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End of the road for Taurus and Fiesta


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Ford's never officially announced the end of the C-MAX but discontinued the C-MAX Energi for the 2018MY without any announcement at all. They just didn't publish a 2018 C-MAX Energi Order Guide. Then when the FDNB (Fleet Dealer News Bulletin) was updated with the final scheduling timetable for the 2018MY and there were no dates shown for the 2019MY the writing was on the wall. Of course, those of us here at BOF often know more than many of Ford's Dealers!

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Nah, you left out the post that I originally quoted... post #104 from page 6. Again, no context on your part.

I still don’t understand what you’re trying to say even with post 104. You said you don’t want Ford to start ALL their car names with F but in reality only half of them start with F, not ALL. If you just meant you don’t like having 3 vehicles all starting with F (Fiesta, Focus, Fusion) then don’t say ALL.

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Maybe there will be a "Taurus X" again?

 

Most new Taurus's seen here in Chicagoland are IL State troopers. But, they've been getting more Chargers for highway patrol.

Ive yet to see a ILSP Charger - I dont even see many Taurus. Most that I see are Caprice (or Explorer). I always wonder what they think of that decision.

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It's a mix for the local departments down here...

 

BSO (Broward Sheriff's Office) uses some PI's and more PIU's.

Fort Lauderdale PD uses a mix - I've seen some Caprices, Chargers, PIUs, and still have a lot of CVPIs still.

FHP (Florida Highway Patrol) uses mostly Chargers now, with some Tahoes and I think I've seen a PIU or two.

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Ford rarely announces discontinuations until after it has already happened, if at all. A bunch of nameplates are about to be dropped and we may not hear anything about it. I think their goal now is to launch new nameplates and quietly fade out the others while nobody is caring.

 

Cars going...

 

Fiesta

Taurus

C-Max

Flex

MKT

 

And don't forget Focus is going on hiatus for over a year...although I still have some doubts it will be coming back at all at this point.

Edited by Assimilator
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It's really a shame to kill the Taurus. My dealer has one in the showroom parked between a Focus RS and an EcoSport. To my eye, the Taurus was one of the best looking cars on the floor, other than a black Mustang.

 

I'll be glad to see the Taurus die this time as I've never been a fan. I've never liked the design, the car is a pig weight wise, there's not enough space inside considering the size, etc. If Ford hadn't screwed up with the fleet exclusive Taurus production years earlier and put the Taurus name on what was introduced as the Fusion the Taurus would have continued as one of the best sellers.

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And don't forget Focus is going on hiatus for over a year...although I still have some doubts it will be coming back at all at this point.

 

Now that would the most incredibly stupid thing Ford has ever done. You can easily make a case to kill Fiesta and Fusion but Focus is the centerpiece and now they have a great best in class global platform that can also be shared with new utilities and BEVs/PHEVs/Hybrids.

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Now that would the most incredibly stupid thing Ford has ever done. You can easily make a case to kill Fiesta and Fusion but Focus is the centerpiece and now they have a great best in class global platform that can also be shared with new utilities and BEVs/PHEVs/Hybrids.

pump the brakes a bit there quick draw, It hasnt even hit production yet!
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I'm guessing that IL Caprice trooper cars are in rural highways? Most on Chicago area tollways are Taurus/Charger.

Only if you consider the Stevenson and the Ryan rural highways. Im guessing by your mention of tollways when you say Chicagoland you mean not Chicago whereas my Chicagoland includes Chicago.

 

Im on them daily and pretty much only ever see Caprice units.

Edited by sullynd
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Now that would the most incredibly stupid thing Ford has ever done. You can easily make a case to kill Fiesta and Fusion but Focus is the centerpiece and now they have a great best in class global platform that can also be shared with new utilities and BEVs/PHEVs/Hybrids.

 

After the quality problems of the current Focus, I don't believe that there will be that many people willing to give the new one a chance in the USA. Not only are the people who got burned not going to buy this car, they're going to bad mouth this car to all their friends too. Focus probably replaced Tempo as Ford's crappiest car. A bad reputation is a tough thing to overcome and on top of all that it's going to be known as the crappy car that will now be built in China to complete the picture.

