slemke Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 3 hours ago, jpd80 said: Ford has committed to spending $11 billion in Europe, they're not going anywhere. One of the reasons that Ford Europe failed for the past decade was that Ford US under Mullally decided to globalise most of Europe's mainstay products like Kuga, Mondeo Escape and basically refreshed them, new to the USA but already due for a complete makeover. By 2015 the designs were really struggling against much fresher competition. Ford was failing in Europe long before Mullally. It was the right decision at the time given the financial circumstances. There was no money in the war chest to build uniquely tailored products for a marginal business case. Pulling the plug on Europe completely ala GM was likely a top candidate for a business plan. Fields didn’t refresh much of anything on his tenure. Poor execution of the Mullally plan post 2014. Looks like I spoke too soon on Ford going slow with electrification. Automotive news has an article about Ford’s plan to be all electric for passenger cars by 2030. https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/ford-only-sell-full-electric-cars-europe-2030. We’ll see if customers actually go along with this or we say Farley made a huge mistake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slemke Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 4 minutes ago, jpd80 said: And with that, they are daring Ford buyers to walk away, not a smart thing to do. Depends. If there are customers willing to pay cash or finance, no reason to take the risk on setting a high residual in order to get the lease rate down. Bigger issue is failure to predict the popularity and secure an adequate supply of parts. Escape might be seen as something of a loss leader so not much effort is being put into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 46 minutes ago, slemke said: Escape might be seen as something of a loss leader so not much effort is being put into it. I'm not sure I would say that. I test drove one (2020 SEL AWD, reasonably optioned), and I liked it more than I thought it would. Definitely much improved over the old one. I even didn't mind the engine (pretty sure it was the 1.5) but I can also see where some people would have an issue with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted February 17, 2021 Author Share Posted February 17, 2021 7 hours ago, jpd80 said: Ford has committed to spending $11 billion in Europe, they're not going anywhere. One of the reasons that Ford Europe failed for the past decade was that Ford US under Mullally decided to globalise most of Europe's mainstay products like Kuga, Mondeo Escape and basically refreshed them, new to the USA but already due for a complete makeover. By 2015 the designs were really struggling against much fresher competition. Ford Europe actually got a lot of regional products approved under Mullally: B-Max, C-Max, S-Max and Galaxy were all Europe only, at least initially. The problem was Ford Europe bet wrong on MPV instead of CUV. They had a head start on Fusion but gave that up to do the B-Max which was a disaster. And instead of doing another C-Max tall hatch, they should have done what Peugeot did with 3008 and made it a CUV. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, bzcat said: Ford Europe actually got a lot of regional products approved under Mullally: B-Max, C-Max, S-Max and Galaxy were all Europe only, at least initially. The problem was Ford Europe bet wrong on MPV instead of CUV. They had a head start on Fusion but gave that up to do the B-Max which was a disaster. And instead of doing another C-Max tall hatch, they should have done what Peugeot did with 3008 and made it a CUV. With respect, C-Max, S-Max and Galaxy were all vehicles begun in the mid 2000s and when it came to approving those next product cycles, we have to remember where Ford US was in the second half of the 2000s. At the time, Ford Europe was the only division keeping Ford afloat but the decision to skimp on Euro product was to just go "evolve" product for the next cycle and not change too much. Ford globalising Ford Europe's main platforms, C1 and EUCD, reworked to become CD4 (V6s, AWD and Edge) most of which wasn't core to Europe's needs. Long story short, Ford did to its Euro division what it did to Volvo, ran the brand ragged with cost savings to prop up USA and then wondered why a complete product cycle of rolled over MPVs didn't work in European. Ford Europe was unable to manage change because it was locked into nearly eight year long product cycles to save money. Edited February 17, 2021 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.