Ford to reveal details of new Interceptor this Friday at Las Vegas

[Deanh]

If your $24k price is correct, then yes it helps.

current PI's are being sold around 27k...this will NOT be cheaper....

[jpd80]

current PI's are being sold around 27k...this will NOT be cheaper....

As a fleet dealer explained to me, it's how the base car comes and is then up fitted, some regions are down to $25K for the base...it rreally depend if you're buying the base car with just the pigtails for all the wiring to attach or whether you have some of the wiring added - it's not as simple as I thought....

[SysEng]

As a fleet dealer explained to me, it's how the base car comes and is then up fitted, some regions are down to $25K for the base...it rreally depend if you're buying the base car with just the pigtails for all the wiring to attach or whether you have some of the wiring added - it's not as simple as I thought....

 

Go to MercuryVehicles and do a Build & Price on a loaded Mercury Grand Marquis and you'll get about $32K. :stats:

 

A CV stripped ready for PI upfitting would be less than 25K.

 

And Fords cost to build a TownCar ( let alone a CVPI ) is under $17K...

 

The argument on price is a very serious one sales wise.

Assuming Ford actually pulled the plug on the "panthers", the

customer base ( around 150,000+ of them ) would have at least

5 similar platforms to choose from. Just the 60K police sales per year

could easily be reduced to 10K sales... less if this thing comes out

inferior...

 

Who am I kidding. This thing will come out

inferior to a C300 or Dodge Magnum V8 PI

any day for sake

[xr7g428]

The whole issue of what Ford would do to compete for the Police business has never really been all that difficult to figure out.

 

The first thing that everyone must understand is that the "new Ford" only builds vehicles that are profitable. This precludes the Atlanta Taurus and the Panther. We know this intuitively: Ford didn't kill money makers, they killed make work.

 

There is enough business on the line that Ford couldn't just walk away.

 

There is not enough business for Ford, or any one else, to spend the time or resources to develop a NEW platform. This is underscored by the fact that Panther couldn't even support itself going forward, with virtually no investment in the product.

 

This is a business case where what is possible, and profitable, trumps everything else. LEO might prefer RWD, but sorry, in this case, that option is NLA. LEO might prefer BOF, but that too is NLA.

 

So we look at the products in the Ford line. The vehicle that looks the most like what LEO are used to is the Taurus. (I would also make the case that a four door pickup truck with a tonneau cover is just a big sedan with en extra large trunk, but the $$ say no. I would also speculate that if ALL of the contenders to replace the panther fail, then the truck based option might emerge as viable.)

 

So then you task the engineers to try to make the Taurus into the best cop car possible. It comes with a series of built in limitations, but you do the best you can with what you have. In the final analysis, it doesn't matter if it is better or worse than the car it replaces, it is simply what is possible.

 

From the marketing perspective, if it sells poorly, then it will have a minimal effect on the brand image. If it sells well, then the impact may be greater, but then again it generated profitable sales.

 

Ford cares about this segment only to the extent that the sales are profitable. End of story.

[SysEng]

...

 

The first thing that everyone must understand is that the "new Ford" only builds vehicles that are profitable. This precludes the Atlanta Taurus and the Panther.

...

 

Ford cares about this segment only to the extent that the sales are profitable. End of story.

 

Your last line is 100% correct.

 

Your top line there is 50% correct. The Atlanta Taurus was not profitable.

 

However, not only are the panthers profitable... in recent times they were essentially a larger profit center than Ford corporate... thats right, you could shutdown the rest of the company and still run Ford out of STAP! And that was even with no inventory on the lot, no marketing and special order only... try THAT with any other product you know of ( automotive or otherwise ).

 

How Ford can avoid bankruptcy throwing money at the D3 money losers, while neglecting money makers like the F series, Fusion and panthers... now there's the question... :shades:

[RichardJensen]

You're an idiot.

[Edstock]

How Ford can avoid bankruptcy throwing money at the D3 money losers, while neglecting money makers like the F series, Fusion and panthers... now there's the question... :shades:

Well, as you know from the MCE, Fusion isn't being neglected, nor, judging from its sales performance and the new HD re-fresh, is the F-150, or the 250 and 350. As well, you are aware of the product in the pipeline: the Edge, MKX, the Mustang, Kuga/Escape, plus an MKS re-fresh, and a new Fusion/Milan/MKZ/Mondeo sometime in 2012/13.

