Ford announces its killing off all its cars; Mustang survives

[redcoats1976]

its not astounding that the mustang is the last ford car standing.it started this segment of vehicles and camaro was GMs answer to ford.if ford scraps its 50 year old nameplate and format things wont be looking good for camaro either.

[NEstyle]

Thank god I can buy used cars and fix them myself or just build whatever I want. I would hate to be someone who needs to buy a new car because of the warranty.

[Moto-Mojo]

No doubt the demographics are changing. The first boomers are 73 this year. I think I’ve read threads here where there is a pretty broad spectrum of ages that own Camaros. Probably similar with Mustangs. They were wrong about the Millennials once before when they were going to alter how they catered to them in the workplace. Turned out when you needed a job, you had to look, act and perform like you did. Many said, F that and just stayed in the parents basement.

But many got an education and a good job. They also made babies hence, the need for a different car. We are probably witnessing the last of the muscle car wars in our lifetime - especially if you’re a boomer. It’s anybody’s guess what will appeal to the aging Millenial down the road. But someday, just like the boomer, they WILL get old and have some money to play with and not have to worry about hauling 2.4 kids to the game. Well, some at least. Probably smart on Ford’s part.

Some Millennials say the boomer “ruined their lives” already. I suspect I’ll be competing with them for my social security reserves!

[ThatMaro]

I hate the fact that Ford is “supposedly” going to be killing off the Fusion, I could care less about the Tarus or Focus....But the Fusion seems like it sells pretty good in the U.S so I dont know why ford just won’t keep it in the lineup. It looks pretty good exterior wise they just need to clean up the interior a little bit.

[dustin0284]

The only Ford I would consider buying is a Mustang, so i'm still good.

[Blueovalman]

If Ford is smart they will keep the Mustang as the Ford Mustang will help them bring in customers to sell them and other vehicles. All Ford’s other sedans they can discontinue but Ford will still manufacture parts for whatever models they decide to discontinue.

[Welker2]

In a way, their decision makes sense and I see other companies following suit. If you do a little research, you will see that over the past several years, the sales of 4-door cars has drastically slipped and continues to do so at an increasing rate, The reason for this appears to be that those needing/wanting family vehicles are opting for the more versatile utility vehicles (CUVs, SUVs, extended cab trucks); the sales of which have been upward trending during the same period.

As far as 2-door cars, I think the market will remain relatively stabile for some time. My reason for believing this is the demography, in general, of the buyers of these vehicles. The primary buyers include high school and college students, those a little older who's kids have left the nest, young couples/people who don't have kids, those who have two or more vehicles and, last but not least, car enthusiasts (like many of us).

What I see on a daily basis I think validates the above. In my neighborhood and those of family members in other states, as well as what I see during our many interstate road trips, 4-door vehicles are greatly out numbered by utility vehicles and 2-door vehicles. Since seeing this post, while driving through and walking our dogs on different routes through our neighborhood, which consists of just over 200 houses, I counted the number of 4-door vehicles I saw either parked or driving through. The total - 13; there was at least one if utility vehicle or 2-door parked in front of almost every home, even those few that had a 4-door. Additionally, out of the all the members of family (18 households/32 vehicles) only one owns a 4 door; one of my younger nieces picked up a ex police charger at an auction. Just my 0.2 on the topic

[SecondZ28]

Originally Posted by ThatMaro

I hate the fact that Ford is “supposedly” going to be killing off the Fusion,

Supposedly? Ford said it themselves...

https://media.ford.com/content/dam/f...financials.pdf

[05Goat]

I don't see them axing all these lines. But, these companies should be making more lines of cheaper AWD SUV mini vehicles. In the south and west, sedans are fine, but where we have winter, everyone should have AWD.. JMO of course.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by Blueovalman

If Ford is smart they will keep the Mustang as the Ford Mustang will help them bring in customers to sell them and other vehicles. All Ford’s other sedans they can discontinue but Ford will still manufacture parts for whatever models they decide to discontinue.

You'd think they could drop the least popular sedan models but still leave one or at the very most two sedans out of the four in the lineup for the half-million or so who did buy Ford sedans of some description. You're not going to put all of them into an SUV or even a crossover.

Here's an interview with Jim Farley where he's enamored of "tall ride heights" and tying emotion to off-road driving . . . the kind of driving that few SUVs actually do intentionally.

https://www.at.ford.com/en/homepage/...o-dealers.html


Between him and Hackett, they've guaranteed I won't be shopping at a blue oval store next time we need a car with more than four doors.


Norm

[frostys]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

You'd think they could drop the least popular sedan models but still leave one or at the very most two sedans out of the four in the lineup for the half-million or so who did buy Ford sedans of some description. You're not going to put all of them into an SUV or even a crossover.

Norm

Maybe they don't make enough money on them so they decided to axe it all in one swoop to be done with it. The market will move a bit with them going out of that segment so maybe those who are left in can generate more income out of it with less competing offerings being present.

[Chevy Runs Deep]

I believe some of it is industry influenced. Less model lines and more parts bin availability. Here in Atlanta the streets are full of sedans. Especially Japanese and Korean brands. My shop also has Uber and Lyft as clients and they almost exclusively drive Asian econo cars, or Fusions and Malibus. I dont get it at all. The Fusion especially since its pretty decent. Why pick a lifted station wagon with terrible handling characteristics when a minivan or full size suv has more utility, and sedan has superior performance, handling, aerodynamics, smaller foot print etc.

[18LTLoveIt]

In the news report Fusion will be the last car to be axed. It was just redesigned last year. Fiesta, Taurus go first.

[SecondZ28]

I get the profit side, but I don’t understand how Ford will hit the 54.5 mpg CAFE standard for 2025 when they have no cars to boost their fleet average