Posted on 04/25/2018 6:52:04 PM PDT by central_va
Ford today announced it will phase out most cars it sells in North America. According to its latest financial release, the auto giant will "will transition to two vehicles" being the Mustang and an unannounced vehicle, the Focus Active, as the only traditional cars it sells in the region. Ford sees 90 percent of its North America portfolio in trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. Citing a reduction in consumer demand and product profitability, Ford is in turn not investing into the next generation sedans. The Taurus is no more.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I don't think that Ford is getting out of the sedan business entirely, just in the United States. The Fusion will still be sold as the Mondeo in Europe.
-PJ
The only problem with a Crown Vic is that people tend to slow down when you are behind them!
I think back in the day the rules were quite lax on surplus police cars unlike today.Today they mandate a repaint of the whole car if it is two tone like GSP.Too many people were buying ex two tone GSP crusiers and leaving them in that paint scheme.I called those cars MOSES because running up the interstate other cars would get over in the right lane like MOSES parting the red sea.
The word “car” in this story only means sedans and coupes. It does not include SUVs. Sad to see the Taurus go. It was such a huge success when it came out int he 1980s.
The average cost of labor is 8% for union and 6% for non union. So for the average car that costs $30K labor is $2,400 for union made and $1,800 for non union made.
They are just getting ready for the Ford Transparent and the Ford Vanish.
I think this is one of those situations where the buyer knows a LOT more than the car salesman, lol!
An older friend of mine bought a mint Roadmaster a while back and loves it. It is huge.
Ford is coming out with a new ranger truck to compete with the Tacoma. Production starts late this year.
Seems like a very practical vehicle, but not nearly as stylish as a Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna
https://www.caranddriver.com/ford/transit-connect
Well, it does have one expensive issue and that is the heater control that loves to go out. It is behind the dash requiring dash removal, yes the whole thing. About a 900 buck fix, but it beats no heat. I still love the cars. Even though two wheel drive, I have been over Togwotee pass Wyoming multiple times in winter with no issues.
Togwotee pronounced togatea.
Buick Regal TourX is 196” long, 250hp for a peppy 6.5sec 0-60 time. It’s actually a German built Opel though.
I learned to drive a stick on an F150 this way:
Working a summer construction job in Kokomo during the summer of 1980 building a Kroger/KMart strip mall. One cold damp early May morning I was shoveling mud out of a footing trench when the foreman came up and said “We need a job site gopher, someone who can go pick up materials and make some deliveries. Do you know how to drive a stick?” The only word out of my mouth was “yes.”
Now technically it wasn’t a lie; my brother had a burnt orange Pinto wagon with a five speed, and I saw how he did it. Had he asked “have you ever driven a stick before?” I would have had to give a different answer.
But as he was going on about picking up some lumber and mortar from Kokomo Lumber, I was looking over his shoulder at that F150 and thinking “All I have to do is get that thing off the lot and over there behind the Hardees, where I can practice without him seeing me. If I can make it to Kokomo Lumber and back, I’m set for the summer.”
And that’s exactly what happened. I would do the hard labor in the morning when it was cool, and then contrive some reason to “go pick up something.” Which meant driving around Kokomo listening to Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau broadcast Cub games on WGN.
Is it? I heard Ford loses money on every sedan they sell.
By and large, people want crossovers (butch, high-riding station wagons), SUVs and trucks.
So, it's no wonder self-driving cars are the future. Few people enjoy driving anymore. They'd rather be texting and watching two-minute YouTube videos.
But, me, I'm a dinosaur. I intend to keep on driving manual-transmission sedans to my grave.
Interesting, guess they don’t lose money on their cars sold in Europe.
Great idea to have adjustable pedals, although like I said, it sure makes it difficult to find a pickup with a “reasonable” price with all of the fancy stuff now. And I’m even more concerned with the “safety” stuff. Just like seat belts and front airbags became mandatory, I imagine driver assist features will too. I think we are quite a ways off (I hope!) from mandatory driverless cars.
It’s almost 4 bucks a gallon here in commifornia.
Interesting decision
I had one of the cam phaser engines.
Ford knew about, and did nothing. I won’t make that mistake again.
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