Zastava_101

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Ford is planing sales of 500 and Freestyle to be between 100,000 and 120,000 each.

Evil_Capri

Through June 2006 sales of the 3 twins equate to ~96K. I have only read posts reporting combined sales of the 3, not seperated. I have never read that sales of the Freestyle were projected to equal the Five Hundred.

mustang_sallad

Ya, sales of these cars were slow to start, cause they didn't make a big splash in terms of looks like the 300. I said from the get go that while the 300 was a huge hit, its sales would slow down quickly, it was quite a fad, whereas the 500 is actually a good looking (yet fairly bland) car, and sales would build up as people became aware of the car. And that's exactly what we're seeing now. So i'm awesome.

But ya, the 300 has easily already grown old, its last year's car, nobody gets one to stand out now. The 500 is good looking and appeals to people who don't use their cars to make a statement, which i think is a lot of people.

Hopefully the freshening will make the car stand out without going too far like the 300 did in my opinion.

I really wonder about a Falcon coexisting with the 500. Where would this fit in? Bigger, smaller? And would it really sell much, other than just as police cruisers which i'm guessing don't make much profit. Regardless of profit, as a Ford fan, i'm happy to see blue ovals on all the cruisers and i'd like it to stay that way. I guess really, i'd be fine with them forgetting a new RWD ford sedan off the mustang platform, and just giving the Crown Vic a good overhaul. That car is just too cool.

Maybe they could still use the mustang platform for a sporty RWD lincoln sedan or something.

05fordgt

Zoran, I'm not going to get into a peeing contest with you. The highest numbers the Taurus posted back in the day will never happen again, as there are so many more car models available today. As the fellow posted above, car sales for Ford are up, not down. I mentioned the Fusion, cause you said it has alot to prove. Well its proving it, as we are (at my place) having a lot of people who are turning in their Honda and Toyota leases back to their previous dealers for a Fusion. It recently went over 20,000 cars sold for a month. Not too shabby for a brand new car in a segment domintated by imports. Its a shame you don't plan on driving one, you would be impressed. Its a real nice car.

And to quietly break it to you, the 500 didn't fail. They sold just under 108,000 Five Hundreds, and over 27,000 Montegos in its 1st full year. Failing is only selling 40,000 of 120K. Failing is the SSR, the Aztek, the GTO. If selling 146K cars (plus 77,000 Freestyles, for a total of 212,000 cars combined) is failiing (considering they wanted to sell 120K 500's and 200K combined) I don't know what is. What the 500 did, is take alot of buyers away from the 300, and other brands. Did it sell less than the 300, of course. How many 300's sold were the C model with the Hemi? That's all I see around my area.

And about the gas mileage thing, I just said that as no one comes in to me to look at and drive a GT Mustang, and then ask how the MPG are. It's a V8, 300 hp RWD Muscle car, not an economy car. Gas mileage isn't the same as a Focus. That's like buying a Hummer H2, but then complaning about the gas mileage. Certain cars you look at, you know the gas mileage isn't the best, but most know that going in.

AnotherMustangMan

I honestly don't get your infatuation with a rental car?? The Taurus was nice yes, but the fleet sales aspect tarnished the cars worth as a private vehicle, meaning regular people didn't want to buy it. Ford doesn't want to turn the Fusion into "that Ford rental car," so sure it will sell less total units. But that is deceiving, one must keep in mind that when Ford sold mass amounts of Taurus rental cars to fleets, they were optionless stripper models and were deeply discounted (Sam's Club style). The profit Ford made from ONE Fusion sale is comparable to the profit made from selling FIVE rental Tauruses.

Zastava_101

When I said that Fusion have a lot to prove, I didn't mean that its a bad car. What I meant is, Fusion in new on the market and you can't become huge success overnight (actually you can, but that's not case with Fusion). I'm not planing to drive one because I'm not looking to buy a car anytime soon. I got brand new F-150 last summer, I still have Mustang, and I'm not looking for another car at least until I finish college (2 more years). Then my plan is to get Chrysler 300C or Mustang Roush.

Maybe 500 didn't really fail, but it also didn't reach goal. Remember that Ford canceled Freestyle after only 10 months of production because of poor sales, but then it said that Freestyle will continue production.
I like both cars; after all, they're Fords, but to be honest I've expected a lot bigger numbers for 500 and Freestyle.

For fuel economy part, yeah, I gotta agree with you there.