agr964

The second ST Sessions video is now up...This one seemed way too staged, and really didn't show anything except some cars driving around a warehouse. Not sure what they were trying to do. 2 of 5: "Hide and Seek" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eF4gDvJa_I

To me, many of the common European car "features" really just seem like expensive toys. Headlight washers? Electric Folding Mirrors? Automatic High-beams? Traffic Sign Recognition? The list goes on. As "neat" as these features might be to have, I simply can't imagine many people (in the US anyway) wanting to pay thousands of dollars extra for them.

Been to China a few times over the years. Guess how many US car companies' cars I saw while there? That's right, 0. There were many German cars, Korean cars, Japanese cars, and a few other but not a single American car (that I saw). There were some Chinese car brands, but those were pretty scary (Rode in a small "JMC" truck, it was horrible). Things may have changed recently, but unless you are in the game, you're missing out on a market of 1 billion people. They are going to figure out how to build cars whether Ford is there or not, so like their competitors, they might as well capitalize. One thing about people in China I noticed is they absolutely love virtually anything that is American-made.

Ford was the only company that literally put it all on the line to not only survive the downturn, but actually invest into new technologies and products when the other US car companies were practically begging the government for cash until finally they just ran out. Ford did it the right way, they read the tea leaves about what was happening and reacted exactly as they should. Glad to see they are getting stronger financially every day after those dark times.

Thanks! Not sure yet as the car hasn't gotten a VIN or been scheduled. Production I heard was starting sometime mid-June and Ford is saying late summer/early fall delivery, likely sometime in September. Going to be a long wait, am looking forward to replacing the old econobox with something a little (a lot) more fun. Still seeing this ad campain on from time to time. It is actually one of my favorite car commercials. No loud shouty guy, no gimmicks, just great cars.

A lot of people I know didn't even realize the vehicles in there were Fords when the ad first started. It really was a great idea about removing the blue oval the first week to get people to focus only on the cars and not the badge. My uncle was talking to me about wanting to get the new Fusion when it comes out, and he has always been a strict imports-only guy. He was equally surprised when I told him I've aready ordered the Focus ST.