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After the quality problems of the current Focus, I don't believe that there will be that many people willing to give the new one a chance in the USA. Not only are the people who got burned not going to buy this car, they're going to bad mouth this car to all their friends too. Focus probably replaced Tempo as Ford's crappiest car. A bad reputation is a tough thing to overcome and on top of all that it's going to be known as the crappy car that will now be built in China to complete the picture.

 

 

The Escape says hold my beer...

 

The Escape has been a "shit show" since it launched in 2000 (13 recalls first year just to start, plus all the other crap that's happened with it), yet its one of the better sellers in its segment.

 

I don't see the Focus as a damaged nameplate...sometimes I think name recognition is overstated...If the next gen car is good, which from what we can tell so far it is-I don't see it being a problem.

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Escape and Focus Gen 1 both started out as shitshows, but then settled down to be pretty decent/reliable. The 201x new models were repeats of the issues with the earlier models, but the Focus never righted itself, due to the trans.

 

If the new Focus were more different looking Id say rename it Escort.

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If the new Focus were more different looking Id say rename it Escort.

 

So you want to replace one "damaged" nameplate with another? LOL

 

My family had alot of Escorts over the years-outside of the 82 Wagon being dangerously under powered, they where all good cars for what they where.

 

Like I said before-the Focus name isn't that damaged-if its marketed and priced competitively it will still sell.

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I don't think the name plates are as damaged as we think, the market is very forgiving

but does turn its back until new product is offered an if good enough, all os forgiven.

 

Escape sells in spite of its past indiscretions, without those ghosts, it would probably be selling like RAV4

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Ok, so it looks to be best in class on paper. That’s way more than we could say about the last one.

 

 

As for public perception and sales - they’re still selling over 15K Focii every month even with the tranny problems and 7 yr old sheet metal.

 

As long as it looks good and has the right amenities and price it will sell.

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The Escape says hold my beer...

 

The Escape has been a "shit show" since it launched in 2000 (13 recalls first year just to start, plus all the other crap that's happened with it), yet its one of the better sellers in its segment.

 

I don't see the Focus as a damaged nameplate...sometimes I think name recognition is overstated...If the next gen car is good, which from what we can tell so far it is-I don't see it being a problem.

 

You can have an Escape that although recalled, can be reliable. I know many people who love the Escape, and only one who wants to kill it with fire.

 

The current Focus pretty much has a major transmission problem baked into almost 100% of the cars with automatic transmissions built for the past 7 years. It is as close as it can be to written in stone that it won't take very long before you have a reason to regret your purchase. In the long run, this car line will have done more damage to Ford than the Vega did to GM. Hell, this may cause people to wish they bought an old Tempo or Pinto.

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Ok, so it looks to be best in class on paper. That’s way more than we could say about the last one.

 

 

As for public perception and sales - they’re still selling over 15K Focii every month even with the tranny problems and 7 yr old sheet metal.

 

As long as it looks good and has the right amenities and price it will sell.

 

...And I cringe when I see those numbers feeling like at least 14,000 of them every month will cross Ford off their shopping list after owning this car.

 

They could bring this around if the quality is perfect like when the 2005 Mustang or 2006 Fusion was launched. So we do know ford can bring a car with world class quality to the market, but even if they can do this with the Focus, it will take a long time to earn trust with this car and its damaged reputation. The Focus is Ford's Vega. If they turn this around, I will have to say ford is godly. And they have to make EVERY launch of every other car as close to perfect as they can get to undo this.

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...And I cringe when I see those numbers feeling like at least 14,000 of them every month will cross Ford off their shopping list after owning this car.

 

hyperbole much?

 

There are issues with the transmission-partly due to poor design and partly due to customer inexperience with an DSG type transmission. If the car was that terrible it would have been seeing severely shrinking sales over the past couple years.

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