turbo_diesel_focus

Makes alot of sense. Alan Mullay wont take any shit, he will turn this company around. AS LONG as he is left to run the company then Ford can get back on track, increase its market share, be more efficiant and make LOADS of money!! Good Luck Alan

Wow Richard your knowledge on this is very impressive, I kind of understand a little more about it now. And I just thought Diesles were just noisey and bellow black smoke out of the exhaust!!!

4thGen, I have been reading this whole topic and I have to totally agree with what you have been pointing out. It totally F@@@@ me off to see such strong nameplates get axed or neglected. I think Ford made a big mistake getting rid of the Taurus. I saw I 1994 Taurus the other day and thought, that was once Americas best selling car, felt proud that Ford, a American company had the best selling American car in NA. Watch a few episodes of X-FILES and Maulder and Scully always preffered to drive a Taurus as it represented Americanness. Same goes with Ranger, Ford totally let it die, same with Freestar!! Why the hell did they get rid of the Windstar name that everyone knew. Same with Thunderbird, Continental.... Ford NA is totally messed up.

I thought the Ford nameplate has been the number one selling brand in NA for years? Apparently Chevrolet outsold them last year, but sales data was in correct so Ford was number one?? Ford Motor Co is still Americas most popular nameplate.. mainly dues to the F-Seris.......

Loads of facts and figures their, i am not that very technical minded so most of it is french too me.!! All I know if Ford make the best diesel engines in the world! Ford UK/Europe.. Best selling diesel car-- Ford Focus. Mondeo and Fiesta! Diesels use to be dirty and smokey but not anymore. US regulations seem to be very stringent. Put a diesel in a Explorer, get 30MPG and you will be laughing!!! Shame diesels will never be popular in America

That interior is beautiful. Extreamly luxurious and looks so well crafted. Thats going to be one of the main attractions of the Navi. The styling is just big, brash and in your face. Thats the way a luxury SUV should be!! Well Done Lincoln. Rangey a typical in your face SUV, makes it very appealing...

LOL, probably!! Saying that I use to have a 2002 Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDci in England and I got a pretty decent 69MPG. Think i was experimenting to see how many miles I could do on a full tank. Think i managed something like 500 miles. I had a previous 1997 Fiesta 1.8 TD and that managed 50 plus miles per gallon. Shame diesels arent popular in America...

It would do wonders for FORD NA!!! :shrug: :shrug:

Think the facelift might come too late. Sales down a massive 50%. Thats pretty appalling considering its barely been out 2 years. It still outsold the Avalon which sales also slid. Come on Ford, give it a proper good look, more power, more advertising and you will be seeing double digits. It will be interesting to see how its sales will look once the Taurus finally stops.....

Has anyone else noticed this or am I just stupid, Toyotas sales figures are not that fantastic, their was quite alot of decreases! The Camry and Corolla make up most of Toyotas sales with quite big increases! Avolon was down, Sienna down for example. Yeh the sales are still increased, but the bulk of them come from 2 lines. Anyone noticed Ford had 6 lines in the top 20!?!!! Totoya had 2 Honda 3 Chevrolet 5 GMC 1 Nissan 1 Dodge 2

Not a bad showing atall!! Mark LT up Mustang outsold everything but the F-150 in the Ford lineup!!! Explorer not doing too bad now Yep, Fusion finally making the 15,000 mark. Terrible showing for 500/Montego/Freestyle Ford Freestar/Mont a terrible showing, just aswell they have been axed!! Ford E-seris increases again!! F-Series, down but not that bad!! Still sold 70,000 units!! Fords PAG brands look pretty poor!!!

Totally agree with you mate. The only car that has had a interesting design in the last 10 years has/was the 1998 Focus, 1998 Ford Euro Puma, 2005 Mustang, 1997 Ford Ka.... Ford Europe had some really cool designs in the late 1990s, but now they have lost the plot, Ford NA have just totally bombed. Their has been some really interesting concepts but Ford just doesnt have the balls to make them. Probably why they are were they are now!

Its looks very simular to the UGLY 1993/1994 Ford Scorpio, one of Fords ugliest ever cars!!! Funny how the design and model was dropped in 1998 yet Ford still adopted the same sytling Ford the 1996 Taurus!!!

