But I’m sure glad we have them…

The whole idea of what we “need” is ridiculous. This guy thinks he is smarter, wiser, better, and overall more important than the rest of us. How uncivilized can you get than to go around griping about what others don’t need? Does he really even need a Ford? Would a bike not suffice? Or, should he not take the bus?

The truth is that he has a need to feel smarter than the rest of us, and he will do all sorts of stupid things to reinforce that belief. I for one don’t NEED to live in his fantasy world.

Well…ugghhhh…I am torn here here….Bloom is using creative license to politically tag people. But here goes from the literal intepretation. Given Ford’s recent reliability success (including my Mustang and Lincoln MKX)….and BMW’s reliability issues (Inluding my prior rides—a POS X5 and 3 series that stranded me cold)…I’d say Ford of North America—-is building cars that work as well or better than BMW. If you qualified your arguement around performance and overall refinement—-you would have a point.

That said ….I can assure you…politically…I am still a Bimmer (at least according to how Bloom defines it)….guess that would make me a FINO (Ford in name only).

Point taken. Maybe that’s why the Bimmer 3 sells more.

Anyway, I was just repeating what I’ve read. I’ve driven neither car. But even our “beloved” Jeremy Clarkson has sad as much, the Mondeo is better on a day-to-day basis. Sure, to go running at the track, and maybe even in the twisties (though the many reviewers I’ve read beg to differ) the 3 has the Mondeo beat, but for the daily grind, and even the occasional pedal-to-the-metal, most reviewers have said the Mondeo is up to the task or even slightly better.

Just sayin’!

i don’t *need* super steering feel (and probably wouldn’t get it from a new 3 anyway), but the weight transfer during even mild acceleration makes FWD a deal-breaker.

It’s true. It seems to me that Ford has been the sales leader in the UK for a long time. It just seems to me that the British are afraid to be pinned “Mondeo Man” and that the Mondeo in particular has not been able to break into the top10 in sales. But the Focus, and for ages previous to that, the Escort has been number 1 in the UK. In fact, they do have that market cracked. So much so that they are able to charge a premium on the Fiesta (it’s more expensive than competitors’ Clios, 207s, Puntos, Corsas etc.)

On a side note, they should be smarter in other markets, example: Brazil. They fantasize for some reason that a Fiesta is a “premium” compact. Hahaha! The cars to beat here are VW’s Gol and Fiat’s Palio, which sell to the tune of more than 200K a year. The Fiesta is #7 in the ranking and will sell much less than half that total. It isn’t that bad comparing to those two, but here Ford doesn’t have any cachet anymore and compete on price. Brazil’s market, which has been growing at Chinese rates (this year more than 28%, more than 2million cars, making it what? the 6th or 7th largest in the world?), is owned by Fiat at 28%, VW (the historic leader, overcome, thank God the last 6yrs) at 24%, Chrevolet at 21%, Ford hovers between 8 and 10%, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Honda and Toyota all have between 2 and 3%.

Sorry for the long rant!

FromBrazil:

Point taken, but I was speaking here of FoMoCo of NA.

That said…

Sales figures indicate that Ford of Great Britain (where the Mondeo also lives) has "cracked it." This in a country where snobbery is a contact sport.

Beat those and the jobs will take care of themselves.