Is that when the window sticker was available? Curious, when was your ship date, I am guessing somewhere around the 2nd week of April? Just trying to gauge transit times.
I think the "commodities" comment was mainly aimed at the US and Canada. The reality is many American models are too large and expensive for the rest of the world.
Subcompacts for example are important in many parts of the world like in Europe, South America and Asia. Ford's rivals continue to build these types of vehicles.
I will keep saying this - people buy family sedans because they’re cheaper than hatchbacks and utilities. No other reason to buy a fiesta or focus sedan over the hatchback. Therefore it’s a commodity and price is the only factor. There is a little more to midsizers as far as features, style or performance but high volume is based mostly on pricing and Nissan and the Koreans own low pricing.
Any sedan would have to be unique in some way to set it apart from the mass market. A 4 door Mustang sedan or hatchback would fit that mold and production at FR would be easy. Zephyr with a hybrid or PHEV would also fit and help Lincoln dealers. Mondeo would be a tougher sell compared to other midsizers but maybe the cool dash would set it apart.
It’s just so much tougher to make a car unique compared to trucks and utilities. And far less opportunity for add on packages.
I think the primary reason is that the Shelby name doesn't resonate with younger buyers as much. They came out almost 60 years ago-They where only 20 years old or so when I was a teenager, so they still had mystique about them. Its kinda like moving the vette to a mid engine design because the front one had an image of older dudes in white new balances and jean shorts lol
I haven't heard anything about production numbers for the Dark Horse model. I'm not sure how much of an impact interest rates have on sales of high-end models considering the customer profiles for such vehicles. I was surprised that Ford did the Dark Horse instead of working with Shelby for exactly the reasons you stated!
Has Ford put out any production numbers for the Dark Horse? Given the way interest rates are now, I'd expect anything that is limited edition with an ADM Not to sell easily. A Dark Horse doesn't have the same cache as say a Shelby with the typical Mustang buyer IMO.