[darkpuppet]

FocusGuy7476,Dec 7 2006, 03:39 PM Wrote:Explain to my why the rest of the world get all these better cars from Ford. Like Frost said Mexico gets all those car. North America is getting royally screwed in the realm of vehicle choices and quality.

If Ford did decide to bring over the Focus or any other models, you'd see them be on par with VWs pricing strategy.

And I'll take the words of the new CEO over an 18 year line worker at a plant, the guy turned around Boeing and that really says something to me.
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It's just the economies and perceptions are so different.

In europe, driving isn't a right, it's a privelege. Gas is 2 bucks a liter, getting your license costs in the thousands, and you still have the cost of permits, congestion fees, and parking that makes Toronto look like one giant empty lot by comparison.

It's the same as telephones over there. They don't know the concept of free land lines.. that's why cellphone usage is so much higher in europe too.. they already paid for every local call they made.

So the focus, to north america, is the tempo.. would you buy a 30,000 tempo? or a $30,000 escort?

hell, dealerships had a hard enough time emptying their lots of a $30,000 focus already (the SVT)....

Right now, conceivably, the one market the focus can compete in is the sub compact market, and actually, it's poised to be a vehicle people who could only affort a fit could conceivably afford the larger Focus.

In North America, that could actually be a good thing, since the common perception is 'bigger is better'.

Not to mention that the cheaper they can keep the car, the better the margins are on it. Ford NA is in so much trouble, they couldn't afford to lose more money by spending it to bring in the european models AND losing their margins at the same time.

They can do better with the time and money by making the car appear more upscale (hence all the reskins)... image seems to mean a lot more to people than performance when it comes to north american brands.

There are so many factors that'll keep the european focus out of NA. They're almost too many to number. But that doesn't mean we have to suffer. You can still get all the performance goodies in a mazda, or a volvo... you just can't have it in a focus.