[Shotimes] Sorta OT: Ford to replace Taurus with Futura

[Ron Porter]

What I'm talking about has NOTHING to do with service. It's the sales end.
SHOS were sales dogs, they didn't sell enough. Ford then stuck the dealers
with the build-out of the '95s, and some dealers had them stocked up and
were almost GIVING them away.

Ford dealers then got smart, and didn't carry many in their inventories when
the Gen 3 came out. Ford then REALLY pissed off the dealers when they MADE
them take '99 SHOs before they could get all of the trucks & SUVs they
wanted.

IMHO, any special models will all be SVT-type models in the future, with
only SVT-certified dealers handling them. And no SHOs.....as I said, SHO =
Edsel in the dealers' minds.

Ron Porter

-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
[mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Bruce Malachuk
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 2:12 PM
To: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Sorta OT: Ford to replace Taurus with Futura


I don't really understand why the dealers hate the SHO so much. I mean yeah
they are a pain to work on, but at the same time they really aren't that
bad. I'd say that if they were smart and did a SHO, the only offer it at
select dealers like they do with the SVT stuff, unless that has change now
too. I remember back in 98-99 or so I was looking at the contour SVT's and
only 2 dealers in Albany were "certified" SVT dealers.