shllshck

I'm not so worried about the MKS. Take a look at how it stacks up compared to the others in its class. These are the sales figures from April 2009. BMW 5 series - 4319 MB E class - 1795 Lincoln MKS - 1178 Cadillac STS - 711 Volvo S80 - 681 Lexus GS - 468 Infinti M35/45 - 441 Audi A6 - 388 Acura RL - 202 Basically the BMW 5 series has quite the stranglehold on the segment. The MKS in April handily out sold all but the 5 series and E-class, and that's probably how the segment will stack up. BMW/MB 1/2 and everyone else fighting for the scraps. Heck, the MKS outsold the Lexus GS, Infiniti M, and Acura RL combined! Let's see how the mid-sized luxury shapes up for May after everyone has posted their sales numbers.

My mom had an '06 SRX. Don't recall any issues with it. Drove and handled pretty well. She has since replaced it with an 08 MKZ. She's very happy with the MKZ. I personally like the new SRX. Interior and exterior looks good. The engine choice seems reasonable. More appealing to me than the MKX and current Lexus RX. Pricing seems reasonable. I hope it sells well and takes away some sales from the RX.

Let's clear one thing up. the HS250 is not derived from the Corolla platform. It is derived from the Euro Toyota Avensis, which is a class up on size over the Corolla. With that said, it's exterior styling too closely resembles the plain Corolla and I completely agree that the HS250 is a joke. To me it screams econobox inside and out. No doubt Lexus will have no problem snaring Toyota and Lexus loyalist on this piece of crap.

I really like how the Fusion Sport looks. I think the exterior is the best looking of all the mid-sized family sedans. The interior I like say for the color inserts. I like the chrome look in the Hybrid. I just can't see that many people wanting red or blue in the interiors. For me though, the 2010 Fusions came about 6 months too late as my previous leased Accord came up in end of July.

Industry Summary Porsche -48.2% Chrysler -47.1% Suzuki -46.3% Nissan -42.2% GM -41.3% Hyundai -39.7% Mercedes -39.2% (-29.9% if you include Smart) Kia -37.2% Mitsubishi -36% Toyota -33.9% Honda -31.6% Mazda -31.3% Ford -30.0% BMW -26.8% (BMW -36.1%, Mini +43.1%) Audi -25.4% Volkswagen -19.2% Subaru -7.8% Ford performed ok relative to the others.

The full-size truck market is outperforming the overall industry, well at least for Ford and GM. As Ford builds up the 2009 F-series inventory, will F-series sales continue to outperform the industry? Ford F-series 37,911 -18.6% Chevy Silverado 29,534 -22.5% GMC Sierra 10,497 -24.2% Dodge Ram 15,538 -36.5% Toyota Tundra 6,607 -55.9% Nissan Titan 1,022 -79.6% Also, what's impressive to me is Lincoln only dropping 8%. More Lincolns were sold than Mercurys. How about that.

Full size truck sales is actually a bright spot for Ford with it's new 2009 F150 out. Here's a comparison on how the big trucks fared. Dodge also has their new redesigned 2009 Ram out. Ford F-series 43,324 -16.3% Chevy Silverado &Avalanche 33,289 -38.6% Dodge Ram 17,626 -28.7% GMC Sierra 11,256 -35.4% Toyota Tundra 6,425 -65.4% Nissan Titan 1,007 -79.9% F-series down 16.3% sure is performing much better than the rest of the large truck group and also well above how the general market is doing. Be curious to see if full-size truck sales will rebound with gas dropping into the low to mid $2 range. Did Toyota cut back on incentives for the Tundra? That is an extremely large drop.

Looks like GM's Employee Pricing pulled some of its Fall/Winter sales forward. GM really got hammered. GMAC's restrictive lending probably contributed alot to the problem. Based on manfucaturer's press release, here's how the mainstream companies performed... (All numbers based on DSR, 27 days Oct. 08 and 26 days Oct 07 and includes all respective divisions.) Toyota -25.9% Honda -28.0% Ford -32.7% Nissan -35.4% Hyundai -36.9% Chrysler -37.4% GM -47.0%

If you look at the pictures captured there on Autoblog, you will notice pictures 3 and 4 is that of the Fusion Hybrid, or at least the rims of the Fusion Hybrid, if the rim choices on the Fusion Order Guide are accurate.

I loved my Explorer. Rock solid, very dependable and fun off-roading with some minor mods (shocks and tires). I had a '94 XLT 4x4. Got rid of it after 13 years and with about 213,000 miles on it. No work ever needed on the engine or transmission besides regular services. (tune-up, transmission flush) Except for the crappy brakes, I liked everyone else about my old Explorer.

