Blurred Focus How Ford mishandled its serviceable little car ($4-5 Thousand loss each car)

Business Week ^ | 06/19/2006

[Responsibility2nd]

In May, an otherwise dismal month for Detroit, Ford Motor Co. (F ) sold more than 20,000 Focus subcompacts, the fuel sipper's best showing in nine months. That's great news, right? Not really. Ford lost an estimated $4,000 to $5,000 on each Focus it sold.

What irony. Just when the subcompact market is heating up, Ford can't make money on a car acclaimed for its taut handling and decent 26/32-mpg fuel economy. The auto maker's Focus problem (pun intended) is an object lesson in how Ford continues to be hamstrung by high labor costs and tired product design. By choosing not to remake the Focus for the U.S. when it had the chance, Ford misread the road ahead. Now the auto maker is working overtime to bolster the Focus, albeit not until 2008, with a face-lift plus three new small cars.

When it hit the U.S. in 2000, the Focus was widely applauded. Car & Driver magazine named Ford's zippy subcompact to its influential "Ten Best" list four years running. But by 2003 the Focus had suffered more than 12 recalls. And when Ford redesigned it in 2004, the new Focus appeared only in Europe, where Dearborn felt it could fetch a decent price. Meanwhile, the U.S. version received just cosmetic upgrades.

[steve86]

I was not going to attempt any major repairs like replacing the rubber in the windshield wiper.

I think you were pulling people's legs about this "major repair" stuff. My five year old could do it if she could reach and I'm sure so could you.

[CGTRWK]

Ford once marketed an F-150 full-size pickup that was EPA rated at 29 miles per gallon highway

In 1984 the EPA scoring procedure was revised to reduce highway mileage numbers by 22% across the board. A 1984 model that had been rated at 29 mpg would be rated at 22 or 23 mpg in 1985.

[satchmodog9]

Five years? We need new wipers at least once a year.

[SamAdams76]

You are correct that 26/32-mpg is not that great. I have an Altima with a 250-hp V6 engine that gets about that and that's even with all the heated seats and other electronic doodads that come with it. If I'm going to drive a subcompact as ugly at the Focus, it better at least give me 40 miles a gallon on the highway and 30+ in the city.

[dalereed]

"We need new wipers at least once a year."

I don't know if they exist but if they were made out of urathane they would outlast the car, same with tires.

[OKIEDOC]

Nothing like owning a big Oldsmobile with one of those smoking great diesel engines.

I took GM to arbitration and ended up with a new 84 Cadillac which turned out to be one of the better cars I have ever owned.

The worst other than the Olds was a Porsche that was always in the garage for a tune up.

[-YYZ-]

Heck, I replace the wiper inserts on my Accord a couple times a year. Running them iced up in the winter usually ruins one pair, and the summer heat, sunlight and smog take their toll on another. I'm a fanatic about having a clean windshield to look through, though. Actually I'm surprised that everyone isn't - being able to see clearly where you're going seems like a good thing.