I was going to email TTAC commentator kazoomaloo to tell him I’d deleted his TTAC flame (“Dude, this is a pretty lame story”) when I clicked on his web addy instead of his email. I stumbled upon his pitch for a Ford Fiesta, as part of FoMoCo’s early adopter contest. I thought it worth sharing here because A) I like it and B) I’m showing the red card (or is that green card) for his assertion that the Fiesta is American. Hecho en Mexico, amigo. Moving on—I mean forward [ED. Fordward?]—I mean ahead, it’s the best day ever for Ford. CBS News is blowing some serious smoke up America’s @$$ regarding Ford’s relative health. Today, Ford received top billing as part one of The Morning Show’s weeklong series, “Early Across America,” featuring stories of “hope and optimism amid all the economic gloom sweeping the nation.” You can’t buy publicity like this. Oh wait . . . Anyway, there’s more!
“If you’re looking for that tiny glimmer of hope amid all the economic doom,” says Smith, “the place to find it might be at the gleaming, green, state-of-the-art Ford truck plant in Dearborn, Mich. It has three shifts are working 24 four hours a day, seven days a week, turning out Ford F 150 pickup trucks.
“Every single truck has been spoken for,” Smith continued. “A buyer or dealer wants it, which basically means it has a ‘sold’ sign on it”
Did we forget that February F-Series sales fell from last year’s 52,548 to this year’s 23,614? Yes, we did. So, production cutback, excellent. Sales? Not so hot. (Trivia question: which F-150 plant lost out?) Never mind. A good news story is like a steamroller: fact squishing is just how it rolls.
What follows is the usual Mulally hagiography: outsider comes in, kicks ass, and stays away from the needle—I mean, arranges but doesn’t mainline federal bailout bucks. And so I’ll end with my usual lament: until Ford picks ONE unique selling point, they’re doomed. And they haven’t. So they are.
“What we decided,” he said to [Early Show co-anchor Harry] Smith, “was that we’re going to be in every market, we’re going to go back to our roots and focus on Ford. … We’re going to have small, medium and large vehicles, cars, utilities and trucks. We also decided we’re going to be best-in-class in quality and fuel efficiency and safety, and also offer the best value.”
Ford wants to be known for quality, fuel-efficiency, safety and value for small, medium and large cars, utilities and trucks. Good luck with that.
Aside about small cars: WSJ reports that at current sales rates,
Honda has 121 days’ supply of Fits
Toyota has 175 days’ supply of Yarises (Yarii?)
Chevrolet has 427 day’s supply of Aveos
Good luck, Ford!
It’s all relative, Mr. Farago.
Ford *is* a glimmer of hope compared to Chrysler and GM.
Vorenus
The day that Detroit stops comparing itself to itself and starts comparing themselves to the best the world has to offer will be the day they have a glimmer of hope.
Woop woop! Anyway, if anyone else wants in on this contest, get your vids in by tonight, the deadline is midnight. I really am excited for the Fiesta; anything in the subcompact hatch market gets love from me, even the lowly Aveo. I think the Fiesta is gonna give the Fit a run for it’s money. It won’t probably be as utilitarian (no Magic Seat) but it’s got sexiness and style down pat. Heck, even Clarkson loved it, so you know Ford is on to something.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Ford is the best positioned US automaker. Mulally has done very well with the company & I for one think they’re making a lot of good moves – quality is way up, the new Fusion gets 34 mpg hwy, & the new products across the board are highly desirable. Now if they could only fix the Focus a bit, they’d have a real hard-hitting lineup. Recently, I think I’ve become kind of a domestic booster, though, so you could say I’m biased.
BTW, I didn’t mean to flame the site, I love this place, I just think the Fusion hybrid story didn’t ring right. As far as mileage is concerned, I’m much more interested in what the Fiesta can produce.
I want to know why they’re going to call it “Fiesta” in the US. It’s synonymous with “crappy compact car” and just sounds goofy anyway. No one is going to want to tell their friends or coworkers “Yeah, I drive a Fiesta.” Maybe they can bring the Ka over here and call it the Ford Pinata.
I’m with Vorenus, Ford is the brightest light shining in Detroit right now. Granted, that may not be saying much, but it’s something. Now as far as being everything to everyone (“We’re going to have small, medium and large vehicles, cars, utilities and trucks. We also decided we’re going to be best-in-class in quality and fuel efficiency and safety, and also offer the best value.”), You’re doing okay Mr. Mulally, but some reality is in order here. You need to crawl before you can walk. You’re going to have to get more of these cars on the road before we can talk about being the best at everything. The U.S. Focus blows, the U.S. Fiesta is not yet available, and everything beyond the Ford brand is a rebadge. In some areas Ford still isn’t any better off than GM.
Calling a story “lame” is a flame? OK, now we know.
As for 427 days of supply of Aveos, when none sell, ever, with that go to infinity?
“(Trivia question: which F-150 plant lost out?)”
Kansas City Assembly? What do I win?