I don't see the problem with the Fusion and MKZ both with the 3.5 V6. It's rather common in the industry. A lot of Toyota models and Lexus have the 3.5 V6. Infiniti and Nissan have the VQ 3.5 V6 spread throughout its lineup with a more recent move by the G coupe and now sedan to the 3.7 V6. Honda actually had its 3.5 V6 in its 2008 Accord while the 2008 TL had both the smaller/older 3.3 V6 and Type-S 3.5 V6. GM has its 3.6 V6 spread across its lineup as well.

There's plenty of Freestars, Windstars, and Aerostars on the used car market.

The casualties keep piling up... Anaheim Lincoln, South Bay Lincoln, Ford West, Heritage Lincoln...

Nice job on the interior. I think Extreme4x4 nailed it on the head. So long as the Mustang remains easy to mod with plenty of aftermarket parts option, people will be happy.

Looks very nice. I like Ford going with the larger chrome trimmed display gauges. The angle thing is different, I'd have to see how that looks straight on. The center console is improved as well. I wasn't a big fan of the current waterfall design with the round vents.

Well I did my small part for Ford. My mom had a Cadillac SRX come off lease and needed a replacement. Her choices were used BMW X3, new Accord, Altima, and Camry. I sent my mom to check out the Lincoln MKZ. Basically with the current incentives, she could pickup an MKZ for the cost of a new V6 Accord/Altima/Camry. (Factoring prevailing interest rates.) My mom went with a coworker and ultimately, both picked up MKZ's. Although the coworker leased her's last month and my mom took delivery of her's yesterday.

But the difference is, Toyota is moving about 40k Camry's a month and isn't in the same financial shape as Ford. The Camry also has a V6 engine that delivers more power and is rated to have better fuel economy. Camry also comes in hybrid form. They don't need to change much. Ford has a very good product in the Fusion. The 2010 should make it a much more competitive product but as it stands now, the I4 and V6 just don't compare well to the competition, well at least to the Japanese competition.

As pointed out by RJ, I'm not referring to calendar years, just strictly model years. If Ford would have been able to meet that timeline of October 2008, I would have looked at extending my Accord lease an extra two-three months. And as for others not making substantial changes, the minor body change on the Accord from 2005 to 2006 took it out of looking hideous to bland but ok, which was enough for me to lease the '06 Accord. If the '06 Accord had the same '05 back end, I would not have leased an Accord. The exterior styling was, IMO, one of the biggest drawbacks for the '03-'05 Accords. For the Fusions the biggest drawback to me, is still the engines, both the I4 and V6.

Michael, What did I expect? The Fusion is in it's 4th model year, I would have expected a mid-cycle refresh by the 2009 model year. This has been much debated and would be beating a dead horse, but really, I would expect by the model's 4th year, Ford would have offered a much better engine. That's what it comes down to for me. I still like its looks, I like its interior, and I like its handling. I do not like the Duratec 30. I especially don't like how it sounds when pushed and find the engine a bit too fuel inefficient for its size and displacement.

suv_guy_19, I replaced the 2006 Accord EX V6, with a Certified Pre-Owned 2007 BMW 328i with Premium Package, Auto, Xenon for not much more than a new 2008 Accord EX-L V6. Back in 2006, I needed to replace my 1994 Explorer which had 213,000 miles on it. (Explorer was rock solid, original tranny and engine, no major repairs to anything.) It came down to the Fusion and Accord. I preferred the Fusion over the Accord because of the better driving dynamics of the Fusion and of course Fusion just looks better than Accord. The Accord had the better interior and better engine (IMO). But what it really came down to was the economics. I only wanted to lease for two years. The Fusion was a much better deal to purchase, but the Accord had the much superior lease deal. Ultimately the economics won out and I went with the Accord.

I don't think BlackHorse is too far from the truth with that statement. My 2006 Accord is coming off lease at the end of this month and if the 2010 Fusion would have been available now as the 2009, I would have purchased that. Ford did lose my business but not to its direct competitors.

I had a '94 Explorer that had put on 210k+ miles on the original transmission and engine. The truck was very rock solid and dependable.

Cool. I didn't want to dig for the Nov '06 press release to see how many selling days there was.

In November Ford sold 3,779 Taurus, 116 Five Hundreds, and 1,180 combined Sables/Montegos. Total sales 5,075. In comparison, for November 2006, Ford sold 3,437 Five Hundreds and 932 Montegos. Total sales. 4,369. Year over year, Taurus+Sable showed a 16% increase (not factoring sale days) for the month of November. In December 2006 Ford sold 6,689 Five Hundreds and 1,741 Montegos.

Well I would consider the Cadillac SRX in the same category.