Ford Cancels Third Shift at Oakville

[Pioneer]

It's a NICHE vehicle people..

 

 

Ford will go bankrupt selling niche vehicles.

[papilgee4evaeva]

Ford will go bankrupt selling niche vehicles.

 

Only if they try to pass them along as mainstream vehicles.

[suv_guy_19]

Ford will go bankrupt selling niche vehicles.

 

Almost every vehicle is a niche vehicle now.

[P71_CrownVic]

Almost every vehicle is a niche vehicle now.

 

Only because the automakers try and fool their buyers into thinking the vehicles are something they are not.

 

Flex = crossover??? NO, the Flex is a 7-person station wagon.

Taurus X = crossover??? NO, the Taurus X is a 7-person station wagon

Edge = crossover??? NO, the Edge is a 5-person SUV

Escape = crossover??? NO, the Escape is a 5-person SUV

[MarkFive]

Only because the automakers try and fool their buyers into thinking the vehicles are something they are not.

 

Flex = crossover??? NO, the Flex is a 7-person station wagon.

Taurus X = crossover??? NO, the Taurus X is a 7-person station wagon

Edge = crossover??? NO, the Edge is a 5-person SUV

Escape = crossover??? NO, the Escape is a 5-person SUV

 

Then again a crossover really is just a station wagon.

[suv_guy_19]

Only because the automakers try and fool their buyers into thinking the vehicles are something they are not.

 

Flex = crossover??? NO, the Flex is a 7-person station wagon.

Taurus X = crossover??? NO, the Taurus X is a 7-person station wagon

Edge = crossover??? NO, the Edge is a 5-person SUV

Escape = crossover??? NO, the Escape is a 5-person SUV

 

 

Only you could turn the idea of having more choice into a bad thing. I don't really care what they classify something as. If I like it, I want it, and when I get out of school at the end of this year, I just might buy it.

[TomServo92]

Then again a crossover really is just a station wagon.

 

In reality, so is an SUV.

[MarkFive]

In reality, so is an SUV.

 

You are right about that.

[twintornados]

We were walking back to our van from the grocery store the other day (might have been Sams) and she spotted a Taurus X at the front of one of the rows. She turned to me and asked what it was. I told her it was the SUV version of the new Taurus that's out. She looked it over and through the windows. Turned back to me and said...

 

"That's really nice, how long has it been out?"

"About a year or more."

Since the Taurus X is really a restyled Free...um, style (pardon the pun) it has been "out" since 2005. But you are right, Ford needs to advertise it. On a related note, my parents looked at the Taurus X and Flex while shopping for a replacement for the 2004 Camry they had.....ended up with the Mazda5 since it was small enough for my mother to handle yet large enough for Dad to get in and out of since he is disabled and has a hard time getting in and out of the Camry. They picked it (the Mazda5) up today.

[armadamaster]

I drove the Flex. Talked money.

Drove the Escape. Talked money.

Went to Mercury. Drove the Mariner. Talked money.

Went to Mazda. Drove the Tribute. Talked money. Bought the Mazda.

 

The difference in what you are getting isn't worth the extra money to buy the Ford Flex. I percieve no status or functional improvement over the Escape/Mariner/Tribute either.

 

The Tribute ($17K) was several thousand less than the same Escape($21K), equipped the same too! :stats:

 

Bingo, I was behind an Escape and an Edge in a grocery store parking lot the other day and could see the logic in the two of them, neither accomplishes anything that the other doesn't.

 

Ford is beginning to rival GM for redundancy.

 

Only because the automakers try and fool their buyers into thinking the vehicles are something they are not.

 

Flex = crossover??? NO, the Flex is a 7-person station wagon.

Taurus X = crossover??? NO, the Taurus X is a 7-person station wagon

Edge = crossover??? NO, the Edge is a 5-person SUV

Escape = crossover??? NO, the Escape is a 5-person SUV

 

You can add Explorer and Expedition to that list because as far as I am concerned, they are all station wagons.

[papilgee4evaeva]

Bingo, I was behind an Escape and an Edge in a grocery store parking lot the other day and could see the logic in the two of them, neither accomplishes anything that the other doesn't.

 

Ford is beginning to rival GM for redundancy.

 

Escape - 4-cylinder and Hybrid options, if you want. Edge - more powerful V6, if you want. It seems that the Edge is the step-up from the Edge, if you want a more premium feel but the same size car.

 

Same with the Tribute and CX-7. They're similar in size, but they effectively don't overlap.

[P71_CrownVic]

Only you could turn the idea of having more choice into a bad thing. I don't really care what they classify something as. If I like it, I want it, and when I get out of school at the end of this year, I just might buy it.

 

Where did I say it was a bad idea?

 

All I did was lay out a few vehicles that were mistaken classified as something they were not.

[BORG]

The Flex is coming along at the wrong time sadly, so is the next gen Taurus. The market for anything large and under 25MPG is shrinking fast!.

[suv_guy_19]

The Flex is coming along at the wrong time sadly, so is the next gen Taurus. The market for anything large and under 25MPG is shrinking fast!.

