[RegulatorCountry]

"Don't change their basic frames and footprints, but make them look and feel new"

Shades of Packard, Studebaker, Hudson and AMC. And we all know where they ended up. There already is a superior Focus, in the European market. Why Ford doesn't just bring that model here is something of a mystery to me. Why Ford chose to allow the Taurus, once the top-selling sedan in the country, to grow long in the tooth, be relegated to almost exclusively fleet sales, and eventually fade away, is yet another mystery.

[Getready]

Fords strategy has worked for volkswagen/toyota/nissan/honda/mercedes
etc...
Take a reasonable car (insert one here, say VW bug/corona/510/civic/Bclass)
and continue to improve it, eventually it gets to be RELIABLE,
and people will invest in it...that becomes your HALO car,
and then you can build off of that...the idea of introducing
reliable,new cars at once although interesting, doesn't get
the bulk of buyers, housemarms, students, and work-a-daddies.
Corvette is cool cause they took the basic same model, and
constantly tweaked, and twaddled till they got the Z06 which
is almost as super as any car....I hope the UAW, and Ford
is learning that the unions know nothing about creating jobs that
will be successful in the market place....hopefully the UAW
is realizing that it is "striking" itself out of existence.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I guess the 500 was supposed to pick up where the Taurus ended. The last Taurus was an attractive 4 door, finally. The 500 looks like a hunched up bug of some kind...

[GaryMontana]

In 1986 after graduating from college and getting my first professional position I bought a new Ford. It was a a car from hell! From driving it off from the Ford Dealer's lot having the radio failed on the drive home to having the transmission fail within the first three thousand miles, taking it back to the dealer numerous times to for virtually every problem and than eventually getting into a horrible accident (after which I went through 18 months of physical therapy) due to the brakes failing with less than 10,000 miles. Yes, the state I lived in even did an investigation into the accident I was in and found that it was the fault of FORD for putting on faulty mechanics for the brakes on my Ford. \

After my accident I took the information on the accident and went to the dealer, Ford and talked with the Ford Zone representative. The Ford Zone Representative laughed at me and said you can sue Ford, we will tie it up in court and you will get nothing because we have deeper pockets than you have.

I will never ever under any circumstances buy another FORD!!!!

I HOPE FORD GOES OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!

Hey Ford you screwed me! I hope you go out of business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO TELL EVERYONE WHAT GARBAGE YOU PRODUCE! I HOPE TO STOP EVERYONE WHO I KNOW IS CONSIDERING PURCHASING ONE OF YOUR PIECES OF GARBAGE!

[VOA]

There already is a superior Focus, in the European market.

You get the feeling the Ford managers don't read any automotive magazines.
Because those mags (and anybody with an IQ over room temp, including
myself) has been telling them:
"Just build the cars you make in Europe, Australia and Japan here
and sell them here, ya morons!"

[RobbyS]

Why? Because Ford is controlled by bean-counters rather than engineers and designers.