Notice how similar the Ford 427 is to the Chrysler
300? They could have had that market, albeit only if they offered a lesser engine as well as the big one. They could still make a dent, but their answer to the Chysler is the 500, which in terms of pizzaz is FAR behind the Chrysler.
Rich,
I don't think you'll find anyone who'll disagree with you. The Ford
427 was an awesome car, while their 500 is Toyota-Camry plain.Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD
X-No-archive:yes Regarding: " Rich, I don't think you'll find anyone who'll disagree with you. The Ford 427 was an awesome car, while their 500 is Toyota-Camry plain. Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD"
*********************************************** While I was at the local dealer I saw the new "500".Since my first and still favorite car was a "500"(a '64 galaxy 500) I was very interested in it.However it's "styling" was so neutral,generic and absolutely lacking any real ,well,Hell it was just so PLAIN looking that I had to give it a long look to see exactly what it was.And I didn't see anything.It's a non-car. I'd buy an old galaxy before one of those. The new stangs look pretty nice though. Brian O ******************** There are three kinds of lies; lies,damned lies,and statistics.---DisraeliFord Tweaks Styling By Peter Robinson Ward's Auto World.
[...]Far more significant is the Five Hundred, Ford's new big sedan, an alternative to the Taurus, once America's best-selling car and based on the Volvo P2X (S80) platform. Mays doesn't disagree that it looks like a cross between a Passat and Audi A6 (which he helped design), with Mercedes' taillights and an old Ford grille.
"The Five Hundred is an evolution of where we are going; it's not the end result," he says. "It's the first car I did in the U.S. It was frozen at the same time as the Mondeo (launched in late 2000). This was still me training, with a lot of Audi design DNA in my head. I was trying to clean up the swirly design I'd inherited.
"People say we were too conservative with the Five Hundred, but it's a good-looking, conservative car," Mays adds. "The market is coming to aspirational cars that look expensive, not innovative. Is the conservatism going to affect sales? No, no, no."
Nobody "aspires" to own a frigging Volvo. Unless they have leather patches on their elbows.
-Rich
I'm not a fan of red cars, but I'd take a red Volvo S40 with a bigger turbo. I figure a 2.4l 5-cyl turbo engine rated at 240hp w/ AWD should be able to run with a lot of stuff out there... put a bigger turbo on it, push 300+hp, it's starting to sound like the same formula that the DSM tuners use to push their 2.0l 4-cyl Eclipses into the 11s and beyond. Even considering it's AWD turbo *and* kind of a luxury car, it's still going for around the price of a new Mustang GT.
I'd still rather have the Mustang though, don't get me wrong. The Volvo still isn't my dream car.
JS
Power from a Volvo?? They had to go begging Yamaha for a V8 to use in their SUV. Or was that Volkswagen? One of those brands.
Actually, it's a Ford design built by Yamaha. The engine is a re-newed version of the V8 from the later model Taurus SHO. Since Ford had an excellent 60degree V8, I see no reason not to use it.
Chrysler's quality sucks!
Steve Brooks
That's a given. But if bad quality stopped sales, no European car would ever be sold again!!
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