Ford to Launch something new - "corvette killer"

[ihasnostang]

gtd is 3/3 getting slammed by zr1 on press tour. never expected it to be faster though as it doesn't take rocket appliances to compare stats.

Sponsored

 

[Schwerin]

Yep. A new Mustang spec'd like my '15 is over $60K as you say. No thanks.

On the bold, not to mention everything they build keeps getting bigger. Bought the wife a new Escape ST-Line earlier this year, and word on the street says the Escape is dead. Wife doesn't want (or need) anything bigger, and the daily driver garage is packed enough with the Escape and my F150 crammed into it.

Just recently we had the discussion that maybe we should have bought a GTI instead since it's the right size, just no AWD. Argh.

Anyway, back to unattainable dream cars.....

Dealers are pissed the Escape is gone as some dealers are saying the Escape is like 20% of their sales 2nd only to the F-150. People want smaller cheaper vehicles. Even Farley said that. Yet he's not producing ANY, while killing the only one he has.

 

[2015 Silver GT]

The first girl I asked out in high school drove an emerald green ford escort! She turned me down of course!!

My wife when I met her in 1989 was driving an Escort GT.

 

[Strokerswild]

Dealers are pissed the Escape is gone as some dealers are saying the Escape is like 20% of their sales 2nd only to the F-150. People want smaller cheaper vehicles. Even Farley said that. Yet he's not producing ANY, while killing the only one he has.

And dealers have every right to be pissed. Farley has proven consistently that he's an idiot (recalls, what?), and Ford is a prime example of an automaker missing the boat on smaller, affordable vehicles.

The chickens will be home to roost soon enough.

 

[SnowFox]

Dealers are pissed the Escape is gone as some dealers are saying the Escape is like 20% of their sales 2nd only to the F-150. People want smaller cheaper vehicles. Even Farley said that. Yet he's not producing ANY, while killing the only one he has.

The American market is huge on SUVs and Trucks currently. SUVs alone are accounting for somewhere between 60-70% of new sales( the numbers vary by year and some data sets are estimates for current year) combine that with pickup trucks and the market place doesn't leave much room for other segments.

Smaller and Cheaper, while being quality and feature rich, is more difficult for American Automakers to be competitive and profitable in VS Japanese and Korean counterparts.

The Escape is/was profitable though. However a simple profit to a company isn't always enough to keep the lights on. Ford wants to move to larger profit margin lineup. And the Escape sounded like it wasn't gonna hit the mark.

But to be honest, the entire Automobile industry is so unpredictable atm with a future that is also wildly unclear that Its hard to pretend I understand their strategy or any other companies strategy. I'm not sure even they know where things are gonna go over the next 10 years. Everyone's crystal ball is little a broken.

 

[SnowFox]

I'm calling it now. The vehicle will be the new Thunderbird. my prediction is based solely on the fact I like the word "Thunderbird"

 

[MyStang]

How about Ford wake up and smell the coffee, and bring back the Hot Hatch's and Performance Sedan and stop wasting good money on worthless Mustang Variants...

Yes Ford can compete. Ford put 10-20,000 on every hood of a lighting /Mach E they have sold. They could make little to no profit on Hot hatches and Sedans and have a great solid base of customers to grow into the more expensive SUV and trucks!

 

[Schwerin]

The American market is huge on SUVs and Trucks currently. SUVs alone are accounting for somewhere between 60-70% of new sales( the numbers vary by year and some data sets are estimates for current year) combine that with pickup trucks and the market place doesn't leave much room for other segments.

Because that's all there is to buy. US made all you have is Cadillac and Charger.
Ther is no more 20K vehicles left in the US. Fords cheapest entry is an SUV they are killing.

If you want AWD in a car? You have to buy a top end trim, luxury or Subaru... or this small SUV we have over here....

Want an interesting color? Brands only offer them on the SUV's and Dealers only stock the SUV's in anything that's not gray scale.

This isn't what the "market wants" it's what companies want because it's cheaper for them to produce and put out.

its like how manuals died off. It's just easier for dealers to fill lots of automatics because they know 90% of people will just "settle" for an automatic even if they really don't want one because they don't have to time or money to order a car and wait around.

I used to work for GM's advertising agency, I'm well aware it's ALL market manipulation. They don't really care what the market wants they care about how to PUSH the market into what they want.

 

[5.0hio]

How about Ford wake up and smell the coffee, and bring back the Hot Hatch's and Performance Sedan and stop wasting good money on worthless Mustang Variants...

Agree with this for sure. Bring back the Focus ST to compete in the hot hatch segment, and the Fusion (ST) to be a poor man's M-series.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think customers would respond to Ford moving the Ford GT to a level where it competes with the Corvette in both price and performance. The design, nameplate and heritage is already there. I too tire of the endless Mustang variants.

 

[Strokerswild]

I used to work for GM's advertising agency, I'm well aware it's ALL market manipulation. They don't really care what the market wants they care about how to PUSH the market into what they want.

Yep.

As I said, I didn't want to buy the wife anything bigger than the Escape I settled on. I researched the top small SUVs with AWD (since cars don't exist), and the Escape ranked down the lists. As far as the top of the list: Honda CRV? Too big. Late model Tiguan? Too big. Mazda CX-5? Have to travel 2 hours for warranty service. Bronco Sport? Wife liked the Escape better. The rest? Either too big or too ugly or both.

Since we had great luck with the two earlier Tiguans, I really thought about another VW but the only thing comparable to their size was the Taos, which I didn't care for. Damn the wife's hide for not bringing up the GTI earlier, as she longer works so FWD could have sufficed....

The Escape ST is better than our previous Tiguans all around. Handles pretty damn well too, although a set of Conti DWS06 would make it perfect. Plenty of snort with the 2.0T. But let's kill it off because the competition is better and we think all people want big and expensive.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Ford already has a Corvette killer. It's called a Ford GT.
Sadly, it's priced out of the reach of mere mortals.

 

[Tripp051420]

Agree with this for sure. Bring back the Focus ST to compete in the hot hatch segment, and the Fusion (ST) to be a poor man's M-series.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think customers would respond to Ford moving the Ford GT to a level where it competes with the Corvette in both price and performance. The design, nameplate and heritage is already there. I too tire of the endless Mustang variants.

What’s a gt500 badge kit?!?

 

[falcongtho3]

The Escape (and Corsair) are dead. The Bronco Sport lives on, same basic vehicle, just with a higher sticker and probably profit margin. I've spent a lot of time looking at parts prices for the GTD, and Ford is probably making a small profit, if any, on its current halo car. I seriously suspect that GM is taking a financial hit on its halo car, ZR1 and ZR1X. THE GTDs build is mostly done off site by a race shop and that very much accounts for much of the price , while GM is pretty much doing the Vette on its assembly line but with much more high end components.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Dealers are pissed the Escape is gone as some dealers are saying the Escape is like 20% of their sales 2nd only to the F-150. People want smaller cheaper vehicles. Even Farley said that. Yet he's not producing ANY, while killing the only one he has.

They can’t produce anything cheap because everything is an SUV or truck…. I mean seriously speaking, how many different pickup trucks and sizes of such does one Manufacturer REALLY need? It was dumb to get rid of all cars except for the Mustang…. The Asian/Euros are kicking Ford in the rear because nearly all of them still produce cars along with their SUV lines.

People want selection and they’ll go and buy where that selection is…. If all your dealership has is SUV’s/Trucks and practically no car line, sales are eventually going to tank.

 

[subframe]

Looks like Ford has missed the boat on a lot of things! look at all the Ford teams that are leaving NASCAR!

Sponsored