http://www.autoblog.com/2006/12/06/f...eir-way-to-us/

 

Ford really only needs a B segment car..car smaller then focus...and it needs the european focus to replace the current one.

 

i think i heard that since they are just refreshing the current focus, the next time the two will be totally remade they will be the same or very similar. i think i read it somewhere........well i hope it happens SOON

 

Better take another look at that financial pie chart again, my friend. Ford needs a lot more than that. The public as a whole still doesn't view Fords favorably, though most do perceive that Ford's Euro division builds more technologically advanced and higher quality vehicles. If the company announces that it is bringing certain select models from its European stable to fill in the weak gaps between its best North American vehicles, more people are likely to give Ford a serious look.

Ford does have to fight the perception battle, and this sounds like a good way to do it...FAST.

The easiest, most logical course of action with the Mondeo, Galaxy/S-Max is to market them as Mercurys, and ensure that the North American Fords are sufficiently different. Galaxy and Edge are quite different (S-Max does offer third row seating in a pinch), and if Ford replaces the Freestyle (which it plans to after this year) with the "Fairlane," then this would make perfect sense. "Fairlane," too, won't offer third row seating, and will be much boxier. Galaxy/S-Max would offer a more traditional minivan-style mover, with Mercury badging and an award-winning Euro flavor.

Also, as someone else pointed out, Ford's Euro minivans are substantially smaller that those North American vehicles. The S-Max and the Galaxy weigh in at about 3700 lbs; the Freestyle and the Edge are over 4100 lbs; and the aging Windstar-now-Freestar weighs more than 4300 lbs.

This will also distinguish the Mercury brand (we know Ford can't kill Mercury due to the legal heat they'd take from dealers), and immediately eliminate the "badge engineering" problem Mercury's have traditionally suffered from. Plus, it will force Ford's North American vehicles to maintain a similar standard of overall quality.

This all jives with Mulally's recent comments about wanting to leverage Ford's global platforms.

Frankly, this is not all that different than what GM is doing with Saturn, which is leveraging Euro product (i.e. Saturn Sky/Opel GT).

I hope they're serious. Better late than never.

 

I don't think we'll see the mondeo unless its under another brand or something. Segment's just too crowded. B-seg we'll see, focus we'll se. Next-gen there will be alot more commonality, our crossovers and the -Maxes, Fusion and Mondeo, and Fusion

 

great, and we are getting the Dodge Nitro and Avenger. this after the Caliber has fallen on it's **** and hardly sold any units. I have seen 2 Calibers since they were launched in August, and one of those was the one I test drove.

 

Before you can fully shed your old image, you need to do something to break it. A Mercury Mondeo would help do that for Mercury, and in a sense, for Ford.

It's all about changing people's expectations and raising their level of interest.

 

Would be nice to have a teeny tiny Ford car here to sell....I have seen the Euro Fiesta and Ka while in Germany, should sell at least one of those here! I need to replace my aging Aspire soon and would love to be in a 2008 Fiesta.

 

Great post, I also think they need to work on the customer service at the dealership level too!

 

I'm not certain what some folks here think importing the Mondeo into NA is going to "say" to the American public other than "Ford North America can't cut it anymore so here ya go" Frankly, as it relates to the Fusion and Mondeo I don't think that is a particularly accurate statement. But even in areas where it is, the problem with Ford NA isn't that they don't give Ford Europe, etc enough input, it's that in many cases they have given them too much input and nobody at Ford has yet had the courage to draw a line in the sand relative to product development.

This is easy to argue when you consider that the two best, modern Ford products in the North American market also happen to be the two which likely owe the least to International Ford brands (truck based suv's aside....that market obviously has issues all it's own) I am talking about the F-150 and Mustang of course. And frankly, those two vehicles put up a good argument for being the best executed, Ford branded vehicles available anywhere in the world. What does this tell me? It tells me that Ford Corporate should possibly consider letting Ford NA develop more large car and V-8 powered platforms instead of giving them a platform an interational arm of Ford developed telling them to make it work.

Before someone points it out, yes, D2C is loosely based on DEW98. But DEW98 was actually a pretty good, if expensive, platform that owes as much to Ford NA as anywhere else. It was also an appropriate starting point and not simply something with which Ford NA had to make do. What Ford NA wrought employing bits and pieces of that design is truly amazing and a testament to NA ingenuity and ability.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating the snubbing of international Ford divisions here. It would make sense to have Ford Australia heavily involved on future rwd vehicles along with Ford NA. But muddying this scenario further by giving every brand and division a piece of the pie, or by trying to make a platform which can do everything for every brand, in an effort to please everyone, would be pointless given that these are the markets in which large and/or V-8 powered, rwd vehicles are likely to be the most popular, and the most important. Given that might it be reasonable to assume that these folks might know more about developing and building the same? They certainly have a vested interest in doing a good job with these.

