They do listen… Really????

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Here is the latest from Europe (about Ford selling Euro models in the US):

“Ford US executives are eyeing Ford Europe products but no decisions have been made on models or branding, a Ford Europe spokesman told just-auto on Wednesday.”
So maybe they do listen. Finally

Models considered are the Euro Focus, the next Mondeo (pictured) and the S Max.
I say (and I did many times before) sell all of these as Mercury cars in the US.
Just what GM did with Opel and Saturn.

After decades of telling us selling Euro models here was impossible, they might actually do it.
This would be the quickest way for Ford to turn things around in the US.

I don’t think the Euro Focus would make it as a Ford here. The US Focus will be redesigned in a few months.
But as a small Mercury…

Conversation 20 comments

  1. Importing foreign talent seems to be working for Saturn. Why not Ford? Who would have thought ‘buying domestic’ would come to this?

    Give me a Mondeo hatch. Please!

  2. Vince:
    I hope they do bring over this 5 door Mondeo! Nice! This is what a 5 door Car should look like.

    I can’t believe I am gettin’ excited over a Ford product! lol.
    They had that Milan for under 20K… replace it…. and use thsi 5 door Mondeo for 19-20K, to start… I’d seriously consider one!
    It’d be on my short list of cars!

    Maybe this Mullay(sp?) guy will do something postivie at Ford after all?

  3. I agree. Rather than Mercury being nothing but Fords with unique grills and taillights, dump all of them (or most), and replace them all with Ford of Europe products. It’s working for Saturn and would work for Mercury, if done properly (it’s a no brainer, given their current line).

  4. Ford is waking up! These cars are modern and attractive and will do well here if they don’t botch the introduction like they did with the Zephyr and the 500 and a bunch of others. Ford should also not let them grow old on the vine like they have done with the 1st gen Focus, the TC, the Crown Vic and a bunch of others.

    I disagree about these being sold primarily as Mercurys. This should be the bread-n-butter lineup for Ford’s core volume nameplate.

  5. I think the name “Mercury” is a big liability, just like “Oldsmobile” was.

    Oldsmobile in my opinion had the most interesting and the nicest designs of all GM line-ups, including Eighty-Eight and Aurora, yet they killed it.

    Mercury in the past decades has never had a cool car. Ford on the other hand has some nice names even in the U.S., such as Mustang, GT, F-series trucks.

    I think more people would have problem telling people they drive “a Mercury” than “a Ford”. I know I would.

  6. OK…so they are thinking of doing this…If they decide to do this, how long will it take? And will it be soon enough to save them? I hope so.

  7. Anybody else notice that the Mondeo pictured above from the Bond film has orange side markers in the headlights? Only US market cars have those. Euro cars don’t.

    I don’t see how they expect to make money importing Mondeos or any other cars from Europe right now. The Euro costs $1.33 as of today. Every other euro imported is getting squeezed. They would have to be built here.

  8. I just love when everyone says it working for saturn why not ford, what is working for saturn ? the L series was heavily based on a Opel platform and was a major sales flop, the sky is shared with pontiac and we gave it to Opel !!! the new Aura is not opel , it uses a stretched version of the “Epsilon” platform that’s also employed for the Pontiac G6 and Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, the new Vue is small, designed and built by Daewoo (korea) and probably gonna be way overpriced when it finally goes on sale, sooooo show me some hard sales fact of Euro Opels sold here in the states then ill believe ya ! so perhaps when we finally get a Opel designed and (Mexican) built astra, perhaps that will be the Euro opel that everyone is chanting about…

  9. As appealing as it may seem, selling attractive European cars here in the US under American nameplates has failed more often than not. Remember Merkur? How about the Ford Contour, a thinly disguised European design? There are others, and Ford has reason to be wary.

  10. I can’t really place it, but this design looks really dated. It’s curious…having inspired the US market Ford Fusion, the European Ford Mondeo has now gone in another direction, taking on obvious Mazda6 5-door influence.

    Badge-engineered Mercury design language always looks so contrived. Remember the latest Mercury Sable?

  11. Vince, Ford has to come up with a NEW NAMEPLATE to sell these AWESOME European platforms here in North America like Toyota has done with the Scion brand!!! Only then would they appeal to a new majority of youthful buyers and save the Big Blue Oval!

  12. Finally…..some product planning from ford that actually makes sense……

    ford may have been late to do this, but late is probably better than never.

  13. “As appealing as it may seem, selling attractive European cars here in the US under American nameplates has failed more often than not. Remember Merkur? How about the Ford Contour, a thinly disguised European design? There are others, and Ford has reason to be wary.”

    I agree that Ford should be wary. However the branding for Merkur was all wrong. What is a “Merkur” anyway? Was it a Mercury because it was sold in the Lincoln/Mercury showroom? The naming was confusing and contrived, and the marketing resources limited because it was essentially an underfunded startup brand with carryover product from Europe. The cars themselves were very very good, but starting a new brand was expensive, confusing and unnecessary.

    The Contour was also a good car, sporty-ish enough, but too small to be competitive against the Camry or Accord which had grown rapidly in size in the 90s. It was more along the lines of a Jetta III or Civic competitor, which was not who Ford targeted. A car like this would likely do extremely well these days. But we have the Fusion and the Milan, so Ford has a successful car for this class today.

    In the 80s and 90s, Ford was doing very well in the US with their home-grown products. That’s not at all the case today. They need to offer us some new, well though-out vehicles, regardless of where they come from. Ford is offering amazing products in EU that are extremely competitive against the Camry, Jetta/Golf, WRX and Accord and minivans. Glad they’ve decided to bring some of them here!

  14. “I don’t think the Euro Focus would make it as a Ford here. The US Focus will be redesigned in a few months.”

    Maybe, maybe not. Wasn’t the last Escort a one-year holdover until the 1st gen Focus was launched? We can only hope that this redesign is a one-year holdover until we get the 2nd gen EU Focus.

  15. Anonymous said…
    Vince, Ford has to come up with a NEW NAMEPLATE to sell these AWESOME European platforms here in North America like Toyota has done with the Scion brand!!! Only then would they appeal to a new majority of youthful buyers and save the Big Blue Oval!

    10:00 PM
    ———————————-

    Maybe the “Biwon?(get it, sounds sort of like” buy-one”..I’ll stick to my day job,lol).

    The Biwon!
    Sounds almost like a Chinese car, ro something along those lines?

  16. Remember Merkur? How about the Ford Contour, a thinly disguised European design?

    They were both horribly unreliable and poorly marketed. The Contour had some promise, but was too small for it’s market segment, while the Merkur came with a stupid name and an ‘oddness’ factor that just wasn’t cool.

    If the original concept is good then the execution should be better. The new Mondeo looks promising on both accounts. But, unless we go to Europe, we’ll never know here in the States.

  17. Ford euro Fiesta, euro Focus, Fusion, euro Mondeo, euro C-Max, euro Galaxy. This sounds like a winning lineup for ford.The UAW is dead, long live FORD !!!!Here is the last model Mondeo review:

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