How the MIGHTY has fallen. Ford should of stuck to being Ford. Jaguar, AM, Volvo and Land Rover SHOULD never of been bought. At the time they were great ideas, yes, great ideas when Ford North America was making MASSIVE short term profits on SUVs and pick ups that were doomed from the day someone at Ford decided all Ford NA shoud focus on was trucks. Ford should just be Ford. All those profits now has been Fords biggest faliure. Now they are selling the crown jewles, just shows how much trouble the Ford Motor Company is in, more so then we can ever imagine. God help them.....

I happen to be walking through a car park full of, yes you got it, CARS! Loads Camrys, Corollas, Civics, Explorers, 500, Fusions, Taurus, Malibus, Impalas, Jettas...... you name it! I walked through all the cars and scanned them, kind oif made myself look like a crook by bending over looking at the build quality of the cars and getting suspecious looks from passer by-ers. One thing that came out of my investigation of vehicals is that Fords build quality is absolutly fantastic. Yes, I am a Ford Fan, but I have to admit their quality has amazed me. Its OK seeing a spanking new Ford 500 in a showroom with zero miles on the clock but when the miles have been driven, the car just is as solid as when it first came off the production lines. That applies with the Fusion, Freestyle, Monetgo, Zeph, Milan. The simular camrys i saw and accords couldnt beat the new D3 AND Fusion, Milan, Zeph trio. Very Im pressed with Ford! All they need now is more BOLDER styling!! That will come soon and I have no dout the 500, Fusion, Milan will become even more popular!!! My cars 1994-Ford Escort, 1998-Mercury Cougar, 1993 Mazda Xedos-6 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis, 1987 Ford LTD 2000 Ford Focus

Ford bought AM for a very large sum, over a billion $ as i can remember after buying 25% of the firm in 1987, then the whole lot in 1997, its got the PERFECT line up of cars with the most loyal customer base in the world, their factory is 100% efficiant as all their cars are hand made to secification, the brands just got better and better and better ober the years. It sells nearly 2000 cars a year X by a average sell price of $100,000, that makes alot of money, 2,00000000...i have no idea now many millions, i was never good at maths. They are talored made, meaning the millionaire people that buy them spend thousands more on options!! Its a JEWL in the crown and is worth alot of money!!!

Ford would get BILLIONS for AM, and f+++ all for Jaguar. Makes sense when FordMoCO is strapped for cash.

I LOVE the 1997 T Bird, I wish Ford kept on making it as a personel coupe; even until it was killed off it was selling 100,000 units a year. Its a typical AMERICAN Ford and I love it when I see them knocking about!! Theirs still quiet a few!!! Some owers take the blue ovel off as they like people to see they drive a THUNDERBIRD, NOT Ford Thunderbird!!! I have seen few ppl badge ford on their 2002-2005 birds!! Must be love!!!

AVEO is the biggest pile of cheap garbage I have ever seen. It oozes CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. I hate the damn thing. In 3 years time when Ford brings out their sub-compact the AVEOs reputation will of been ruined because of its poor saftey recored and total cheapness. Will ruin GM!

For goodness sake! I happen to think the new Lincoln Navigator looks neat. I think it will sell very well. It looks solid, classy and different and will no dout sell in large numbers. I would buy one if I had the money.

The Thunderbird never had a Ford logo on in aswell remember!!!

