Would you say the same about this equally small car (Porsche Boxer)?
Posted on 06/09/2006 12:05:53 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
I had it happen on a Celebrity station wagon.
One day at the car wash I noticed what looked like Saran Wrap peeling off the car. It came off like dead skin after a sunburn. Turned out it was "Clear Coat" and it was happening with a lot of G.M. cars.
At the local Chevy dealership they gave me a little "participation" from G.M. so my paint job only cost $700.00.
The $700.00 paint job included them getting some of the spray on my windshield, and they screwed up reattaching the luggage rack causing the places where it was attached to the roof to began rusting out.
Following the "tune up" which was done during that same time that they had it for painting, my son and I discovered that they had reversed two of the spark plug wires. It's amazing that the engine would even run that way, but it did run with a noticeable lack of "pep".
I love my Toyota.
"Ford insiders say the new trio will be built in Mexico, where labor costs are lower..."
Can we expect to see a mass exodus of illegal aliens back over the border into Mexico????
Your wife's Lexus sells for five times what the Focus does.
And for such a small car... that is crappy mileage.
Sorry, BM, but I must correct an obvious (and crucial) error.
We the car purchasers get to pay them for watching television; if we're stupid enough to buy from the American big three and their hood UAW partners...
The Honda and Toyota plants son't suffer under the UAW yoke.
I dunno, it sounds like an "out of the frying pan into the fire" strategy to me. :)
Probably not.
They probably don't burn bushels of $100 bills in the back lot every day either.
If you have no problem with paying an extra $5-10k to buy a union-made American car, please feel free to do so. Just don't arrange it for the rest of us to be forced to do the same.
"Your wife's Lexus sells for five times what the Focus does."
What does the cost of the car have to do with anything, mpg/# the Focus mpg stinks.
The new Chrysler 300 gets that good of mileage and it's got 450HP!
Would you say the same about this equally small car (Porsche Boxer)?
If you were willing to pay fives times the cost of a Focus, then I'm sure Ford could provide an engine inthe same body at that much higher price that would be able to get 50mph on the highway.
>>Just asking...
No, you're making an accusation with no back-up data to support it. In a passive-agressive manner.
Just saying . . .
The Chrysler 300 sells for four times the price of the Focus. It's easy to increase the mileage with highly specialized, highly tuned, expensive engines. Not so easy with inexpensive engines unless you are willing to sacrifice emissions, weight, power, or build quality.
I wouldn't have a POS Focus or any other small thing they try to call a car at any price, even if it was free.
Personally, I drive a 1965 Chevy PU with over a million miles on it and I wouldn't trade it straight across for a brand new one.
That is 26 city, 32 hwy. Not great but decent.
xB is the boxy one, right?
LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL...
Go to the Ford Europe website. You can configure a Focus with a 2.0 Turbo Diesel or a 2.0 Turbo 200 hp (like the VW Jetta). Can't buy them here though. Ford won't let us even though they're made in Mexico and can be put on a truck heading North as easily as a ship heading for Euroland.
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