[Shotimes] OT - 2006 Mercury Milan

[Ron Porter]

We are talking apples and atom bombs here. What the motoring press &
enthusiasts think about a car has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with it's
performance on the showroom floor. If largely decreasing sales that only met
projections ONE year (for the projected 20K/year....and it was in '93 when
the ATX came out) doesn't qualify as a sales failure, I don't know what the
hell does!! From SHOtimes:

Model Year 5-speeds Automatics Total 
1989 15,561   15,561 
1990 8,609   8,609 
1991 9,136   9,136 
1992 8,000   8,000 
1993 *4,095 *18,337 21,991 
1994 *2,497 *11,201 13,698 
1995 *2,036 *7,980 10,016 
 Right Hand Left Hand  
1996 91 4,942 5,033 
1997 1 (one)  10,132 10,133 
1998   **2,317 
1999   no data

It's not my "desire to never sound like a cheerleader", it's to fight the
nausea from the blind cheerleading for this car and I don't find on any of
the car lists that I've subscribed to over the years. Get real. To love the
car for what it is is fine, to attempt to rewrite history to act like the
SHO was the Second Coming is way over the top, and not justified.

My description of what dealers and sales people think of the SHO is reality.
There are obviously people here who take it as a slam on all that the car
is.  No, it was more than "a few '89s left over", there were SHOs left over
almost to the next ('91) model year, and this was the case for '89, '95, and
'99s....plus obviously my '94 that sat on the lot for 15 months. I will
spare the other years of SHOs, as I wasn't looking at leftover sales in
those years when I wasn't interested in buying.

Don, I guess my 15 years of SHO ownership (and having at least one of each
Gen) doesn't entitle me to have "maybe" seen a few things with these cars,
and you obviously don't see me as a "TRUE SHO BELIEVER" since I might dare
to disparage certain aspects pertaining to these cars.

Ron Porter



-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Donald Mallinson
Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2004 10:12 PM
Cc: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] OT - 2006 Mercury Milan


The SHO numbers were better than the new GTO, and no, sales 
didn't nosedive, sales of near 10,000 aren't horrible, even 
is below predictions.

I am not letting anything blind me, I just don't feel like 
the car was a sales failure.

Sure there were 89's left over.  With ultra rare exceptions 
there are ALWAYS cars left over well into the next year.

I think you are letting your desire to never sound like a 
cheerleader, cause you to unfairly put down a car that was 
seriously applauded by all the motoring press for more than 
the 15 minutes of fame you assign to it.