As for the Fiesta, I’m with kazoomaloo. I think it is going to be a hit. Will it be profitable? I doubt it, but it will sell.
RetardedSparks :
“As for 427 days of supply of Aveos, when none sell, ever, with that go to infinity?”
There’s a Chevy dealer in Auburn, WA where it appears half their inventory is Aveos (this is not an exaggeration and they’re easily visible from the main drag). It beggars the imagination how they’ll *ever* sell through them.
This is kind of on subject as it pertains to Ford Trucks. One thing I have noticed lately is how loyal Ford Expedition drivers are to the Expedition. Someone I know turned his leased one in. His wife/family has been bugging him to get something smaller. On friday he had an a Edge on an extended test drive and he hated it. Another friend just traded her 02 in on an newer used one, and yet another friend wants to get a second one. I even tried to suggest a Navigator as I have found ’07-’08 models very closely priced to their Expedition “Eddie Bauer” counterparts and he won’t even consider them. Very loyal customers indeed.
That was actually kind of cool! These new, interactive, involving car marketing campaigns are really awesome. It’s bringing a sense of democracy to the whole process.
With things like the internet, it is very possible to have a process of Democratic car design. People choose a design, then it sells like crazy. People love the car design and the company makes a huge profit. Makes sense, huh?
A glimmer of this idea of democratic design popped up while watching “Project Fast.” It also seems to be here with Ford. Getting customers involved in the process of marketing and/or design is a really good idea.
Just like the old joke about the three guys and the bear. You don’t need to outrun the bear you need to outrun one of the other guys.
How is Ford going to compete with GM and Chrysler when the government is handing the competition tens of billions? Good luck with that one. Ford burns their own money while the competition burns the governments money. What a brilliant strategy.
If the government decides to take Chrysler and GM into a subsidized bankruptcy what does Ford do then? The UAW subsidies are not going to soon end from this government that has seemingly unlimited amounts of other peoples money.
Ford is providing new Fiesta to 100 people to drive for 6 month before the public release and in return these 100 folks will post their opinions and reviews of the Fiesta via vid clips to the net. kazoomaloo appears to be demonstrating to Ford that he is tech savy and able to post entertaining vids.
Did anyone see Jeremy Clarkson’s review of the Fiesta on Top Gear. He drove it on a beach as part of a Royal Marimes amphibious assault and was chased in a mall by a Vette. He absolutely loved it. Hope Mullaly resists the dumbing down forces and we get the same version here. God I would love a grocery getter with power, good suspension and direct steering. Waiting with my fingers crossed Ford.
I think Kazoomaloo’s video is hilarious and I wish him best of luck winning the Fiesta and on his new life in St. Paul.
Liked the video, hope you get the nod, Kazoomaloo.
As for the Fiesta, I’m pro-small hatchbacks, even though with two kids they’ll probably be too small of a car for me to consider for the next 16 years.
I’m curious, re:Top Gear, if the Fiesta actually drove out of the landing craft and onto the shore or if he had to be towed for the first portion. I’m no expert on amphibious landings, but the water was well over the hood for the start of the sequence, wouldn’t that be enough to drown the engine?
I’m skeptical about the fording (no pun intended) abilities of the Fiesta as well but loved the review anyway. I’m also relieved to know that I can fit a zebra head in the hatch with the rear seats up. I’m eagerly awaiting this and as others have noted, I hope they don’t dumb it down for “American” tastes.
What is the one thing Ford can stand for?
Reliability? It’ll take Ford a decade to get its props as is. It’ll take a few decades more to wrench that away from the Japanese brands.
Fuel economy? People talk about fuel economy, but most people are happy with anything that doesn’t make their eyes pop out when they fill up.
Style? Purely subjective, and the Ford Flex is proof that style is a no go for a volume car.
toxicroach, there are worse things for a mainline car company to stand for than reliability, fuel economy and style. Add a wee bit of performance and you have……Honda. Ford would love to be thought of in the same way as Honda. And guess what, they can get there, they almost are.
Yeah I agree cdn. I just don’t see how Ford can forge a reputation for the first two anytime soon, and the third is likely to piss off their customer base who likes things the way they are. And I’m not sure how much style a Fusion can bear anyway.
A car companies reputation in the public’s mind is based on what was happening 10 years ago, which means Ford is getting the fruits of whatever it was sowing in 1999. If Ford keeps to its current path and actually brings the level of product we hope it will bring in 2010, by 2020 or so it’ll be in very very solid shape. In 2009, they pretty much just have to try to plant the seeds for 2020 and digest the bitter fruit of the past.
Unfortunately you may be right toxicroach. We are advertising Flex SE’s for 22k and Limited for 34K and having trouble selling them. Perversely we are now selling a fair amount of the discontinued Taurus X which is quite a bargain. Too bad Ford never marketed it. I had one for a while and the family loved it. Ford has to stay the course…hope they have the time and money to wait for the turnaround.
I also hope they don’t dumb it down…