Ford To Abandon Most of Their Car Line

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I will say

Comparing Ford products to Honda and Toyota, I really like the Ford interiors much better. Upholstery materials are more varied while Honda and Toyota are plain. Dashboard design is another area where I think Ford is outstanding. I like the arrangement and appearance of air outlets. I do not like the dashboard on the Camary, but I think it is a good car. Toyota currently has a terrible motif for the front of their cars, the grill is way too big and close to the ground. The bottom detail of those grilles looks like will break off.
 
I just don't understand why Ford never released the Ka here.

I had all the generations and that tiny car is simply perfect!

 

I'm only guessing, but my guess is that "tiny car" is the reason. It's probably viewed as not profitable enough here, or something buyers don't want.

 

I remember hearing a claim that Henry Ford II felt that small cars mean small profits. That, of course, would have been many years ago...but that attitude may still be relevant.

 

 
 
Camrys are nice reliable cars, but they've always been too boring for me.

 

I've never owned a Toyota, but I have to say at a distance I'd personally view the entire line as "boring" and "reliable." Although it's a good match for what a lot of buyers want.
 
The Mazda 6 is way nicer at this point. The Fusion also hasn’t been based off that since Ford switched to the CD4 platform for the 2013 model year.
 
My grandpa worked at Ford

I get a discount. Our family owns just about anything they produced. They have not made a good solid car since the Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/Town Car. They even had a news story locally where police were basically begging them to return because the other vehicles don’t hold up in winter.

The F150? I’m on the third, all handmedowns from my grandpa with low mileage, he upgrades periodically. Complete junk. Same problems persist model year after model year. I’m trying to stretch the current one as long as possible. He even gave up and bought a Transit. This is with low mileage too my 2001 has 73k miles.

He was one of the first to buy a Focus, I think they let the local UAW local preorder them, and it was complete junk. He bought a Focus wagon as a replacement, complete junk, my dad has it now.

Tauruses have decreased in quality year over year. My wife has one of them now. Constant money pit.

Fusion? My grandpa gave me his because he couldn’t see well out of the back, said it was uncomfortable. It is. It’s been more reliable but it is not a pleasure to drive.

Test drove a fiesta and it was worse than a Mitsubishi Mirage.

Can’t blame them axing this junk. Revamp everything.

I’m not even hostile or biased, my grandpa isn’t pleased with their current product after years of working there.

They’ve always had terrible fuel economy and performance for engine displacement as well.

None of this is any great loss. Though I speculate Chinese made Focuses will be a reliability nightmare.
 
Im not too surprised. The writing is on the wall really, especially since the new Honda Accord isnt selling well. Its not a bad vehicle, it just wont sell, more people are interested in bigger cars. I see it here in Nova Scotia, not many cars on the road anymore.

 

The big marketing push for SUVs and crossovers. Most buyers dont know half the crossovers they bought dont have all wheel drive until you go way up in the trim levels but yet still feel better and safer in one.

 

A few years from now we will look back at this and think this wasnt ludicrous. I wonder whos next to drop cars? GM? Chrysler?

 

 
 
Right Greg,

same platform, but not a sedan. Huge trunk for a sport coupe.
When GM moved the Camaro from the Zeta to the Theta platform, it got smaller.
Prior to, the Camaro was the coupe, and the SS was the sedan, both on the Holden Commodore platform.
 
I worked with a woman whose husband owned a Chrysler dealership and the one thing that surprised me was how loyal the customers were to the dealer.

 

They were sorry to see the Neon discontinued because as a dealership they wanted a full line of new cars and trucks so they could sell one to the family needing a cheap second car or the kid old enough to drive to school. 

 

If they had nothing to offer, that customer might go to another dealer and establish a relationship there.

 

I have never purchased a new car (or even a used car from a dealer) so this was surprising to me.  This is Iowa, maybe this dealer loyalty isn't as strong in other places.
 
Speaking of people who don't know or think their SUV is AWD.... That's a friend of mine with his Santa Fe sport. He's been driving it now for almost 5 years and always thought it was AWD, it isn't. I said to him "did you go out to buy an SUV specifically because it was AWD" and he said yes but just assumed they all were. He's not very car savvy, no savvy at all really, so it's to be expected with him LOL.
 