 

So, the panthers are being discontinued. The Town Car is a fading market. Collision regs for side-impact require a complete re-design, and the market isn't big enough to justify it, and the stretch limos do not add cachet or lustre to the brand, when any jerk with $100 can rent a white 120" hooker-hauler.

 

Cities like New York need something more economical than a Crown Vic taxi.

 

How can Ford avoid bankruptcy? By building cars people want to buy, like the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus, and getting Lincoln re-newed by offering product that is different from the past.

[Deanh]

You're an idiot.

LOL...anyone have a chamois....coffee all OVER my keyboard...my vote POTW

[Deanh]

Well, as you know from the MCE, Fusion isn't being neglected, nor, judging from its sales performance and the new HD re-fresh, is the F-150, or the 250 and 350. As well, you are aware of the product in the pipeline: the Edge, MKX, the Mustang, Kuga/Escape, plus an MKS re-fresh, and a new Fusion/Milan/MKZ/Mondeo sometime in 2012/13.

 

So, the panthers are being discontinued. The Town Car is a fading market. Collision regs for side-impact require a complete re-design, and the market isn't big enough to justify it, and the stretch limos do not add cachet or lustre to the brand, when any jerk with $100 can rent a white 120" hooker-hauler.

 

Cities like New York need something more economical than a Crown Vic taxi.

 

How can Ford avoid bankruptcy? By building cars people want to buy, like the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus, and getting Lincoln re-newed by offering product that is different from the past.

SysEng, put some whipped cream on that slice of logic pie and chow down, choking on the common sense filling is voluntary....

[StangBang]

There appears to be some paradox going on in this thread. A few people claim that Ford will tarnish the image of the Taurus by having it look too similar to the consumer Tauri, yet it is a bad idea when the Taurus gets a facelift and the Police Interceptor will remain to look like it currently does.

 

I thought the idea was to make it look less like the consumer Taurus? Always happy to be complaining about something it seems.

 

Back in the day people did not have issues with the fact that the police cruisers were using the same bodies and platforms as the consumer retail units. Classic police cruisers were ALWAYS based on decontented customer retail units with base trim such as the Custom series as opposed to the Galaxie or LTD. No one cared that the Galaxie they owned was based on the same car as Andy Griffith's Ford Custom police cruiser. Ford still managed to successfully sell uplevel full-sized retail units until customer buying trends shifted into different yet fragmenting marketing segments such as smaller FWD sedans and larger SUV's.

 

The only reason it seems to be an issue now is because Ford has held onto the Crown Vic bodystyle so long that it simply does not have a retail appeal compared to newer and more modern designs of other vehicles. Most people do not want to be seen dead in one. It's generally perceived as OLD, DATED and, VISUALLY UNAPPEALING. It has nothing to do with the fact that law enforcment agencies are using them.

 

Back in the day, cars were on two to three year body cycles with minor grille and trim changes every year. Since the late 1970's, designs have stayed locked in for much longer product cycles to the point they get so antiquated they no longer have a retail appeal. I don't recall anyone ever rushing out to buy outdated Checker sedans when there were all these attractive modern updated cars on the market. So who wants to be seen in a Checker Cab? The same principle applies to the Crown Vic which has not had a major update besides some chassis inprovements since 1992. And FTR, the 1998 facelift is not what I call a major update.

 

For me the appeal of the new Taurus is not diminished simply because there is a law enforcment version of it. In fact, I think it lends to the appeal as something authoritive, respected and protective while looking good doing so...

Edited March 20, 2010 by StangBang

[jpd80]

Yes the stigma of an old out dated body on the showroom is far worse for business

than having a modern bodied police interceptor.

 

A new Taurus PI is great advertising, retailing an aged Crown Victoria is embarrassing.....

[AGR]

Cities like New York need something more economical than a Crown Vic taxi.

Cities like New York not only need something more economical than a Crown Vic taxi, they are REQUIRING more economical taxis. San Francisco requires all new taxis to be hybrids. They have lots of Prius taxis, but almost as many Escape Hybrid taxis(which I imagine are more popular with customers due to ingress/egress issues). Of course, the Panther mafia probably would suggest Ford invest in hybrid powertrains for the CV...

[armadamaster]