All Cars, All the Time

Can Ford Do It?

Yeah, we've all seen the headlines "Ford Flexes it's Muscle" yadda, yadda. However, is the Flex a watershed vehicle? What else does the wizard have behind the curtain to save the brand?

Firstly, I do think highly of the Flex. It's a breakout approach that taps the style of aspirational vehicles like Range Rovers. No one else will have a product that looks like the Flex and that's good. The Flex bows next summer.

More vexing of a question is "What else does Ford have in the wings?" Vehicles such as the 500/Taurus however competent are not going to turn Ford's fortunes around. The next generation F-150, however, does have the potential to make tidy profits. Toyota is stumbling a bit out of the gate with its new Tundra and that's a lucky break for Ford. However, it won't be long before Toyota adjusts its pricing, fixes its crash tests and starts putting up a real fight. GM's new entries are excellent and there is always Dodge to contend with. Nissan, to a lesser degree, is hungrily eyeing the table as well. Ford will be bringing over a smaller diesel for its non-heavy duty trucks and that's a good thing. It's too bad that it's first stab at a diesel V6 didn't work out, but the Range Rover sourced unit won't have all that nasty Navistar/International baggage hanging around its neck (a definite plus).

What about European Fords? Good idea, I think, and the only question is how to recoup the Euro premium. I'm in the "Make 'em a Mercury" camp and have the middle child dump all the "me too" Ford products. Then I'll have something to put on my list besides Jill Wagner (the brand spokeswoman).

Can Lincoln turn it around? A tough challenge for a brand that has failed mightily in the past few years. It's hard to remember back to the day when Cadillac had to fess up and admit that it had to fudge its numbers to beat Lincoln. Wow. Who would've foreseen that reversal of fortune. I've sampled the MKX, but sadly I find it too similar to its Ford cousin. The plastics on the lower half of the dash felt cheap (the glovebox door was a joke), the programming for the alarm kept it sounding off on the showroom floor, the hood had a ripple in the sheet metal and the sticker was $42k! Hopefully Lincoln's variation of the Flex will be much better (rumor has it that it is quite different from the Ford). The MKZ has had a nice round of improvements but the MKS (at least in concept form) appears less than stellar. Personally, I'd try and pull in some more flavor from Jaguar. Yes, the LS/S-Type duo had it's flaws, but a premium RWD Lincoln sedan with some help from its Jaguar friends could be a shot in the arm. I'd make sure that the Lincoln had an American presence, but why not make use of some Jaguar goodness. The XJ is an under appreciated vehicle in my book.

Bottom line? Ford CAN do it. The pieces to the puzzle are all there, but some are in the couch, maybe a couple behind the fridge. Alan & Co need to sniff out all the goodness that lies in the corporate largess and rekindle the kind of magic that created the first Taurus.

I've got more thoughts on Ford, but I'll close this article out now and send it to the press.