Flex not so popular

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Ford is already canceling a third shift at their Canadian plant where the Flex is produced.
Not good news for an all new car. And a nice one.
If their good cars don’t sell well, what will they do?

But I must say that, after driving it, I was wondering who wide the market was for such a large car in the current market.
I averaged 18MPG during the day. Which isn’t bad if you need to carry 7 people, but how many people actually do?
Most of us now need way better than 18MPG. Most people will now leave the big family car at home as much as possible and use something much more efficient to get to work.

Ford is also adjusting to the sale numbers (35% drop from 2004 and 2005) of the F 150 by also canceling a 3rd shift at their Kentucky truck plant.
Any good news in sight????

Conversation 24 comments

  1. Yeh thank god big just doesn’t cut it anymore. Honda is cutting back on the once popular minivan and pilots. Handwriting is on the wall. USA roads are going to be looking more and more European very soon. Only good news for Ford is that they do very well in Europe, actually make money!!!!!

  2. I told ya so…remember me, I am the one that said Bill Ford , with these duds, will be responsible for ruining the Ford empire. This P.O.S. Could not really be expected to sell. maybe it’s an inside deal with a chinese company to bring ford to the brink and then they buy it (ford)cheap?

  3. liberals like you cant wait to see the big 3 bite teh dust you should all baashamed ford is doing fine thank you very much

  4. Ford has serious problems, but people don’t want to see Ford fail. We just want them to make smarter choices for the American market. FoMoCo needs to have a domestic line up as competent as their European range.

  5. If Ford were smart, they’d be sending their people (in droves) to train with Mazda. I dont want to see Ford fail either but even after 3 decades of getting their butts kicked, they’re still arrogant and slow in their decision making. They need to get out of Detroit which seems to have its mind made up (wrongly) on what American consumers want. I drove a Ford rental (a nice new Fusion) recently, but I was happy to get back to my car which is more comfortable, more modern, and more fun. Some things on the Fusion were cheap, and the car just felt, uhm….old . I’d never buy one a Fusion now. Wake up Ford. Take action NOW or let Mazda run YOU!

  6. I thought it was a stupid idea to replace a good minivan with basically an SUV. Most American family has an average of 3 to 4 people. They don’t NEED a car with a third row (useless at that especially there is no space behind it). Family who does need a third row is probably getting a minivan with its convenience of sliding doors and useable behind the third row storage.

  7. Little people bashing big cars…what runts.

    This thing is just to goofy to sell. Why get this over a minivan?

  8. What do you ignorant jackasses know about someone elses ‘needs’. Douchebag Jones is the only intelligent poster left here.

  9. The Flex is pretty cool. I’ve seen them on the road and they look great. Even though it’s not a huge vehicle and I do think there’s a demand for it, the timing for this is just awful. People are shell-shocked by the sharp rise in gas prices that no one dares buy anything except small cars right now. What Ford needs is well-optioned small cars to compete with the GTI and Mini. Efficient to own, but not necessarily cheap to buy. Ford won’t ever make any money off of cheap economy cars.

  10. The woes of releasing a new vehicle when petrol prices are at their worst and there is a recession.
    They may take off a bit later on.

  11. Ford won’t ever make any money off of cheap economy cars.

    At a town hall-style meeting this year, he (Ford Chief Executive, Alan Mulally) expressed frustration when one employee suggested that making small cars was a money-losing proposition.

    “Why can’t we make money on small cars?” Mr. Mulally said, according to two people in attendance. “Do you think Toyota can’t make money on small cars?”

    At virtually every management meeting, Mr. Mulally would repeatedly refer to charts showing that smaller vehicles constituted 60 percent of the global automotive market.

    Each time an executive suggested that Ford’s future lay in expanding its truck business, Mr. Mulally pulled the charts out.

    “Let’s see, the global share of large vehicles is 15 percent,” he said at one such meeting, according to people in attendance. “And you’re telling me you want to invest more in them?”

  12. 7:51

    I guess my point was that Ford is not equipped to sell cars on price alone. If Ford attempts to sell cheap cars at a profit, the Japanese will sell them cheaper. So will the Koreans, the Chinese and the Indians. Small cars don’t need to be cheap. The Mini isn’t cheap, neither is the GTI or Civic SI or Audi A3. This is the sweet-spot that the domestic brands need to hit. High margin hi-feature small cars. That’s the only way they can compete without completely outsourcing the production to third-world countries.

  13. Ford needs to build plants in non-union states. Not Mexico or Canada since NAFTA is a bastard policy
    that doesn’t help our economy. I think Ford should
    use a 4 cylinder turbo and shave some of the weight off to please consumers during this (controlled) gas crises or just bring out bio-diesels Also, I see no need for Ford to play pocket pool, it would take 5 months to get operations
    to make their Euro designed models here.
    Americans really like those designs and it will
    create an ” aporia” for the competition.

  14. I have to admit, douchbag finally said something true. I “do” want to see ford go out of business, as well as gm and chrysler. These companies have raped the environment with their products for years, and have raped consumers up until the japanese shed light on what real cars could be. They have had decades to change their plans and ford brings this out, gm is bringing the camaro back, chrysler the challenger. these idiots are lost, and will be gone, I hope , within 5 to 7. let’s keep our fingers crossed. Don’t worry, the chinese and japanese will employ you.

  15. The Flex is selling well in the last few weeks of june it was realeased and sold 1,400 so what the hell is this article talking about.

  16. The only reason the big 3 have a lock on SUV/Trucks is because the scumbags got the scumbag government to restrict imports of these. The big 3 are toast now that gas prices are high and they will not be able to make a profit on small cars. The scumbag government is going to steal from us and hand the loot over to the big 3. You voters are frikkin terrorist maggots.

  17. vince would look great in one of these. Ford is done, these are selling very very very poorly. Why? because they are f’in ugly!

  18. Ford thought the Flex would sell better back when gas was $2.50 so the third shift is not needed yet.
    It is a good car but it is too bus-like. I would rather have a Honda minivan.

  19. Eco boost engines and Fords upcoming DSG tranny’s are hopefully right around the corner. Between those 2 and if they have a hybrid version of the Flex, well, it should be alright. If they keep it as is though they might have a problem then.

    Ford and GM I believe will be just fine. They may lose a lot of money and have to consolidate operations but they will live. Chrysler I’m not so sure about however. Did anyone else read that Chrysler is going to stop leases? That sounds like a warning flag to me.

  20. Looks like a stretch first-gen Scion xB. Yuck.

    Why doesn’t Ford bring in some smaller cars here… NOW. Same with GM. They wait too long and it is going to be a catch-up game with Honda and Toyota again.

    History does repeat itself, heh?

  21. Chrysler is getting ready to sell their pig…I bet they could not even give Chrysler away…Chrysler is worth less than nothing thanks to the UAW sucking the life out of it.

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