Posted on 04/20/2012 6:21:08 PM PDT by rhema
That version of the “mustang” was just a pinto with a bigger butt.
That’s not the mustang. That was just a concept car for some of the ideas they are kicking around.
There is only one halfway do-able in the whole bunch.
I blame wind tunnels. Designers try to render the most aerodynamic vehicles they can modeling them based on airflow, and unsurprisingly, the air at the Ford, Toyota, BMW, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai design studios all flows pretty much the same.
Nose wheel drive with engines that couldn't break the 55 mph national speed limit?
Real American cars with big impressive American car bodies that unapologetically gave no quarter to little sissy Jimmy and his european model!!!
I've been looking at Consumer's Report and other used- and new-car guides going back to 2004. I collected them while I was saving coin (or trying to) for my 2007 Mustang GT that I got last May.
You're right that the Probe in its day, and now the Fusion, are based on the Mazda 6/626 platform. The Mercury Milan and also the Lincoln MKZ, as well as the Jag X-Type, were all based on the Mazda 6 as well.
The key is the coming 2013 Fusion, due to debut next month. This is part of a top-down corporate strategy, the One Ford strategy, that embraces all the subs and all their models (call it a New World Order for Ford cars).
The drive is toward less choice, fewer models, and smaller cars with smaller "Ecotec" engines. That's why the Mercury line and the much-demanded, police- and fleet-standard, FULL-SIZED Crown Victoria went away and Jag got sold off. The Five Hundred/Taurus is a waystation; it'll disappear, too, because even though it's less car than a Crown Vic, it's still too much car for the money, and Ford wants to sell still-less car, the Fusion, for the same money. With the two hybrid versions, the price band for the Fusion is almost on par now with the last Crown Vics, in the $24,000 - $42,000 range, spread over a ramifying four or five trim levels. (You know you're in trouble when they announce that the car with the equipment you want will be called the "Titanium" or "Platinum" model.)
The Taurus will go away (I predict), leaving the Fusion as the "big" "family" car.
The Fusion is losing its V-6 offerings. The base (in more ways than one) normally-aspirated four-cylinder stays, which puts out about 140 HP, but the only upgrade engines will be a pair of 2.0-liter turbo jobs, the better of which will generate about 211 horse, less than the V-6's make now, or about what the normally-aspirated V-6 that was being dropped into plain-jane 2010 Mustangs made, before the Ecotec 6 showed up with 306 horsepower in the Mustang (and more than that in the uprated Taurus offerings).
Expect all the Ecotec sixes and eights to go away. They're too good for us -- Nancy Pelosi and Barack I Osagyefo have spoken, and Ford obeys.
The Ford of the future will have smaller, fewer engines, less horsepower, front drive, gunking and turbocharger problems, and wider profit margins. That's what is going on: Congressional Democrats plus automotive bureaucrats = GIANT SCREW JOB.
Thank you.
Current transmission options in the 2013 Fusion are manual available for the base engine only (which is intended for fleet sales, most of which would have slush pumps anyway). The upgrade 2.0-liter turbos get slushpumps only, and only the turbo engines will be mated with the available AWD. I expect that the Mustang would be the same; and the manual might be dropped entirely, on the rationale that "we aren't building cars anymore for old farts who know how to drive manuals: we're all about Obama-loving Gen Y s***heads now, that's where the money will be." (At least until Obozo and George Soros get through reproletarizing them, but the Ford guys don't know that yet.)
At some point, one would like to think, this Vichythink collaborationism and Obama triumphalism will pass out of vogue in the Ford suite and they'll go back to building real cars for car guys and other enthusiasts. But right now it appears they have their eyes firmly fixed on Big Bad Mack Daddy.
Ford Probe, the Sequel.
I have to say, that’s pretty cool, very aggressive looking...
what about the “gelding”?
Bingo. Out here, they make nice second cars for some of the younger rig hands. Their first vehicle is a pickup they can park the mustang under...
Maybe it's my aging eyes, but they've looked the same to me for 20 years.
Car? What car?
What is that? A modified Aztec?
I see a lot of Aston-Martin design cues in that pic. No surprise considering that Ford owned them for many years.
I quite fancy the second gal from the left.
Hahahah...man, that thing had such crappy get-up-and-go, it would do a severe injustice to geldings.
Every one a virgin!
That’s a ‘66. I had one just like it. Baby blue. The first car I ever drove by myself was a ‘64 baby blue.
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