bzcat

Sky in the pie... yes. That was my point when I suggested Ford is thinking really big. Ford supposedly has 250k unit capacity at the Hangzhou plant for Edge and Taurus. I'm not sure they have room left over for Continental. If Lincoln sales takes off in China, I'm sure Ford will find a way to make the Continental (and MKX, MKZ, MKC) there, but for now, I think it is safe to assume all the Lincoln models sold in China will come from North America. 3 series sales are only about 65% of what it used to be because the coupe and convertible are now called 4 series. But combined, they move over 100k units.

Exactly... it works just fine as a truck the way most people use their trucks. And now it appears Honda has figured out that buyers want a truck that looks like a truck so I expect Ridgeline II to sell a lot better than the original.

BMW 3 series too. But I think this illustrates my point... Ford must be thinking really big on Continental. 50k sales in the US is achievable but difficult. Another 5k in Canada, Mexico? Is China going to take 50k?

Yes, the 10 speed for RWD

My guess (and purely speculation) is that aftermarkets wants more GVWR on T350 SD and Ford is taking its time collecting durability data before they up the GVWR closer to E350.

Cost is probably not a big issue. But capacity is a real constrain. There is probably very few scheduled roll-on/roll-off ships between US and Australia so logistic is probably challenging. For example, there is a dozen or so roll-on/roll-off ships that leave Amsterdam or Bremen for US ports every week. But ultimately, I think jpd is right... Ford totally underestimated the demand for Mustang in Australia.

At the risk of turning this into another "where is Taurus?" thread... yes, there is no reason why Ford can't sell just as many CD4 Taurus as Toyota is selling Avalon, Buick is selling Lacross, or Chrysler is selling 300. But it seems that Ford would rather use production capacity in NAFTA zone to build more utilities (based on UAW negotiation), which makes sense. The only thing that remains a variable in my opinion is how much Continental Ford is projecting to sell in its sales planning. It could be that they want to give themselves the flexibility to really crank out 100k Continental at Flat Rock if that car is a wild success. I mean if Continental doubles MKS volume, it will already be considered a wild success. Ford must be thinking really big.

They already do. The 1.0Ecoboost and 1.5Ecoboost Focus sold elsewhere uses 6F. Which makes Ford's decision to not offer those 2 drivetrain combo in the US all the more puzzling.

This article is written by a moron it seems. You know what else starts at 240~250k RMB? Buick Lacross, VW CC, Hyundai Azera. Just to name 3 random cars. Yes... let's compare the fully loaded Taurus price with a Great Wall SUV that uses a left over Isuzu platform. WTF BBQ? Chinese buyers are ditching cars for SUVs? Maybe so... but the kind of buyer that Ford is courting with Taurus is not going to buy a Great Wall SUV. Ford has an Edge (shockingly, it starts at 248k RMB just like the Taurus! It's like Ford planned it that way or something...) for that buyer. Taurus is no doubt probing the upper end of the price range which overlaps with luxury brand models but that's kind of the point... it's a much larger car vs. Audi A4L. Edge tops out at 430k RMB in China... that's Audi Q5 territory. But hey, maybe Bloomberg will publish an article compare the price of 430k Edge with a 7-layer burrito at Taco Bell.

I would guess very little crossover between Escape and Focus buyers. Escape is attracting Fusion buyers if anything - it's been fairly well established that when people trade in sedans for SUVs, they tend to trade down a size class. This is reflective in how ALL car companies price their SUVs relative to sedans. Escape should be leasing out at similar monthly payment as Fusion not Focus so probably not a lot of people are cross shopping Escape and Focus. Focus buyers would be interested in subcompact CUV but Ford doesn't sell any. I showed the YTD compact car sales data for the entire market in October (or was it September?) sales thread. Pretty much everyone else from Honda to Mazda sales are up - Focus is the anomaly for sure. Cruze is also down but there is a good reason... fleet dumping and production are down in anticipation switch over to two different models in 2016.

Then buy a T350... sounds like you don't need the extra 1,140 lbs in GVWR vs. E350.

Which is why the current T6 didn't come to the US... it would have been CAFE negative relative to F-150. T7 with aluminum body and a slight increase in footprint and 4 cylinder Ecoboost engines + 9 speed auto in theory can be CAFE positive relative to F-150.

