I own and drive an American sedan. It will be my last unless they really improve them.

As for towing 12000 lbs, I have no need. If I did I would buy a truck only for that purpose, not for every day transportation, and it would be a $16k or less work truck. I have no problem with people buying trucks that need them or can afford to pump their tanks full every day. That’s the beauty of America.

Now, what do the big three have to offer in the small car segment that is competitive?

I can name a Cobalt and its sister the G5, there’s the Aveo (Korean), and then we have the Focus. Dodge has the Caliber, but it really doesn’t fit well in this class.

Now lets look at what the imports offer:

Fit and Civic – both better fuel mileage wise and quality wise than any of the listed competitors from the big 3. Toyota has the Yaris and Corolla not to mention the Scion Xd. Nissan has the Sentra and Versa. Hyundai has the Accent and Elantra. Kia has the Rio and Spectra.

I left out hybrids entirely from the imports as none of the big 3 currently have an offering worth while in the car market.

I’m struggling to see where you’re getting your fuel economy figures from that says the big 3 has better fuel economy than the imports…if that were the case why are they failing in that market?

There is no detail in the referenced article to define what “long travel suspension” really means. Outside of desert racing, IFS is a dirty acronym for rock crawlers and mud boggers. And, simply lifting the suspension does not make it “long travel”, as you generally sacrifice something (generally droop).

Now, if Ford wants to give us a truly long travel IFS, I am all for it. The desert racers have true long travel IFS systems in 4×4 configurations. Of course, having a special frame made to support that suspension seems a requirement…

But, I doubt it will happen – to do it right, you need different connectors for the half shafts, plus a different differential, to maximize the length of the half shafts to maximize travel potential. Of course, going back to gear driven transfer cases would be a great idea, as well. Not to mention a special chassis with higher/narrower frame rails. How likely is that to happen?

Also, a turbo? Great, I wonder what happens when you get some water in the turbo? I can’t imagine that will make the turbo happy. How about force feeding your engine dust, sand and other assorted grit? Seems like a winning idea to me.

Bruce

By the way, the only reason that Ford trucks “outsell” Chevys is because they aren’t splitting sales between Chevy trucks and GMC trucks. If you look at GMC and Chevy trucks’ combined sales numbers, they were nearly 40% of the market last year despite declining sales.

I did think about what I said, thats why I said it. Us working class people that have to have trucks are gonna buy regardless of gas being 5 dollars or 2 dollars. If you really understand what your saying look at Chevrolet’s lineup of small cars. 7 vehicles with 30mpg or better, how’s honda or toyota doing? Look at toyotas big suvs and trucks, the American suvs and trucks get metter gas mileage and are much more functional as a truck. Enjoy your honda fit, then lets see it pull a 12,000 pound trailer. American motor companys have more competitive small cars than imports do, you import lovers just don’t want to recognize it and like to manipulate the real truth. It’s a given we dominate the truck market but you can’t accept that we are moving into the small car market and doing well, it’s just our managment is god-awful.

Think about what you just said, where truck sales are heading and where gas prices are heading.

If you’d like to see the big 3 die even faster then they should do exactly as you say; meanwhile Honda, Toyota, and others are profiting in the small car segment because of the rise in price of gasoline and the big 3 not having anything competitive in those segments.

And the F-series sales being the best selling happens to only apply to the US and only as a single model…did I mention Toyota surpassed Ford in sales in the US a while ago?

However, I suspect it was a timed leak to keep interest in the F-150 moving. Sort of like Mulally’s “oops, I said to much” spiel with the new Taurus.

Ford’s B-car program is running full-steam ahead with a Verve-like vehicle due next year and plans for additional B-based vehicles. Fords C-car program will produce the C2 Focus in the U.S. in early 2010 and followed with a new Escape later that year. The amount of money invested in the “Raptor” is probably very small compared to a new car development program.

As an automotive enthusiast, why should I discourage a company from making a high performance vehicle, purpose built for a tiny segment of the market? Generally, those are the type of vehicles that interest me…