[Frost__2001]

Flint: Ford’s Graveyard Fills Up
Anybody makes mistakes, but so many?
by Jerry Flint

In the old days, our car companies sometimes killed model names. Fairlane went at Ford, Bel Air went at Chevy, and who has heard of the Dodge Royal Lancer? Killing actual models - not the names, the vehicles - was rare. That's because here we're talking about killing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, in tools and dies and brand identity.

Killing a model means failure. You did it so wrong; you've got to admit it. We remember when it happens: GM kills the Camaro, Chrysler killsPlymouth.

It's a rare thing. Except at the Ford Motor Co.

Here's a list of Ford cars and trucks killed or soon to be killed. This list goes back to 1999. Look how long it is:

Taurus (to die soon)
Sable (the Mercury Taurus, dead already)
Thunderbird (The only Ford anyone turned to see, dead)
Lincoln Blackwood (Who approved this and is he still at Ford?)
Lincoln Aviator (not bad but gone anyway)
Escort (remember the Escort? 400,000 sales, dead since 2002)
Ford Contour (the $6 million baby, the failed transplant)
Mercury Mystique (the Mercury Contour)
Continental
Excursion (the bigger they come…)
Lincoln LS (this car was murdered)
Mercury Cougar
Mercury Villager
Mercury Tracer ( the Mercury Escort , dead since 1999)

That's fourteen vehicles, and I may have missed some. I've never seen anything like it. And we know there are more to come. The Ford GT is going, and I suspect the Windstar minivan and its Mercury sidekick, the Monterey, are not long for this world. When the Wixom, Mich., plant closes I suppose the Lincoln Town Car will go. And I've never been able to figure out the plan for the Ford Freestyle, which is the new crossover (though it looks just like a station wagon) built in Chicago. One day it's going to die, then it's going to live, then there's to be a Mercury version, then there's not. I've lost track and stopped trying.

Dead in its track record

Anyone can kill a model or two. But look at the list. There are so many at Ford. Is it any wonder the company's in trouble? This list says that the Ford team has had no idea of what makes a successful car and that even if they have one they don't know how to sell it or fix its problems. I would say there are examples of both in that list.

For example, look at the Blackwood, that strange Lincoln $50,000 SUV/pickup that had no four-wheel-drive and really couldn't even work as a pickup despite the big box. That should never have been built. Whose idea was this and is he still at Ford? The Contour and Mystique, Ford's world cars, didn't work here at all. Ford always had dreamed of a world car, so I suppose that no one wanted to tell the boss that they wouldn't work here.

But the Thunderbird and the Lincoln LS are examples are cars that came out with great fanfare, were hits initially, but faded because of ineptitude at the company level. Ford just failed to improve the cars or correct the problems, and when the going got tough, Ford turned quitter, who's to say where the fresh look of the current Mustangs are going.

The Taurus, once the best-selling American car, and Mercury Sable (they sold 300,000 a year!), were well accepted by the public with good quality, too. Instead of correcting the problems, Ford quit on them.

The Excursion. Okay, it was big, but there's room for a big vehicle. Look at the Suburban.

Alas, you've got to know how to sell it, or at least care. And the Escort / Tracer? Nearly 300,000 sales just seven years ago (1999). Don't even ask. The Lincoln Aviator was another that should have been more successful. Ford just seemed to stop caring about the car.

Cars and trucks, even the successful ones, do run into problems and most automakers correct the problems. At Ford when there's a problem they seem to quit, give up, and kill the car.

What is strange is that this is a company that really knew marketing and how to sell, and had great dealers, too. Somehow the men who knew how to sell were driven from the company. Those left just don't seem to have the knack.

Ford's new plan is called the "Way Forward." They might go forward by learning from the past.

Here are some suggestions:

When a vehicle line has problems, fix them. Your former top-selling vehicles like the Focus and the Ranger have problems today. They are dying out there. Don't just sit there, fix the problems!

Expand your lineups with variety. If you have a four-door sedan (like the Lincoln LS), figure out how to build an SUV/CUV/sport wagon from it, and maybe a coupe or convertible. If you've got something that sells at Ford, get a Mercury version. The Mustang sells. Where's the Mercury Capri? Mercury was never good enough for a version of the small Focus? Why not?

If you have any belief in brand quality or brand identity, stop changing the names of the cars every minute.

And if you need more help, just ask me.