My Uncle, Carl G. Smith recently earned his PhD. He has been a business Professor in Long Island University for many years and is now releasing a book that the Epinions Car&Motorsports Leads might like to read entitled:
Ford regaining the Competitive Edge http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/0595912958/Ford-Regaining-Their-Competitive-Edge-eBook.html
The book is an in-depth analysis of Ford Motor company including research from outside the United States which helps one to understand the reason why Ford has slipped to #3 in terms of auto sales right below Toyota.; why Ford has lost Billions of dollars over the past decade and why The Great Leap Forward was necessary.
Despite the fact, I was given a copy of the book for free (that s what family is for), and I enjoyed it, I do not need any such reference material to recognize why Ford has slipped.
All the evidence I need can be spotted simply by taking a look at their latest lineup of vehicles.
Ford is out of touch with today s discriminating swing consumers who are swayed by vehicles that offer larger than life styling or plenty of tech gimmicks that give them pride of ownership when they compare them to $40,000 cars.
That, I believe, is why the Scion TC, Honda Civic and many other vehicles succeed beyond success.
Yes, the Fusion is a well-known, popular car, but when it debuted in 2000, it only offered euro styling and euro driving characteristics. Now, cars in the $15,000 price range, need to
look, drive and accelerate more like cars in the $35,000 price range, less they become the butt of bad jokes, and altogether avoided in favor of more desirable options.
I do like the direction Ford headed with the
Edge http://www.epinions.com/content_299356556932 and I wanted to see how the Focus measured up.
THE FORD FOCUS SE for 2008 All Ford Focus sedans are classified as compact cars. The 2008 model is about 175 inches long, and 79 inches wide which is slightly larger than the first generation models.
The car has globally been a success due to its European-cue radical styling, its relatively low pricepoint and its alternate forms: the wagon and hatchback which offers more space for small families/ soccer moms and especially college students.
For now, the Ford Focus is being offered in 3 different Trims and has an alternate coupe model that in turn offers another 3 different trims. Those three different trims can easily be summed up as the S, the SE and the SES. At current, there are no Wagon or Hatchback models.
All these trims are based on a single engine - Ford s Duratec 2.0 Liter - which offers 140 HP (a 4HP increase from the last 2.0 Liter Ford offered while the 2.3 Liter has been discontinued for redesign). The car offers you around 25 MPG in the City and about 36 on the Highway. While these numbers will entice college Freshman and those who are being held hostage by $3.25 regular unleaded gas prices - they also serve as a reminder that this car s acceleration boarders on pitiful . Of course, at these prices, you accept that the vehicle is strictly for budget constrictions but the way I see it, this car is a bone thrown to car rentals across America.
The S trim features typical accommodations for your basic car: A/C, a steering wheel that tilts, a radio head unit ready to receive line-in from MP3 players and interior styling as bland as you might expect from a $15,000 Ford which should be being sold for $10,000. Cruise Control and anti-lock brakes are optional.
What? Why not standard? 15 inch steel wheels with boring hubcaps adorn the two cheapo, non-functional side gills.
If you step up to the
SE trim you then get features like a CD Changer, heated side mirrors, chrome trim on the outside, aluminum trim on the inside complete with a set of alloy wheels.
The top of the line SES trim is the only way this car should be purchased - if you can afford to make such decisions. You get all the trim of the SE but, you also can opt for chrome appearance wheels, moonroof (sunroof?) heated leather seats and power features in the driver s chair.
The SES also upgrades the handling characteristics of the car with front and rear stabilizer bars. There is no sport suspension option but this is as close as you could get to it if your focusing on a Focus.
FORD GETS IN SYNC The buyers of the SE and SES unlike the S may opt for Ford s new
Sync system which shared development by Microsoft. Sync allows you to operate cell phones and MP3 players using voice commands (quite similar to what I saw in the 2008 Accord and the new Dodge Avenger). This multi-lingual interface allows you to speak Spanish, Enlish, or French. Using simple commands like: Play or stop , forward ,etc becomes enough to browse and listen to music without risking accidents.
USB Jump Drives can be connected to the system. Buy a $50 4GB (or larger) jump drive and you've got 24 hours of music. and even music phones [with WMA] can be used with the system (such as iphones) as long as you get a special USB connector. Coupled with the centerstack controls you could theoretically use a 30 GB travel drive to keep your entire music library at your fingertips.
The system is very intelligent and gets its job done better than the sometimes confusing
COMAND system in my father's $100,000 S550. Unfortunately, it lacks programmable hot-keys for typically accessed MP3 player functions you'd be used to accessing - especially if you don't like speaking each command.
For example, if you just got a call from your friend as you are walking towards the car, you don t have to hang up to continue it. Just tap the push to talk button on your steering wheel and the conversation is re-routed to the Bluetooth adapter in-car and plays through the speakers.
MY FEELINGS As interesting and fun as the SYNC system is to use, I think FORD should have nixed the multi-CD changer altogether and instead went the rout many other car makers are going and offered a Hard Drive based music system that rips CD s to the HDD allowing you to escape multi-CD fever. Furthermore, why is there no Navigation system optional?
