[Shotimes] RE: Gen I vs. Gen II:

[van Oss]

Herewith an excerpt from "Car: A Drama of the American Workplace" by Mary
Walton (the story of the design and build of Gen3).

Joseph

"So enamored was marketing of green, the color of choice on 24 percent of
1993 Tauruses, that they wanted not one but two greens for the 1996 Taurus
and Sable. Medium Willow was a shoe-in because it matched the green
interior. Color and Trim [Dept.] strongly suggested that the second green be
the paler Light Evergreen Frost, but the dealers had flipped out over a
shade similar to Willow called Pacific Green.  To the untrained eye they
looked almost exactly alike.  Planner Brad Nelson, to whom [program manager]
Landgraff had delegated color selection, was with the Design Center on this
one.  But they were no match for marketing.  The car line ended up with the
two look-alike greens.

"Landgraff's vigilance over every aspect of DN101 made it all the more
surprising that he did not exercise the program manager's prerogative to
advise on colors. He did not even render an opinion. There had been a time
when he was as involved as anyone else in his position, but he had lost all
faith in his own judgment. It happened during the Great Green Debate of
1988, back when David Rees headed the Design Center's color and trim
department. Rees was convinced that green was the color for the nineties.
Landgraff was equally convinced that green had faded into the past. Ross
Roberts agreed. Rees got word that Roberts had told his marketing people, in
so many words, "The first man who suggests green, I'll fire him.

[Lengthy discussion of David Rees campaigning for green...]

"Suddenly Ford couldn't make enough green cars.  It was the smash hit of
1992, the customer choice on more than a quarter of all Escorts and 18
percent of Tauruses, trailed by white at 15.5 percent.  Black Tauruses were
the least popular, at 2.5 percent.

"In time, Rees and Landgraff would laugh together over what had happened.
'I was dead wrong,' Landgraff said.  .... But he never warmed up to green.
Over at the test track one day to try out some new seats, he found himself
confronted with a 100 percent green Taurus. 'God, I hate this green
interior,' he said as he climbed in.  'I feel like Robin Hood.  I feel like
I'm in [expletive] Sherwood Forest. Do we sell any of these?"


----- Original Message -----
I never really said that I didn't like the green.  I just think Ford
OVER-used the color on everything from Taurus SHOs n SLOs to Eddie Bauer
Explorers.
James F. Ryan III
formerly of Wayne, NJ
living in Long Beach, CA for the next month