is it me, or wouldn’t mustang really be great at half its size.
and stop fooling with the pretend rear seat crap.
make it the two seater it wants to be. if it were only the size of a solstice or s40 with the look of today’s stang.

it might be me, but i feel it didn’t age along with me.
and today a car needs to focus on being specific…and the mustang wants to be big, but small…new, but old…sporty but roadster…musle car but sports car and macho yet hip.

come on ford…make it no larger than the focus or better, the size of the solstice.

Correct, Visteon makes injectors, wiper motors, alternators, etc. I used to visit the Rawsonville plant when I lived in Detroit. They had some equipment from the company that I worked for.

and the mks, although often bad-mouthed on this sight, is really a bargain. help me again by giving another vehicle that offers what the mks does and in its price. purchased one in november fully loaded for 41k.
nothing came as close with the options.

the new turbos coming, along with the new euro sizes will be helpful…but americans really still love the mid-size car above all others.

the new mkz looked awesome at the chicago show…like a mini-mks. had everything at thousands less.

purchased ford stock this week…
couldn’t help it! it was sooo low. it was like buying penny candy again.

In fact, I would have probably bought the Kuga instead of Mrs. Monty’s Focus. Really, I would even buy it now. Hot, hot, hot.

Were it not for the economic meltdown in the last year, Ford, unlike GM and Chrysler, would have been looking at profits for 2009. They’re soooooo very tantalisingly close to becoming the American version of Toyota. Which is ironic, because Toyota is the Japanese version of what used to be Ford.

My point is, I read last night that the new SHO is going to start @ around 37k. If I’m in the market for a 40k mid-size sport sedan do you think I’m buying a Ford or another Infiniti?

Yeah but, you don’t want to forget that the most unprofitable parts of Visteon were spun off into a whole new company, ACH-LLC, which is funded by Ford. It included something on the order of 13 plants. I know that a few have been sold or shut down but have not heard any news on the others…

That’s not quite true. Until last year Ford owned the controlling interest of Mazda until they sold off shares to drop them down to 13%. Ford appointed their own management to run the company, including Mark Fields as CEO. You can believe what you want, but from 1997 through most of 2008, Mazda was part of Ford.

Also, <3 Mazda, especially now that Honda’s gone green/scared/bloated/strange (referring to Acura w/ that last one). Fun, lightweight, quirky cars. I hated them for not giving us the rest-of-the-world Mazda6 with the hatchback and wagon but if they can make more money off the US-only Mazda6, hopefully that’ll bankroll their development of other funky stuff.

Oh, and I want the hardtop MX5. With a Cosworth supercharger.

Your post is the crux of the issue. Ford needs GM/Chrysler to go away to have a chance. Actually true for the rest of the industry really.

Also, Ford’s international reputation (certainly in Europe) is quite good.

It’s the domestic blow-back they have to work on, and it would seem they’ve made most of the right moves, but at a hellva’ risk I guess.

BTW: Ford owns Volvo 100%, but only 13% of Mazda. they cooperate and develop together, but in no way is a Mazda a Ford. I own 2 Mazdas and love them and would by a Mazda again, but it will take 20 years of very good Fords on the street before I even would consider them.
I really hope Mazda is not too small to survive. They really would be missed. Having an almost Acura car at a Honda price, having very European cars without the German repair trouble, having hatchbacks,… all what I want (and can afford) is represented by Mazda.

Then again, every US car company has the same recovery plan every time. Spend a ton of money on making a model competitive, then fail to update it for at least 7 years, then bitch about how they can’t compete.

The refreshed Fusion should help Ford, and the new Taurus/SHO and the Fusion Hybrid in particular will be huge image boosters. But they won’t save the company, and the real game changers, the Fiesta and the next-gen European-developed Focus, are still a year away. By then it could very well be too late.

Will it be enough to offset the downturn everyone is facing in the economy? Maybe, maybe not. However, if no one is making any money in the economy, I don’t see any shame in taking some bailout money. It’s one thing to do it while some automakers are still profitable, but quite another when nobody is making anything and you just need a little help to make it till the upturn.

If/when GM and Chrysler go completely bust, Ford could pick up what Robert calls the “dead cat bounce” and increase market share. Alternatively, their brand image, associated with GM and Chrysler by virtue of being American, could be obliterated. On the other hand, GM and Chrysler might limp along on life support and Ford will find itself at the Congressional trough asking for money.

The only thing I can say confidently is that trying to predict Ford’s future at this point is like trying to hit a moving bullet with another bullet.