Because ford has designed the new centerstack in this vehicle in an overly restrictive manner, there are no quick-swap DINN ports for you to upgrade radio receivers or add a Navigation system reciever. Therefore, Ford could have taken the initiative to integrate an SD card (or Hard Drive ) based Navigation system. SD based navigation systems are steadily dropping in price and could be added to the car for less than $300 if you so desired.
How would I be able to browse a huge music library on a USB travel drive using the small, simple LED display atop the center stack?
FORD ! - wake up and smell the technology of the digital age ! You need no less than a 3.5 inch LCD screen to get the most out of a music library stored digitaly. That is why a
Navigation device would have gone perfectly with this car. First of all, it would give the Focus a technological edge which is sorely lacking in this automobile price range - not to mention,
a centerstack similar to the upscale 2008 CTS .
It would signify that Ford was keeping up with technological trends and willing to offer diverse age groups devices they'd normally see on higher priced luxury cars. More importantly, the small LED has difficulty showing you track,title,author, and other song information if the data is in advanced text formats.
BTW - as a Chrysler 300 owner, I know that a Navigation screen takes alot of attention away from plastic interior paneling.
The Interior design of the car is
typical Ford plastic everything covering a design that currently reigns in all Ford s models from the Expedition on down to the Fusion.
Love of the interior might be tied to your love of buttons. The front console and steering wheel have a lot of them, but, fortunately they aren t as numerous and pedantic as the 2008 Accord s. In fact, they are easy for the lay user to use because they are big and the interface is intuitive. I recommend switching the
Hazard button to the console and covering more of the lower paneling with thin carpet.
The brushed aluminum trim on the stick shift only causes psychological turmoil when you look around at the rest of the interior and realize that you are only getting a
taste of the materials in more expensive cars.
The Exterior of the Focus doesn t really use Ford s chrome-appearance chiseled bar face as well as the Fusion does and the whole thing boarders on looking like a reject from one of those Sci-Fi movies where all the cars run on some exotic renewable fuel.
why does the chrome grill have 2 bars rather than the usual 3 ? And whose idea was the funky exhaust ports on the side anyway? Both the Interior and Exterior are an improvement over the outgoing model, but only because they incorporate features such as painted bumpers, glorified lighting fixtures and bustle-back, deep truck design like German models which cost over 4 times as much as a top of the line SES.
The Focus is not a bad car per se, but, its placement as a budget compact puts it in a very uncomfortable position where the Honda Civic, Mazda 3, Dodge Caliber, several Hyundai's, a few Kia's, and the Scion TC reside. I d easily opt for a Mazda 3 or Scion TC over the Fusion if I were in this rung of purchasing.
I'll be watching to see if Ford Focus outsells Honda Civics in the upcoming fiscal year.
THE DRIVE of the new Focus is nothing spectacular. Decent enough yet unremarkable. Body lean is not very bad at highway speeds when taking curves or when cornering which will definately please past Focus owners used to punishing body roll. The SES suspension makes some road imperfections such as cracked pavement invisible while potholes still offer uncomfortable jarring.
The engine power is where the car suffers but, that is to be expected from a car at this level. I was disappointed with Ford s Duratec 3.5 in the Lincoln MKX, so it was only natural that this lesser engine would fail to please. Once again the car does get great fuel economy which may also be due in part to the 2008 being almost 100 pounds lighter than the outgoing model.
5-speed manual transmissions are standard, but, there is an optional 4-speed automatic
(get the automatic to get that aluminum trim!) Power seems to be unusually focused in the mid-engine cruising speeds which might be due to computerized RPM limiter at or around 3000 RPM. Mid speeds are where you'll find the Focus the most Torquey.
On the bright side, the European-owned driving characteristics which made the older Focus fun to drive is still present here. Handling is great and using SYNC while sitting in traffic offers a lot of psychological value.
What I liked about the car is that everything about the Focus feels new and of higher quality than the outgoing models. The Door handles are similar to arm gauntlets and the power window switches are designed with child safety in mind.
FORD has definitely made major changes in their quality and design which can be spotted immediately. So long as you are buying the SES model, you won t feel disappointed at all.
THE BOTTOM LINE is that no matter how abysmal the styling may be or how much I believe Ford would have benefited by offering more upscale features such as a Navigation device, a more powerful engine or slightly higher quality interior trim The 2008 Focus will probably succeed based on the reputation of its predecessor, the lower pricepoint it occupies and its fun driving properties.
I believe Ford s new vehicles are on the right track, but they aren t putting enough design experience (or Engine power) behind them to make them stellar. GM went to Drexel Meyer for example the people who designed Maybach and Benz interiors, and that support truly paid off - evident by the 2007 Escalade, virtually all of the new Chevy s, GMC s and SAABs.
Being from a strong Ford, Lincoln and Mercury user history, my family anxiously anticipates and enjoys Ford s vehicles as evident by my Uncle s infatuation with Ford s business strategy ( he loves and owns Jaguars and Lincolns) but, I argued with him that you can t simply sell a car on the fact that it includes a Bluetooth music player that you can talk to .
Many other companies have been there and done that.
Its time Ford raises the bar and gives the consumer what they want at prices they can afford.
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