Have You Driven A Ford Lately?
Over at Ford Motor Company they are betting the farm on a new model, actually an old one, called the Taurus. Well maybe not the farm, just a few acres of real estate. Well maybe not a few acres. Maybe just a few city blocks. In any case Ford is hoping that we consumers will be so thrilled by the new styling of the Taurus that we will all run down to our local Ford dealership starting on August 1, 2009. This is when the new, I mean old, whatever, Taurus arrives.
There is just one small problem. I would compare the new Taurus with a Honda Accord and a Toyota Camry. Both the Accord and Camry have a 4 cylinder for their base model. The base models start about $4k or more below the base price of a Taurus which doesn’t even offer a 4 banger. Ford also is going to have a SHO Taurus with a twin turbo V-6 sporting 365 horses. Price is only $37k +. Very reasonable. When gas goes back to $4 a gallon, which it will, you may wish you had a 4 banger pulling you around town.
It is going to be Chrysler that will be the leader over both GM and Ford. You ask why Chrysler? Because of Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne who is already breaking Chrysler apart. Each division will be on their own and if they fail they pack up their bags. Plus Fiat knows how to build quality small cars, with good gas mileage and that perform well. GM and Ford have no such leadership.
That’s my take. What is yours?
Comments welcome.
7 Comments
Michael Henley
July 3rd, 2009
at 6:54am
Actually, the farm is going to be bet on the coming Fiesta and new Focus. The new Taurus is more in the Avalon class. The Fusion competes with Accord and Camry very well. You’d buy a Taurus if you wanted to downsize from an SUV but needed a skosh more room than the Fusion/Accord class cars. You are comparing apples and oranges.
Give Ford credit for seeing the current problems and starting to prepare for them several years ago, which GM did not. Chrysler was in a bad situation, being mismanaged by Daimler for so long. Incidentally, Ford has outsold Toyota for the last three straight months, so their plans for the future do seem to have some legs.
Goose
July 3rd, 2009
at 7:19am
Hey Ron….I would buy another Dell before I buy another Ford. You know what that means……
Ron Schenone
July 3rd, 2009
at 7:42am
Goose – likewise!
Ryan Farmer
July 3rd, 2009
at 11:50am
Actually, the SHO V6 was very fuel efficient, it had the same gas mileage as the regular 3 liter V6 but 225 HP instead of the normal 140, forced air induction did most of the work.
The Yamaha-built SHO engine was actually meant for a line of sports cars that Ford never ended up building but they had a contract requiring them to buy like 100,000 of the engines I believe, so dumping them in the Taurus was a convenient way to get rid of them.
What you ended up with was a car that looked like a family sedan but actually had the engine power of a Gran Prix, they gained something of a cult following because of this.
The idea was that cops wouldn’t be looking for an olive green “grocery getter”, as much as they would a more “sporty” coupe, possibly fire red.
I would never drive a brightly colored car anyway, because I don’t want to stand out in traffic while a cop is deciding what car to point a radar gun at.
Buffet
July 5th, 2009
at 5:57am
“$37k+ very reasonable??? For what? A house? On a lighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s movie Gran Torino.
Ron Schenone
July 5th, 2009
at 6:11am
Grand Torino – 2 thumbs up! The movie, not the car. LOL
Have a good one.
iTuner99
July 5th, 2009
at 11:26am
The Fiat idea of having each brand stand alone as a separate company and if they fail they pack their bags sounds like survival of the fittest. Probably isn’t a bad idea considering how every large institution in America lately has been as “too big to fail”…I wish them luck and as you said with gas going back up in price we’ll all be wishing for a 4-banger…