To: mn12
Personally, I'm getting kind of bored with Ford's "Mustang of the Week" gimmicks. Good point! It's getting kinda hard to tell 'em all apart much less which one is the latest "hottest" version.
Before I suggested having numbers on the minor guages, and after looking at the "Stang page I have another, more radical comment.
Wouldn't be funtional at all but would generate a TON of PR. How about Ford fit the "new" Mustang with gullwing doors? Similar to the old Mercedes 300sl AND of course highly identifiable with the GT40. In fact in the pictures of the new Mustang it looks to me like te roof line and rear deck have been altered just a tiny bit to make it appear more related to the GT40.
Maybe just my imagination.
prisoner6
To: prisoner6
Wouldn't be funtional at all but would generate a TON of PR. How about Ford fit the "new" Mustang with gullwing doors? Similar to the old Mercedes 300sl AND of course highly identifiable with the GT40. In fact in the pictures of the new Mustang it looks to me like te roof line and rear deck have been altered just a tiny bit to make it appear more related to the GT40.
That would be a gimmick. The Mercedes engineers had to do it that way. I forgot why, but the gullwings were a fairly straightforward solution to an engineering problem. The Bricklin and Delorian DMC-12 had gullwings and they didn't set the world on fire.
My advice to Ford - stick to the basics. They know how to do this stuff. It gets mighty disappointing when you research a car (I was thinking of a Eagle Vision a/k/a Dodge Stealth, Chrysler Concord, for the wife), find it to be beautiful car with cab-forward design with lots of room. Did I mention it looks great?! Oh wait, trannies go bad at 100K if you're lucky. Somewhat like the reliability of the GenII Taurus electronically controled transmission. I have a big problem with a company that probably had a hand in inventing the transmission, having made them for almost 100 years, not being able to put a bulletproof unit in a $25K+ car!! They aren't as reliable as the 727 Torqueflight in my long gone I-6 AMC Spirit. That's real lame. So it's not a question that the Japanese of Germans are "better". I can't be convinced that the engineers at GM/Ford/Chrysler don't know how to do it. Somewhere, somehow, in management, some chump decides to chisel away at designs so the subassembly can come in $2 cheaper. I have three Toyotas now and I almost never see that in their designs.
I've been renting Tauruses like the rest of the world for years and noticed with the Gen III Taurus, they had a pretty good car. The last few Gen IIIs I rented back when they were new had (again) poor build quality. Wind noise at 65, etc.
Bill Ford needs to change some attitudes or something. There is a huge segment of the buying public that has been burned too many times by the Big Three and won't come back until they prove they can do it right. With options like Lexus, Acura, Audi, Infinity and BMW wooing mid market Toyota/Honda/Nissan buyers, how can he convince us to visit a Ford showroom?
They better come up with a better solution than they usually do (good looking cars).
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