Ford....in trouble??

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Originally Posted by Mike L. V.
Fusion, Focus and Fiesta are pushing up daisies. Toyota and Honda had Ford cutting their losses. When was the last time Ford had a car win Car of the Year or Make Motor Trends Top 10?


I'd not use Motor Trend's Car of the Year as a benchmark. Plenty of junk on that list over the years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Trend_Car_of_the_Year

And Ford has more on that list than Toyota and Honda.
 
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Originally Posted by itguy08
Originally Posted by fdcg27
The Korean, Japanese and Europeans makers have all retained full lines of vehicles from entry level hatches through large CUV/SUV vehicles.
It's only the now little two who haven't.
Maybe GM and Ford are right and all of the rest of the world's major vehicle assemblers are wrong?
I wouldn't bet too much on that being the case myself.


Again, look at the data. Leave your bias behind.
https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2020-us-passenger-car-sales-figures-by-model/

Notice the vast majority of CARS are DOWN IN SALES. From everyone, especially the Korean, Japanese and Europeans. Imagine that..... The only non-domestic automaker with a full lineup is Toyota and Nissan. They all have Cars, CUV, SUV, and trucks. The rest are missing parts of those segments. No trucks or LARGE(think Suburban/Expedition) SUVs from Hyundai, Mazda, Kia, Mercedes, BMW, etc. Look at the ads - when was the last time you saw a Camry, Corolla, Accord, or
Civic ad? You see CR-V, Highlander, Pilot, RAV-4....

FCA has killed off nearly all their sedans too. They make 3. 300/Charger/Challenger. Their platforms are so old and dated they cost nothing to make.

I'd be willing to bet even some of those brands will quietly retire cars. One of the main reasons they do cars is it's easy as they sell those models elsewhere and I'd bet "federalizing" them is cheap. But you will see less and less new designs just tweaks and minor improvements like FCA has done.

In 2010 it was estimated that a new car cost a Billion to design (https://www.autoblog.com/2010/07/27/why-does-it-cost-so-much-for-automakers-to-develop-new-models/) and 2-4 years of time. That means you have to thing 2-4 years down. Sedan sales have been declining for a long while now. Why would any company pump $1Billion or more into a market that is constricting and has been accelerating its constriction for a while now? What sense does that make?


No bias involved.
Simply an observation of what makers with an actual global reach are doing with their product offerings that GM and Ford aren't.
Both Toyota and Honda have put money into new sedan models with interesting new tech.
That US market sales are off in the current environment doesn't see to have them too worried and the US is no longer the world's largest new car market in any event.
 
Another point is that Automakers like Toyota build cars for the world and have a world view towards the future. There is still a demand for sedans in that respect. The US is not the world and that is where Ford and GovMo fall short. Yes they sell vehicles worldwide but Toyota and VW and a few others are more successful at it.
 
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