campbell53

All I know is what I was told by the trainer. She said the interior would lose the shiny pieces. I hope so because the pieces looked like crap after only 800 miles.

the embargo has to do with the car mags having an opportunity to write and print reviews before any other news source including bloggers. I was looked at sternly when I mentioned I participate in this forum.

the wheels were 20"

The embargo ends the 3rd week of July. Which stinks for me because I'd love to tell you about how it drove and it's characteristics. As of now sale date is "late summer".

Good catch Nick. This is pre-production and the shiny plastic will be replaced with a matted textured finish.

Imagine my surprise when a 2010 Taurus SHO rolls up to my store this morning and parks right outside! A Ford trainer brought the car for the day to train my staff and handed me the key! I'm under embargo in regards to talking about the driving experience. :-) The car itself is very well done. Cover up the Ford badges and it looks like it has large Acura sedan DNA. Not a bad thing in my opinion. Easily the most amazing sedan ever from Ford. Absolutely can not wait to unveil this to the public. This will blow people away!

I'm a Ford dealer and even though this isn't happening to Ford dealers I still feel for all of the Chry/GM dealers who are being eliminated. I also am 2nd generation and I cannot fathom my store being taken from me. This is too close for comfort. God bless Bill Ford and Alan Mullaly. Keep on doing what you are doing!

Certainly loses the ages old look that has come to exemplify the XJ.

I'm reading all of the really negative comments on this board about the C and I can't believe it. After years of bashing Ford for bland designs, finally there is something brought forth with some character and life and it gets this treatment. Unbelievable. I don't know how much skin in the game most of you have in this industry or with Ford but my livelihood depends on Ford products. I could sell this thing very well and I wholeheartedly welcome whatever version of this comes to my lot. Or do you all want to just give everything to Mini and call it a day? I am excited about the direction of Ford and Lincoln and it includes the C. I say bring it on. I can prove you all wrong on this vehicle.

Based on some of what I reading today about what Bush may or may not do regarding the "bailout", if they come back with money only if GM/Chry are sent into bankruptcy, can Ford survive this? Would suppliers receive any/enough help to maintain parts flow to Ford? I personally believe BK is the kiss of death and want to see Ford stay as far away from it as possible.

I have no problem getting people approved either through Ford Credit or local banks/credit unions. Depends on the deal structure where I send it. But I just have a severe lack of customer traffic. The consumer is scared to death right now and needs to gain some confidence. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

I can't think of any product outside of a KR that I wouldn't sell on a plan right now. What exactly is selling at MSRP?

Ah...not true. Ford decides which vehicles are A/X/Z eligible. We could sell them for A/Z but we'd lose the holdback. Ford reimburses us that when we sell below invoice.

It figures he would find a Roubini quote. That guy is the harbinger of doom. He's been right on some things. I hope he's wrong on the others.

You speak as if Bill Heard was holding the paper on the sub-prime loans. I doubt they were. There are lending institutions that specialize in sub-prime which have no-recourse. So I doubt that this is what did in the dealership group. Most likely the other stuff.

I have 5 in stock. Barely a sniff. I sold off 2 of them to a Chicago area dealer. I feel pretty good about it. I think they will be fine but this is a bad time right now.

Great post. June has been a disaster for me after a relatively decent 1st 5 mos of the year. I've taken huge hits against my used inventory but it is now closer to true "book" than any other dealer I know. Traffic has been very light the last 2 weeks. If this is the trend for the remainder of the summer we are all in trouble. If it is just a breather to "re-normalize" then I can live with that. I sure hope traffic comes back quickly. Used trucks/SUV's are so low right now it defies logic. An extra $10 to fill a tank should not devalue anything 20%. But that's whats happening right now. Emotion is trumping common sense.

I agree. I've seen pics of the 2010. Think 1968 for front end. Rear is a little "boxier" with a more pronounced "haunch" from the rear quarter to the trunk. It's a nice visual update. The interior is even better.

I've been waiting for a discussion on this since I saw it 2 days ago. I just thought I missed it since we've beat this to death over the last year. As a dealer I welcome the Euro's to the states.

Amen...there's no pleasing the internet crowd. Ford has it going on and 2 years from now will look like geniuses. I'm a dealer so I have a huge dog in this hunt. Ford is turning it around. I too am sick of the arm chair Ford CEO's that bitch and have no real solutions for anything.

This is a homerun. I cannot wait for them to get here. We have lost many sales due to no minivan. The Taurus X doesn't cut it. This vehicle will do great. In fact my wife will be driving our first one. She has been grumbling since I forced her into an Edge because of the demise of the van. She loved the Freestyle. Not enough room for 2 kids, their friends and all our stuff in an Edge. There are countless others out there in my situation that have defected from Ford becuase of this very reason.

This sounds like a conversation we had a while back. Back-up camera on the current F-150 etc. Ford is finally making some good decisions.

Obviously the gentleman in question isn't hanging around my Ford lot. My sales are up ytd 18%. I hope he stays away because his overly pessimistic attitude will scare away my buyers (and depress my staff!). We are making great headway with the Focus (a shock to me honestly). I have had to buy inventory from other dealers to keep up. The Egde, Focus and Escape are doing very well. And I am up 2 F-150's over last year as well. No complaining here under the circumstances. Looking forward to 2009 when the economy should settle back down and Ford will be rocking with new product!

As a dealer we were amazed at how many GM's we were selling 10 years ago. When do we run out of old people? Well we didn't. And we won't. If we had a new updated GM we would sell them for another 10 years. Just like old people for generations go to Fla or Az for the winter, they want bigger cars when they retire. All of this unfounded speculation about running out of old people to sell a GM to is nonsense.

Ford execs did not make the quote about Toyota and asses. That came from a dealer on a video Ford made summing up the new product. They showed the video either before or after Farley talked about the Raptor. And the Taurus looks just like the spy photo that is circulating.