Roof – It’s actually pretty cool looking from inside. Gives you a vert-like view of the sky while keeping the coupes better looking body lines. Not sure why it warrents a press release though…
Blind Spot Thingie – Sounds like a nice little feature, not sure how groundbreaking it is, but hey, better visibility is good, right?
Lincoln Colors – Why a press release just describing the colors that the MKS comes in? Cinnamon is very cool though, see it in person on a sunny day and it makes brown sexy. Tuxedo black is also the sparkliest black I have ever seen, another great sunny day color. And though the response to the MKS has been fairly lukewarm to negative here, at the dealership customers are absolutely loving it. The big criticism around here seems to be ‘gasp, OMG, a FWD big lincoln based on a platform that also underpins the Taurus? how could they?’ See the car next to a Taurus, get in both, you would never know that they shared DNA. The MKS has a top tier interior, great quality materials, looks sharp on the outside, and drives very well, who needs RWD when FWD will handle just as well in 99.9% of driving situations? We are consistently selling MKSs as soon as they come in, have a waiting list for certain color combinations, and these are all going out at full sticker with no incentives. The public appears to like the car…
Regarding Smokestone – It’s an attractive if unremarkable silver meets gold color with an unfortunate name.
Drive Green – People tend to forget that Ford is the only domestic manufacturer with a real (i.e. not GMs ‘two-mode’) hybrid system, the Hybrid Escape is a great little cute-ute, and with the system going into upcoming fusions, there will be an actual Prius-fighter in the lineup.
As long as they’re telling the truth and do intend that the products will have these features, I don’t see anything wrong with this. Ford is in trouble and needs to enhance the public image they have. This contrasts markedly with GM’s hype of the unlikely Volt.
NulloModo states:
Drive Green – People tend to forget that Ford is the only domestic manufacturer with a real (i.e. not GMs ‘two-mode’) hybrid system, the Hybrid Escape is a great little cute-ute, and with the system going into upcoming fusions, there will be an actual Prius-fighter in the lineup.
Isn’t Ford’s hybrid system for the Escape the first or second generation Toyota Synergy Drive Hybrid system? I thought I had read somewhere that is was. Anyone know for sure?
Jolo – The Ford system, while it does use some of the same principles of the Toyota system, was developed by Ford, although I think Toyota may have given some input.
Ford does buy its batteries from the same suppier as Toyota, which has added to the confusion.
Drive Green – People tend to forget that Ford is the only domestic manufacturer with a real (i.e. not GMs ‘two-mode’) hybrid system,
Two-mode is a real system, but it’s only available on the GMT900 trucks. It’s actually a good technology, but has problems scaling down to passenger cars (well, it’s probably more accurate to say that it has problems being cheap enough to scale down to cars that GM would rather not make in the first place). The nicest part of two-mode is that it’s theoretically easy to implement; it’s basically a (complex) transmission and battery, rather than a system of motor/generators and an ICE, as is Toyota’s HSD.
BAS is the so-weak-it-barely-qualifies-as-a-hybrid system on the Vue, Aura and Malibu. Honda’s IMA system is more or less the same.
But yes, Ford is the only domestic with a hybrid system installed in a car that people actually want to buy. But I’m sure GM will have something by 2010.
Ford’s hybrid system was developed independently of Toyota’s. When Ford was working on it, they realized they may be violating IP held by Toyota – mostly focused around the switching between eletrical and gas modes. So, they proposed a swap of IP. Ford gave Toyota some diesel tech, Toyota gave Ford rights to their hybrid tech.
In the end, Ford’s switching mechanism, which was at the center of the exchange, didn’t bare much resemblance to Toyota’s and is widely considered to be superior to Toyota’s. With each change Ford makes to its system, it gets even further from Toyota’s. As Ford transitions to new suppliers and away from Sanyo in the near future, the system will also diverge more.
Toyota, for its part, considered Ford’s IP and decided to invest more heavily in Isuzu to procure and develop its diesel tech. In the end, neither company really did much with what they exchanged – but it stopped what could have been a bad court battle.
That’s how I understand the exchange. I would like to hear more detail from anyone who actually knows, but I do know that Ford’s hybrid system is not just Toyota’s in a Ford body.
So – they have seven different PR-departments?
Someone set up a phone-line between those, and send them a calendar while you’re at it. Clearly a novelty item to these bozos, but it might help their planning when they figure out what it is.
Sounds like they’re taking care of that Stein. Along with the marketing teams.
Wait, the MKS is in production?
Instead if noting that the MKS is selling well because it might actually be a decent product, the Marketing Division issues a Press Release saying the product they are paid to promote has had good sales because of “unique marketing and education efforts”. These guys think highly of themselves, don’t they?
The Marketing guys always think the answer is Marketing. If a bad product won’t sell, we just need more marketing! If a good product sells, it must be because we did such a great job marketing it! They are so busy patting themselves on the back they fail to consider that it may actually have something to do with the quality and pricing of the product. Oh wait, at the 2.8 they have a lot of input in the quality/options/pricing also, don’t they. Maybe that explains a LOT!
Interestingly it says nothing about driving me crazy. And the day’s not over yet…
I had to laugh at that. I wonder why they didn’t mention anything about the Flex’s sales figures.
They attribute the sales to “unique marketing and education efforts underway since the vehicle was introduced in November.”
I guess that it would be inconceivable that the sales could be due to a good product?
Ford’s hybrid Escape is supposedly good, but their hybrid car has been coming real soon now for at least two years, with nothing yet in actual sight. While they deserve kudos for not flat-out lying like GM does, they clearly didn’t want to sell hybrid cars, and wanted to keep the halo effect going without risking making too many of the things (rather than going all-out to make the system profitable like Toyota did).
C- for effort. Compared to a F—– for GM and a truancy report for Chrysler.
“the MKS “outsold the Acura RL, Infiniti M35 and Cadillac STS” in July. They attribute the sales to “unique marketing and education efforts underway since the vehicle was introduced in November.” Or it could just be the initial buying surge that any new model seems to experience for the first couple of months.”
Or it could be that sales of the RL, M35 and STS are and always have been pathetic. How did they manage to leave off the 9-5 and S80 (oops, no dissing relatives)?
Wow, a Lincoln sedan is outselling the STS. Who would have thunk! It is sad to see what has become of the Cadillac Seville … er STS. Ever since the 1998 redesign (which merged the Seville and the Oldsmobile Aurora platforms) it has lost whatever once made it something special.
The success of the CTS lineup seems to have come largely at the expensive of the STS (Seville) and DTS (deVille) product ranges. How typical of GM, one new product does reasonably well at the expense of the two products which used to be the bread-and-butter.
The lurch back to rear wheel drive for Cadillac has by and large been a marketplace failure. Way back in 1967 Cadillac took a big leap forward with the world first modern large FWD luxury car. Now GM is chasing the herd rather than standing proudly alone. Enthusiasts gush about the perceived advantages of RWD, but the majority of people who buy Cadillacs mostly either don’t care, or prefer FWD.
Perhaps with the MKS Lincoln will pick up the mantle of building American style luxury cars on FWD platforms. All other things being equal, FWD has a fuel economy advantage, especially in local driving, due to less rotating mass to be accelerated and decelerated. Driveline friction losses are also lower with FWD.
$2,000 is too much for a roof. Test one in a hail storm(softball size) and see how it fares. Does anything happen if I(or someone else) stand on it? Does it have any sort of UV coating on it?
I had a chance to drive the MKS yesterday. It’s a beautiful car and had a very nice interior, but the driving experience wasn’t as polished as I expected. The MKX (I know – different kind of vehicle altogether) drove better.