| Page 3 of 3 < |
Ford Designers Redo Focus, Five Hundred
TOOLBOX   Resize
 Save/Share +
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
|
He and Rebecca Lindland, an auto analyst at Global Insight, an economic research and consulting company, said Ford may not have had the cash to redo the Focus completely, a charge that Ford denies.
Merkle said Ford could have brought the superior European Focus to America instead of remaking the U.S. version.
"Ford does a lot of things that sometimes I just scratch my head over," he said.
Lindland likes the new Focus but said the Five Hundred still is too conservative to set it apart from competitors.
"In order to attract people into a showroom, you need to have something that's going to turn people's heads," she said. "It's not cutting edge at all."
The people working on the new cars, though, think otherwise.
"Our mind-set hasn't changed regardless of what our financial position is," said Beth Donovan, Ford's small car marketing manager. "We want to win."
____
On the Net: http:/