 

 

There's no reason to believe that the next Taurus will come in at under 25 MPG.

[NickF1011]

There's no reason to believe that the next Taurus will come in at under 25 MPG.

 

The CURRENT Taurus already does better than that on the highway, which is, frankly, the only number most poeople look at.

 

That reminds me -- just last night I was flipping through the old paperwork for my Cobra and found the window sticker. I had no idea that thing was rated 26 mpg highway. Of course, that's the old standards, but still...better than I remember it being.

Edited July 24, 2008 by NickF1011

[goinbroke2]

I'm going to try this again (hopefully the CPU quota won't be exceeded as I type this time...)

 

I can explain why the Flex may not be off to a great start...

 

My wife is around 30 years old.

She is a typical mother of 4 in our area.

 

 

Hmmm, interesting. You let your wife pick out the veh? And you bought a toyota because she wanted it?

 

I've noticed different people on here say stuff like that. I guess you are ford "owners" but not ford "enthusiests".

I've always drove fords and when the wife and I got together she was driving a new charger. She's from a family of mopar people and they to this day still drive mopars. When we got together she got rid of the charger and drove my mustang and I drove my 1 ton. Since then (17 years) we've bought/leased plenty of new vehicles, all ford. The option is which ford do you want, not what veh do you want. She liked the look or price on many veh and perhaps it would of been a "better deal", but if it's not a ford it's not allowed in my driveway. And yes I've converted MANY mopar/gm/honda/nissan/vw people to buy fords. Majority bought a second one when they got rid of the first. (haven't converted any toyota people but working on two)

 

Anyway, just an observation..I naturally assumed ALL guys had the last word when it comes to veh since we'll be the ones working on them/servicing them. I supposed a lot of guys here don't get dirty or service veh's therefore have the womans attitude towards veh.

 

huh..interesting..

[pictor]

Since I own of each I can tell that they do not occupy the same user space. The Edge is larger, more comfortable vehicle than the Escape with emphasis on a serene traveling enviroment This feature is very useful for us as we travel 150 miles to our summer place in Maine and which allows us to arrive at the dock without having the feeling that we were put through the ringer but still carries all the clothers ansd supplies we need for an extended stay on the island. The Escape has always been a more rough and ready vehicle that can be called upon to perfom admirable in most situations and road conditons. The Escape is now the main transportation mode for my daughters. The Escape is great basic transportation with the added benefit of all wheel drive in tough New England weather.

 

 

 

Escape - 4-cylinder and Hybrid options, if you want. Edge - more powerful V6, if you want. It seems that the Edge is the step-up from the Edge, if you want a more premium feel but the same size car.

 

Same with the Tribute and CX-7. They're similar in size, but they effectively don't overlap.

[old_fairmont_wagon]

My philosophy on vehicle purchases is quite simple. I make the money, I dictate the budget for the vehicle. She's the one that has to drive it, so, I let her pick the one out that she wants. Granted, there were a few other aspects to this story that most people don't remember from the original posting on it. We have trouble getting financed due to almost going bankrupt twice in the last 4 years (I got laid off for most of a year and had trouble finding a job that would cover our bills, we spent our savings trying to stay afloat and almost didn't make it, then we got hit by Katrina, which cost me my retirement savings to cover what my insurance companies shorted me on in coverage for my property. I also missed a bit of work because of that and had to take unpaid leave because I ran out of vacation.) Long story short, when we attempted to finance the new dodge caravan, with our meager downpayment, none of the finance companies would do it due to the expected depreciation of the vehicle versus the amount we were putting down on it and our preceived credit risk. When we investigated financing on import vehicles (honda, nissan, toyota) they were much more willing due to the much lower rates of depreciation on the units we looked at. I feel that the Taurus X, which has the lower depreciation rates of the D3 vehicles, would have been reachable had my wife wanted to even look at it.

 

But, I let her pick what she wants to drive. She's going to be the one loading kids and groceries in it while I'm working 10+ hours a day. She's going to be the one driving around town in it. She's going to be the one that takes it in for service when it breaks. Therefore, she's going to be the one making the decision about what to purchase. She did that with the Caravan that I'm driving now, and, even though it fell apart around her, and wasn't really big enough for her needs towards the end, I never once heard her complaining to me about it because she's the one that chose it.

 

To me, vehicles are, at this stage in my life, appliances. They get me where I need to go, do what I need them to do, and just need to be reliable and reasonably efficient. When the kids are old enough to have their own cars and I don't have to lug stuff back from home improvement stores every few weeks, then I'll look at getting a car that I want instead of what I need.

 

The first vehicle I bought with the money I earned at work was the F-150. It served me flawlessly (save for my fat ass breaking the lumbar in the driver's seat, which they fixed under warranty). After I got the house squared away and didn't need a truck regularly anymore, we traded it in on the caravan. I drove my wife's old accord as a commuter car, which it did very well at till around 100K miles. I'd have still been driving it up until last year if it hadn't gotten flooded in Katrina. Don't get me wrong, I love Fords, but I can appreciate good product from anywhere.