I like it, but I prefer the 427 concepts styling. Although, were Ford to ever completely go off the reservation and move back toward rwd cars for the Ford brand the 427's styling would make for a great Fusion replacement while the Interceptor's styling makes a great argument for a Five Hundred/Crown Vic replacement.

Concept cars are all about vivid imaginations after all.

 

No, it was a 427 . . . .

 

There was something about the design of the Interceptor that kept nagging at me and I finally figured it out. It looks like it should be Robocop's car!

 

Considering they made the 427 just a few years ago, would they really waste all the time and money designing yet another V8 RWD Sedan so soon if they didn't have intentions of building it?

 

 

Concept cars are build with whatever hardware fits the bill and it lying around the house.

Don't put too much weight on the Interceptor's SRA, remember the 2005 Mustang concepts had IRS.

 

Oh no, Ford may have to reconsider if people start saying this car has "Transformer" or "Robocop" styling.

"Interceptor, transform and roll out!"

 

why is it such a task to make this car?

ford mustang (already done, duh) 150k
ford interceptor 130k
ford thunderbird coupe 70k
lincoln continental 60k
lincoln mkr (already shown) 50k
mercury marauder 100k

im guessing at those units but ****.. how hard can it be to make a business case for a platform that could potentially shift 560,000 cars??? put the towncar and another mercury on there even...

 

Car looks mean... like it a lot... hopefully they make this car

 

It's a neat looking car, but it definately looks like like it should be a futuristic licoln to me.

 

Sales to Fleets aren't necessarily evil, only if they go into rental fleets where they flood the used car market.

Just look at the sales of F-series trucks, many of them go into fleets, but it doesn't hurt the resale price of them too much.

 

Very nice, and I think very likely an indicator of a production full size, modern RWD car, if about 5 years too late. Guess the Ford's finally awakened to the stunning successes of the 300C/Magnum/Charger and realized that the AARP Edition Crown Vic just ain't even close to cool factor of DC's wares.

Of course, a lot will depend on how well the production version is executed and there are several worrisome points here that Ford, in there depleted financial straights, will try to do this 300C-fighter on the quick, cheap and easy, i.e. an SRA buggy axle vs the 300C's sophisticated IRS (though platform-mate MKR has advanced from the neolithic to the present in this regard), a true HEMI-beating motor (will new Boss motor be installed?).

While still VERY late to the game -- DC got a huge jump on both Ford and GM in bringing out the 21st century big American sedan -- its clear both have learned their lessons from DC's success and will both be bringing out their own respective large, modern RWD sedans.

Hopefully short-sighted Ford bean counters won't undermine it's execution with last-cnetury tech in order to trim a few bucks from the sticker but deep-six its overall value as it will be going up against freshened competition from DC and fresh competition from GM.

 

You should see the 410 HP V6 Lincoln then. I really like this car, and I have been saying/repeating the same thing, Ford need to focus on RWD V8 cars and this is the perfect step in that direction. Though to be more mass market friendly it will need the IRS. I really like this car and would gladly buy one as my daily driver, heck I would love to see a black one completely blacked out (windows,grill,tinted taillights) with chrome accents.

FORD MAKE THIS CAR i can not say this enough, this is how to win back American buyers.

 

I don't disagree, but there do exist some advantages to being late to the part since Chrysler made plenty of mistakes which Ford, and GM, can learn from as well.

First, Chrysler was too slow to take advantage of the 300's success by spreading the wealth, and when they did so these attempts were largely botched. The Magnum was ill-advised no matter how you look at it. Chrysler would have certainly done far better to have offered the wagon as a 300 as it is in every other market and not as a face-lifted Dodge which, in it's attempt to be 'tough', simply becomes ungainly. The fact that a 300 wagon could have taken the spot occupied by the disappointing Pacifica only makes this an even more obvious move.