I could easily say the same about smaller cars, but in this instance it is pretty obvious that Ford Europe and Mazda would seem the most logical, major developers for obvious reasons. An frankly, relative to Ford Europe, Mazda,etc., this argument seems somewhat weaker considering that Ford NA generally seems to be the arm getting all the leftovers.

And that decision makes no sense whatsoever after you consider that Ford's era of ridiculous profitability enjoyed around a decade ago was largely due to NA profits made on NA products. During much of that time Mazda, and Ford of Europe, weren't even profitable, a problem which Nasser set out to fix...apparently by completely ignoring Ford NA. We can all see how well that worked now can't we?

No excuses for Ford here since the above is entirely Ford's fault. But some of these 'fixes' people latch onto are doing little more than suggesting Ford needs to do even more of what caused some of these problems in the first place.

Mark Fields has made statements that make it clear that he gets this. I can only wonder if Mullaly gets it too?

 

Who you fooling?! "Most" (of the Public as a whole) don't know anything about Ford of Europe.

 

The one's who do any sort of research do. And they're the toughest audience.

 

And they're not the ones who have lined up at the Toyota and Honda dealerships to purchase Accords and Camrys. Those Toyota and Honda purchasers are researching 'Consumer Reports' not Top Gear.

In my opinion the efforts Mulally plans to enact include the manufacturing of global platforms throughout the world and not the importing/exporting plethora of platforms to each respective marketplace.

 

if ford came out with a car to compete with the Yaris....I'd would be first in line for one.

 

Properly promoted, such buyers would walk on the Ford lot and see for themselves how great a car like the Mondeo is. The Fusion proves that if Ford builds a good car, that word of mouth and reputation spread like wildfire. The new Mondeo would heighten that effect even further.

Moreover, badge it as a Mercury, move Mercury upscale a bit to slot between Ford and Lincoln, and no more worries about what the f*ck to do with the brand. As I said before, before you can fully shed your old image, you need to do something to break it. A Mercury Mondeo would help do that for Mercury, and in a sense, for Ford. It's all about changing people's expectations and raising their level of interest.

I think you're going to see those two circumstances intimately tied together, at least in the initial stages of the "global platform" push.

 

To be properly promoted they need to be marketed, in my opinion, as Global Fords, not Euro Fords (or Aussie Fords if FMC can decide on a global RWD platform), because past importing of Fords have also left a bad taste in many mouths.

I agree that the two stages would be tied together initially and see no reason why this 'new' global business plan won't work . . . IF FMC can survive their plan before they run out of money. If they turn a small profit in '09 and forecasts look good for 10+, then I would think we would start seeing the manufacturing of the platforms shared in each marketplace.

Maybe there will be enough money to rebrand Mercury as well . . . . I can't stand the waterfall logo, and the old 'cat' logo would not make sense if FMC keeps Jaguar. . . . maybe an older pagan logo?

 

Looks like someone beat me to it. How bout this?



Now that's a Hondoyota killer, if ever I saw one.

 

http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums...showtopic=8894

 

I saw that little tid bit on BON earlier. And frankly, despite the way people who insist anything by by any Ford division but Ford NA must be magnificent, it occured to me some time ago, as well as some others from this site with whom I've discussed it, that bringing Euro models to the states badged as Mercury's would be a good way to differentiate the two U.S. brands.

But I am with Capri on this one. I have little doubt that simply rebadging a bunch of European, or Australian, Fords and calling them Mercury's would, and should IMO, be a short term solution to this problem and not a permenant one. Any true solution should be better thought out, and more integrated, than simply making Mercury products Euro offerings with Mercury badging. Put aimply, NA has as much to offer Europe and Australia if given the chance as they have to offer us.

As for Capri's hint that the god's head logo needs to make a return. I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, given Mercury's characteristic winged feet, the marketing mavens could call it the 'Happy Feet' logo and take advantage of a wonderful marketing opportunity.

Actually, given some of the past marketing shemes maybe I shouldn't be giving them any ideas.

 

Totally agree that the current Mondeo rebadged as a Merc would be badass. But as has been said the goal is to trend toward international commonality among the Ford brands. So if the next generation Fusion and Mondeo are (hopefully) going to be a common vehicle, what happens to Merc then? Go back to re-badging? Spend cash on a Merc-only vehicle? Hunt around the Ford worldwide catalogue for a new import?