[Shotimes] (OT) Forbe's article about Ford

[Ron Nottingham]

You are correct, the Euro and JDM Accords are smaller than the US Accord,
but the current US Taurus is too large, almost the size of the current Crown
Vic (not really, but it looks it).  The current Taurus is 10 inches too
long, and to me it looks like it has been stretched.

To me, what happened to the Gen3 Taurus, was Ford lost focus of the correct
target (Honda Accord/Toyota Camry), and set it's sights on a different
target, the ChryCo LH sedans, which weren't any competition, and never sold
in enough numbers to warrant such a redesign.

And looking at the specs for the current Accord sedan (length:189.5 in,
width: 71.5, height: 57.1, wheelbase: 107.9) and the Camry (length:189.2 in,
width: 70.7, height: 57.9, wheelbase: 107.1) compare favorably with the
Gen1/2 Taurus (length:188.4 in, width: 70.8, height: 54.3, wheelbase: 106.0)
vs. the current Taurus (length:197.6 in, width: 73, height: 56.1, wheelbase:
108.5) vs the Dodge Intrepid (length:203.7 in, width: 74.7, height: 55.9,
wheelbase: 113.0).  The Intrepid may be a nice car, but it is not the #1
selling car in the country, so why set your sights on that target?

Ron N. - Dalton, GA
90 SHO

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Kelley" <mrkelley64@earthlink.net>


> Something that occurred to me on my drive home from work is that the Euro
> and Japanese Accords are smaller than the American Accord (not sure about
> the Camry) because that aren't the right size for American tastes.  Nick
> Scheele needs to keep that in mind before he downsizes the Taurus (or
> whatever replaces it) due to his belief that Americans want smaller cars.
>
> Mark
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
> > [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Don McKinnon (AST)
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 4:28 PM
> > To: mrkelley64@earthlink.net; shotimes@autox.team.net
> > Subject: RE: [Shotimes] (OT) Forbe's article about Ford
> >
> >
> > I really like this article!
> > http://www.forbes.com/columnists/2002/10/29/cz_jf_1029flint.html
> >
> > "The way to fix the problem is to build a better Taurus. Keep it
> > longer, but
> > get more powerful motors. Your engines are no match for the
> > competition, and
> > you need a punchier four-cylinder for Taurus, too. "
> >
> > and...
> > "Meanwhile, rear-wheel drive is coming back into vogue, and Ford,
> > which has
> > the only rear-wheel-drive big U.S. sedans in production (the Ford Crown
> > Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis), could take advantage of this
> > fact. But
> > instead of turning these into competitive products, the automaker is
happy
> > to let them age and sell the Fords to taxi drivers and cops, and the
Mercs
> > to geezers like myself. "
> >
> > Don McKinnon
> > 95 MTX
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
> > [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Mark Kelley
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 2:04 PM
> > To: shotimes@autox.team.net
> > Subject: [Shotimes] (OT) Forbe's article about Ford
> >
> >
> > We've all heard the bad news about Ford.  This Forbe's article points
out
> > some of the strengths of Ford:
> >
> > http://www.forbes.com/home/2002/11/04/cz_jf_1104flint.html
> >
> > I find it interesting that some of the observations made in the
> > article are
> > the same as some observations posted on this list.
> >
> > Mark
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