Ford May Sell Luxury Brands to Former Chief Nasser, People Say By Doron Levin and John Lippert Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., restructuring after a $1.44 billion first-half loss, is in talks to sell some luxury- auto brands to an investment group led by former Chief Executive Officer Jacques Nasser, four people familiar with the discussions said. The discussions focus on Jaguar and Land Rover, said one of the people, who didn't want to be identified because the negotiations are private. The talks are with JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s One Equity Partners LLC, where Nasser is senior partner for mergers and acquisition, the people said. Nasser, fired by Ford five years ago, created the company's Premier Automotive Group, including European brands Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. As late as 2004, Ford was counting on the group to generate one-third of its automotive profit by this year. Ford says Premier will lose money this year. ``The people at Ford are feeling highly vulnerable right now, and when you feel vulnerable, you put everything on the table,'' said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ford, the world's third-largest automaker, has said it's considering a range of strategic options after losing money in seven of the last eight quarters in North America, its biggest market. On Aug. 2, it hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. mergers-and-acquisition specialist Kenneth Leet as a strategic adviser. Volvo Excluded The talks with Nasser, which could result in a joint venture rather than an outright acquisition, don't involve Volvo, one of the persons said. They wouldn't say whether the discussions have advanced beyond a preliminary stage. The conversations are cordial, partly because Nasser, 58, has been on good terms with his successor as CEO, William Clay Ford Jr., 49, one person said. Brooke Harlow, a spokeswoman for New York-based One Equity, declined to comment. Oscar Suris, a spokesman at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters, also declined to comment. Nasser was Ford's CEO from 1999 to 2001. He led the acquisition of Volvo AB's car unit for $6.5 billion in 1999, and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG's Land Rover unit for $2.7 billion in 2000. Nasser's clout faded during a controversy over Firestone tires. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Transportation investigated at least 271 deaths involving tire tread separations, mostly on Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicles. Decade of Decline When he ousted Nasser in October 2001, Bill Ford told reporters, ``We lost our focus in several areas -- some of it might have been strategy, some of it might have been Firestone.'' At the time, Ford was in the midst of four consecutive quarterly losses. In 2002, Nasser led One Equity Partners' $238 million acquisition of bankrupt Polaroid Corp., the pioneer of instant photography. He sold Polaroid to Petters Group Worldwide, which owns on-line auctioneer uBid.com, for about $426 million last year. The talks with Nasser come as Ford loses U.S. market share for the 11th consecutive year, a streak that began when Nasser was in charge of product development. The company's shares were unchanged yesterday, at $7.76, in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They're up 0.5 percent for the year after trading at 14-year lows a month ago. Premier's Loss The automaker last week said it will cut North American production 21 percent in the fourth quarter, in part because of tumbling sales of the profitable F-Series pickup, the nation's best-selling vehicle. The Premier group had a pretax loss of $162 million in the second quarter, compared with a year-earlier profit of $17 million. In December, Ford said it would invest $2.3 billion in Jaguar to help pay for a reorganization. Ford acquired Jaguar in 1989 for $2.5 billion. Ford doesn't specify profits by brands. The company said in January that all the Premier brands except Jaguar made money last year. During the first seven months of 2006, U.S. sales of Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo totaled 109,612 vehicles, or 7.7 percent of Ford's total sales of 1.4 million, according to Autodata Corp. Premier's Aston Martin unit sold an additional 259 cars, according to an Automotive News estimate. The Financial Times reported yesterday that Anthony Bamford, chairman of closely held JC Bamford Excavators Ltd., said he'd like to buy Jaguar but hasn't approached anyone at Ford. Going Private The Ford family also has considered taking the carmaker private, people familiar with the situation said. For now, the family views ending 50 years of public ownership a last resort, one of the people said. Discussion of the possibility of going private was reported yesterday by USA Today, which cited an unidentified person. The Fords' preferred move would be a partnership bringing Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, into a leadership position in the company, said the person, who didn't want to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Ford spokesman Tom Hoyt declined to comment. Last month, Bill Ford told Ghosn he would like to explore an alliance if Ghosn fails to team up with General Motors Corp., according to people familiar with the conversation. Ghosn said he wouldn't talk to Ford before his discussions with GM conclude in mid-October, the people said. Under an arrangement created when the company went public in 1956, Ford family members control 40 percent of shareholder votes through Class B shares that they've agreed to sell only to each other. Last Updated: August 25, 2006 00:09 EDT

------------------------ EDITED: Please only posted links to copy written material ------------------------ Bloomberg Article Retuers Article

www.ford.com Everytime I go on to it, it makes me want to cry. The information is usless and the pictures of their cars are just awful. From a customer point of view I want to see LOTS OF BIG pictures of their products in all angles and colors. Theirs like 4 pictures of the 500, if I was looking at buying a large car, that car would be off my list, even tho in flesh the cars not bad. It looks although Ford doesnt want their products to look good. GMs website is fantastic, all their pictures are functional, interesting, plenty of different angles, and just loads of pictures. Why oh why Ford. Get your act together. Your website just sucks. MORE PICTURES, MORE COLOURS, MORE DIMENTIONS, thats all you need!!!

Well, all this moaning makes me laugh!! WELL DONE is all I am saying! 2nd Place is extreamly positive. Hopefully next time Lincoln and Ford Will round up the top 5!