Please, let's all promise to not show this to the Panther mafia.

13k Patriot and Compass sold this month... and someone here said that business makes zero sense for FCA. Renegade has not cannibalized Patriot and Compass sales either.

1. Agree on Focus... the refresh was not enough to generate new showroom traffic. Compact car buyers are just sitting on the sideline waiting for the new Civic. 2. Ford is on pace to exceed 50k Transit Connect this year. Not bad for something imported from the Euro zone! Ford needs to figure out how to make this thing in NAFTA zone for the next generation. 3. MKC had big October and November last year when many dealer first got enough inventory to have cars in showroom and sales went over 2,000 units for the first time. My parents bought their MKX in November 2014 after waiting weeks to actually have one that was not pre-sold for test drive. I don't think it is losing sales to MKX. 1,800~2,000 units range is probably the nature sales rate without pent up demand.

I don't think it is that hard for Lincoln to achieve what Audi did - which is to make a car that can win on merits and eventually change hearts and minds. Audi has been winning head to head comparison tests from magazines against BMW the last couple of years with FWD based platform and all. It may take many years of consistently great efforts but it can be done.

Not that big. T6 Ranger is roughly the same size as Tacoma and US-spec Colorado. The new Hilux is almost the same size as Tacoma, VW Amarok and T6 Ranger. So T7 Ranger will probably be slightly bigger than T6 but no where near as big as F-150.

Infiniti sold a few hundred cars in Europe and a few thousand cars in China this year. The only market it is somewhat relevant is US.

I agree Escalade is Escalade. I was using XT9 as a short hand to put it in context of size relative to other SUVs.

There is no way they are shrinking the T6. On the contrary, they will probably make it even bigger to gain as much footprint as possible for CAFE purpose - same thing GM did to enlarge the Colorado for the US market vs. ROW. However, the rest of the world also wants a bigger truck so maybe this is why we are finally getting the Ranger... the size requirement is converging for US and ROW on midsize truck. Ford will have a real compact Transit Connect based truck for the rest of the world.

It definitely makes sense overseas but I think you are dismissing not only the existence but the potential of this segment in the US market. Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage twins are on pace to hit 130k units this year. Subaru is exploiting the size difference to the tune of over 80k XV sales this year (in addition to 150k Forester). Mitsubishi Outlander Sport is outselling the longer Outlander 2 to 1 (YTD 30k vs. 15k). Jeep has been selling Compass/Patriot and Cherokee (and Liberty before it) side by side for years and will easily hit 150k units this year with the C/P twins. VW is on pace to sell 30k Tiguan this year. Nissan will be jumping in next year with Qashqai to compliment the Rogue. Altogether, the segment is doing about 500k units this year and growing. For FCA, this is an important segment to maintain its dominance because they sure are not getting this kind of growth out of compact cars.

Depends on how you define performance sedan I guess. 400hp and torque vectoring AWD would place it in good company with the likes of BMW 340i, Audi S4, Acura TLX, Infiniti Q50, Volvo S60R, which all make do with "just" 300~330hp. No doubt MKZ will place mid-pack-ish in handling but it should ace some acceleration test and have the most luxurious interior.

Pretty sensible business plan 3-series size sedan 3-series size coupe (replaces the current Genesis coupe) X3 size CUV 5-series size sedan (replaces the current Genesis sedan) X5 size CUV 7-series size sedan (replaced the current Equus sedan)

Renegade is B-segment but because it is imported from Italy, Jeep positioned it as more premium product vs. Compass/Patriot. Compass replacement is C-segment hatchback size but because it will be made in the US somewhere, Jeep will probably continue to position it as more value-oriented/high volume product vs. Renegade. Cherokee is C-segment wagon size and it is a different segment than the C-segment hatchback size CUVs.

XT2 B-segment SUV (Gamma III platform) XT4 C-segment SUV (Delta III D2xx platform) XT5 D-segment SUV (SWB Chi C1xx platform) XT7 E-segment SUV (LWB Chi C1xx platform) XT9 Escalade SUV (GMT K2xx platform)