I'm not happy about "progress".  My current vehicle I bought new is a 2010 Mazda 5.  It is a small mini van that allows me to be a big higher up than a sedan but is still easy for me to get in and out of.  With the 3rd row seats down,  I have plenty of room to get my walker in.  I looked at "crossovers" when I was having to buy what I ended up with the Mazda 5.  Crossovers can be 2 inches higher and those two inches make a difference in terms of me getting in and out of driver's seat easily.  Not sure what I'm going to do if I ever have to replace it. 
 
Whatever happened to the big RWD American body-on-frame sedan? The Crown Vic seemed to be the last of that breed, but I've got a weird fetish (as a Brit!) for a Buick Roadmaster with the LT1 V8... especially in wagon form! Could they not build those off the truck chassis as just another cheap-to-engineer solution? And given most unibody sedans share their platforms with mid-sized crossovers, I'm surprised they can't sell enough for them to be profitable, especially Ford.

The Chrysler Sebring/200 was a miserable thing, though... they said they were going to revamp it as a RWD sports saloon to rival the Caddy ATS, but that never happened...

...maybe Ford could spin-off Mustang as its own standalone brand? It's not exactly festooned with blue ovals as it is, and a 4-door 'Stang might just sell better as an Audi/BMW rival...
 
 

Richard,

 

The large, RWD, full-frame, American cars went the way of the dinosaur / dodo, etc. 

  

Minimum fuel economy requirement mandates from the Gov were encroaching and the best way to achieve this, in addition to (eventually) saving $$ on production costs, was to replace those large, heavy car lines with smaller, lighter, uni-body, FWD cars.

 

Most of the replacements were nearly as big inside and they're also comfy, but they just don't ride the same as a heavy, full size, full frame, RWD car from the 1970's & 1980's.  However the Lincoln Clown Car... errr... Town Car... was damn close until it was discontinued. 

 

Kevin
 
Partially true Kevin.

Actually, a unibody structure can be as heavy, or heavier than a body on frame vehicle. That was the case with Chryslers early unibody cars. Even the compact, Valiant and Lancers. They weighed considerably more than GM's body on frame designs from the era.
The real advantage was cost saving for front wheel drive. Also robotic welding.
GM slashed 800 pounds from full size cars in 1977, and 600 from intermediates in '78, while keeping the separate frame. It costs more to fabricate a frame. It entails not only welding, but folding, and in later decades, pressure forming with water or hydraulic fluid. So, with the cost to re tool for front wheel drive, it was less expensive to have robots weld the unitized space frame, and forget the extra full front to rear bumper rails, and cross members. Sub rails for unibody cars are usually only 3 dimensional, not 4, at least since the GM F body died. Front drive power train cradles are 4 dimensional, but smaller.
Range Rover's have been the exception, until last year. The Discovery and Sport versions were both unibody, and on a full perimeter frame. The Discovery or Sport may still be.
Not trying to sound like a know it all, but I knew a few engineers because of where I live and worked.
 
My grandparents always bought American cars, sedans and pickups. Their last two cars have been Honda SUV and crossovers. Much easier to get in and out of for them and space with the rear seats down.

I have a sedan now but don't know if I would want another or not. I'd love a crew cab truck but they're just too big and use too much gas! I'm also partial to minivans, but don't know I'd want to drive one every day.
 
The L405 Range Rover is an all-aluminium unibody... guess what? It's still upwards of 2.2 tons... unibody doesn't necessarily mean light!

And why are today's FWD barges bigger than the RWD ones they replaced? A Ford Mondeo/Fusion is now bigger than the old RWD Scorpio!
 
Body-on-frame construction just can't do well in today's crash tests.

All Nash / Rambler / AMC cars went unibody for 1949.

All Chrysler / Plymouth / Dodge / Desoto cars, except the Imperial, went unibody for 1960. Imperial went to unibody construction for 1967.

It sure took GM and Ford quite a while to catch on.
 

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