The Charger wasn't the flop that the Magnum arguably was, but it was hardly a runaway success and likely served more to cannibalize sales from it's far more attractive, and by that time more expensive, Chrysler-badged cousin than it did to generate new sales. I understand the logic DCX tried to employ here, introduce a rebodied version of the 300 as a Dodge and you can move the successful 300 further upmarket while still retaining a Hemi-powered sedan for ~30k. But the reality of the situation wasn't so neat and clean with the 300C no longer appearing to be the deal it once had been with a 35k sticker applied and the Charger not proving as compelling a car as the 300 had.

No matter how you look at it sales of the Charger were disappointing, but given it's status as a butch rebody at a discount rate this is hardly surprising. Overall sales of the platform have increased since the intro of the Charger, but the percentage of fleet sales have likewise grown to alarming numbers in that time as well, indicating that the Charger didn't do much to help move cars overall and likely did some serious damage to it's Chrysler platform-mate in the process. Huge rebates on both models serve to demonstrate this.

Wiser moves that seem certain to have generated greater interest in the 300, like the introduction of 300 coupe and 300 convertible models, or the positioning of a Viper V-10 powered 300C SRT10 above the SRT8 model to increase the models prestige and performance image, either weren't made or are still waiting to be implemented. The lwb model we now have, while a great idea, is odd looking at best having grown ungainly for the stetching looking laregly like the simple cut and hack job it likely was......ruining one of the most compelling attributes of the 300 sedan and proving yet another mis-step by Chrysler.

And I would argue that the 300 has, at times, succeeded in spite of it's engine offerings rather than because of them. The Hemi V-8 is a sweet motor, but it has a fearsome reputation for guzzling gas well beyond what one would expect or EPA estimates indicate. The base V-6 is a wheezer wholly out of place in this car serving as a bargain-basement offering in a car where bargain basement anything seems a bit odd. The 3.5L V-6 is probably the best executed engine offering all around, although the Hemi is very nice if you can overlook suv-like mileage as mentioned above, but greater competiton from GM and Ford may make these engine offerings, and therefore the car, seem less attractive assuming they execute better than DCX has.

Will Ford learn from these mistakes? Maybe, maybe not. But the lessons are there to be learned which is, at least, a bright spot. In truth I am less concerned with Ford's ability to upstage the 300 than I am with Ford's willingness to even get into the fight.

 

That's the real issue, to be sure. Does Ford have the will and wherewithall to actually build this car with 90% of what we see here intact - along with the requisite quality? (I do understand that the interior will have to change.)

A watered down concept arriving 24 months from now will speak volumes about the real impact Alan Mulally is having behind the closed doors of mahogany row.

 

I just don't understand this remark from Edmunds. Both this and the Lincoln concepts are built on a vehicle architecture that is already in production. If anything, this should show that it is VERY possible to build it. I think the writer for this article is not grasping the total picture!

 

I strongly agree with your statement. I think the platform usage is key to "buildability".

I give this car a better than 60% chance of being built if they have the production capacity and can make it available within the next 18 months.

Good luck, Ford!

 

Autoweek has the same viewpoint as you (and I).

 

i'm not really up to date with the goings on at the Flat Rock plant (i'm sure SOMEbody on this site would be), but could they possibly have room for this car to be built there? I could be wrong, but i really doubt it. What kind of investment would be involved in tooling one of their other plants, or i suppose it'd be smarter to just somehow expand capacity at AAC, i don't really know. But either way, how much would it cost Ford to start producing this car, and how much money can they make off of it directly? Maybe it would benefit ford more than just in terms of direct profit, could it have a bit of a halo effect? Maybe draw more people into the dealerships who end up buying fusions and foci with similar schnozes?
Or maybe a new plant could get tooled to build both interceptors, MKR's and even the new car-based explorer, all off the same platform...
...Just trying to think about what they have to figure out to get this thing produced.

 

There's plenty of capacity out there, even with the cutbacks it wouldn't be hard to staff an Interceptor/MKR plant and give it a "home." Especially with the Freestyle line's sudden death. But there's plenty of cost and time which would have to be sunk to get the Interceptor and MKR into dealers, so someone has to convince Fields/Mullay/the bean counters to give their OK ASAP to get these beauties to market in time to help Ford and Linc.