xequar

I just sat in the new Taurus SHO today at an event at Ford WHQ showing off the new Taurus and Taurus SHO, and yes, the SHO has the flappy paddle shifters as well as the corresponding "M" selection on the shifter.

I too am glad to hear the clutch has a good feel to it. That's become one of my gripes about my Element's clutch is that it's so on/off that after three years of owning it I still have trouble getting smooth shifts. I've had the opportunity to sit inside the Fiesta and really check it out, but not to drive one yet (I work at Ford), so hearing some driving feedback is great.

I know it's a less-than-glorious way to spend a first post, but I have to respectfully disagree with you on this. I'm 27. I have a full time job (as an agency-employed person at Ford, coincidentally), a very active social life, and a boyfriend that lives 4.5 hours away. I talk on the phone less than 100 minutes per month, but I average 3,500 text messages per month. I'm on Facebook and Twitter and various web forums, and I access them all via my iPhone if my laptop's not nearby. I'm 27, educated, make enough money to afford a car payment, and am active socially and online. Simply put, I am the buyer that every car company drools over if I send as much as a longing glance in the direction of one of their products. (If that sounds a bit narcissistic, I apologize) I've been at Ford for over five years now, and I drive a 2006 Honda Element that I bought brand new. Why is that, you might ask? I wasn't a true believer. When I bought my Element, even after having been at Ford for 2.5 years at that point, I saw no reason for me to buy a Ford product. There simply wasn't a product to fit my lifestyle. The Escape struck me as a mommy-mobile with no room for my bikes and practically non-existant availability of the manual transmission. The Fusion was a great car even then, but I was leaving a sedan and wasn't interested in another sedan. The Focus at that point was one of the blandest econocrapfests on the road. The Ranger was completely impractical unless I got the 4x4 with the gas-guzzling 4.0. The Element, on the other hand, fit me and my lifestyle like a glove. How was I even aware of the Element's capabilities? It wasn't TV marketing. Sure, I saw a couple of print ads in the bike magazines I read, but that wasn't it either. The internet, however, played a huge role. When I found the Element Owners Club forums and saw people with bikes in their Element and was hearing about how people were doing dog rescue or were able to fit a washer and dryer into their car and saw owners extolling the stereo and the handling and the like, I was hooked, and I knew I had to really look at the Element when it was time to buy. Word of mouth played a huge role, as one of the guys I used to play kickball with had an Element, and he filled me in on how great it was. The Element had a great buzz around it, unlike any of the Ford products at the time. I'll be completely honest-if someone my parents' age (late 40s) were trying to tell me to buy an Element, I'd be a bit dubious. If Honda were on the TV advertising the crap out of the Element like they do with their transportation appliance known as Accord, I'd be a bit dubious. I don't watch hardly any TV, I ignore internet ads to a point where I don't even know what was advertised before I click the button to get rid of the ones my pop-up blockers can't kill. If there's not a good buzz behind something, chances are I won't know about it, or at the very least I likely won't have any further motivation to investigate it further. And that's what the Fiesta Movement is all about-trying to create that buzz to cut through all the other ad clutter that people my age and younger simply ignore. At the risk of sounding rude, I sincerely believe the Fiesta Movement would lose all credibility with a demographic that Ford Motor Company desperately needs to connect with in order to survive if it were to have a bunch of 50-somethings and white-hairs at the forefront.