NAIAS Preview: Ford Serves Up Some Global Fusion

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Ever since the ill-fated Contour experiment, Ford has maintained a strict separation in its global midsized offerings: Fusion for the Americas and Mondeo for Europe (let’s ignore, for the moment, Australia’s Falcon as the doomed atavism it is). But under the global “One Ford” strategy, a fusion (ahem) of The Blue Oval’s midsized offerings was inevitable, and Ford has signaled for some time that the Fusion and Mondeo are on the verge of becoming one. And here, courtesy of the autoforum.cz, is the first leaked image of Ford’s unified, world-wide midsized contender: though the Fusion and Mondeo names will continue to be used in their respective markets, this car will carry both badges. But are we looking at a revolution in the oft-troubled “world car” game, or a repeat of the Contour’s compromises? Only time will tell…


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

More by Edward Niedermeyer

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 43 comments
  • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Jan 08, 2012

    My interpretation is Ford replaced Mercury brand with namesake brand. Now Ford seems to be stylish with premium interior and respectively premium price like VW was some time ago (and still is in Europe). So Ford is a new Mercury. Where it leaves Lincoln I do not know.I guess it is a right move because Ford before was intentionally cheapening Fords with bland styling to create room for Mercury. Lincoln must move up to compete with big guys though - it cannot replace Mercury since this place is already taken by Ford.

  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on Jan 08, 2012

    "a repeat of the Contour’s compromises?" The Contour and the Mondeo were supposed to be built on the same platform, but they were different cars. Detroit designed the Contour to its own predilections in order to solve a problem that it could not solve. The Mondeo was the lead midsized sedan for Ford Europe. That role was being played by the Taurus in the US. Detroit tried to slot the Contour in to replace the Tempo as a compact. It was a disaster, not because the car was bad, but because the car was too expensive to build and sell for what the Tempo had sold for. The solution was to replace the Contour with the Focus. Now that the Taurus has moved up to the top of the line, the Fusion has a slot between the Focus and the Taurus where it can be profitably sold.

  • Oosh Oosh on Jan 08, 2012

    It may be a 'doomed atavism' but the Falcon is a full-sized car. When Ford fully assert the use of their global DNA down-under it will likely be replaced by the Taurus (or less likely a locally built derivative) and not the Mondeo which already sells alongside it here.

  • Tstag Tstag on Jan 09, 2012

    I thought Aston was making money. And JLR announced a profit of over 1 billion pounds last year. So where would they be wasting money? Right now this car looks like a Chinese knockoff of an Aston Martin...

Next