silvrsvt

But its sales have been dropping since 2000 or so...yea they are making money, but whats the sence if you only sell 50K or so of them. The other thing to keep in mind is that since the D3 was a modification of another platform, the costs of developing it was much cheaper then doing a clean sheet design. The only reason that the new Mustang got its own platform (besides the fact that there isn't any other platform in NA at the time that could do RWD) was that the 1.5 billion or so they spent on it was that they could recoop the costs in about 4 years at sales of 130K a year, well the Mustang has been doing a bit more then that so Ford's investment is paying off quicker and they are making a nice profit on it.

To police and taxi fleets... Its amazing how people try to support their arguments on here...its gotten to the point that people are just bickering to bicker with people. maybe a little bit more moderation would help things...there's nothing wrong with opposing view points, but the vast majority of people (myself included at times, out of frustration) are just attacking people because they have opposing views.

He calls it "Tough Love" But he can sure still accept that paycheck they give him Maybe they should stop paying him and call it tough love...

I remember a press release from Ford that the Mustang is in more movies and mentioned in more songs then any other car...ever.. While another F&F movie is going to be stupid, maybe having the car in the movie will help remove some of the perception issues that the younger generation has about the Mustang....

I wouldn't call a car that sells 50K units a in a year a success Care to elaborate on what exactly what changed in 2003?

Thats the problem, the Panther Mafia sees the D3 as its replacement, which it is not. Its not directly replacing it, it just happens to be the replacement since the CV is no longer sold retail. Much like the MKS is the Lincoln flagship, just because its the most expensive Lincoln. As for its replacement, the Panther is WAY OVER DUE FOR A REPLACEMENT! Nearly every other car in Ford's lineup has been replaced after 10 years or so. The only other car platform that stuck around too long was the old Mustang Platform and that was partly due to bad idea in making it a FWD car in the late 80's (which the old platform outlasted!) and then it getting updated in 1994, more so then the Panther ever was in the past 30 years.

Nice car (was parked by a new CTS at the gym the other day) But is this engine the same as what is in the new ZR1 vette de-tuned?

MKT= Mobile Kitchen Trailer

It comes out this summer, which means it goes into production in the Spring, in about 3-4 months I think its doing fine...esp with it being a segment buster, it allows people to get used to it to a point

So your comparing a car thats been on the market for 4 years and in its first generation had some shortcomings that where just recently addressed to a car thats over 20 something years old and has been loosing market share/numbers sales for years now? The D3 outsell the Panthers in retail sales, and the only reason the Panthers are going along is that they are more or less the same car for the past 10 years, making it cheap for PD and Taxi fleets to use and recycle equipment.

The vast majority of Panthers are bought for fleet usage and the ones for personal usage are bought second hand. The Panther is a great Heavy-duty/Fleet car, but it has ZERO appeal to anyone that wants a new car for the reasons I listed. Its amazing how much of an echo effect this place has with just a couple posters who like the Panther...

Found this photo on Autoblog to show the Ford Interceptor...I heard about the Batman Vs SuperMan poster but totally missed it LOL

Every time I see the BRX name I think Brick...Yeah I'm driving my Caddy Brick today!

Seems nice, but the biggest problem is that its "still a Hyundai"

Wow....anyways...people don't buy cars that are Tough (that is the purview of Trucks and SUV's) They want a car that is Fast, has good reliability (different from being tough), has cache, rides well, etc etc...not because its "tough"...running a commercial like that will appeal to no one, besides knuckle draggers who make up the Panther mafia on here.

Still 2009 though! LOL

Well the Flex came out last Detroit auto show IIRC I'd expect the MKT to be out in 2009 and the Flex out this summer

Chicago maybe, I really don't remember anything new or memorable coming out of NYIAS the past couple years

Hmm still wondering if the Fusion will make the cut or not, I got a feeling its not

Well some of the experts here where stating that LOL I'm sure that the Kuga will be the Escape replacement in a couple years, just hope its not "feminized" styling wise like other Cute SUV's...but then again according to something I saw/read some place, Explorers are more likely to be a womans SUV, where as a Jeep Cherokee or Grand Cherokee would be a mans SUV....

ROLF

I have to totally agree with you and your statement, I live in an area where there are quite a few retirement developments and all I see are blue hairs who shouldn't even be driving with Panthers. Even my neighbour who lives below me sell his old Grand Marque since they got too old to drive (and his kids (if you can call them at 50 + yrs old) drive a CTS and 300C)... There nothing wrong with a large RWD sedan, just that the Panther isn't the Future for it...

no more escape?

lets see: B1 platform C2 CD3 or EUCD2 D3 GRWD

Got a link to that? I'm curious...