Why Ford Should Worry
Why Ford Should Worry. By: Muller, Joann, Forbes, 00156914, 2/13/2012, Vol. 189, Issue 2
Section:
Strategies
THE AUTO BUSINESS
Chief Alan Mulally and his executives are rightfully proud they avoided bankruptcy. But they're not safe yet. Not by a long shot.
The coronation went exactly according to Ford's script. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit 2,400 reporters hushed as video screens the size of tractor trailers flooded their vision. A booming voice shook Joe Louis Arena: Two household names, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, dominated the midsize car business last decade. "Then," said the voice, "something changed." Their sales and market share ran flat in 2008. When the recession hit, they plummeted. "What you might not realize is that Camry and Accord never recovered." Camry sales fell 31% between 2007 and 2010. The Accord fell 28%. Both slid further after the 2011 quake in Japan.
But not the Ford Fusion. Its sales rose 66% in the last four years. By 2011 it passed the Accord, but still trailed the Camry and Nissan's Altima.
Cue the loud music, the smoke machine and the car: the reinvented Fusion, a pretty sedan with premium features like technology that keeps you in your lane or helps you parallel park. When it goes on sale later this year, it'll be available with a variety of fuel-efficient power trains: gasoline, hybrid and plug-in hybrid that Ford says will get the equivalent of 100mpg-better than a Chevrolet Volt or a plug-in Toyota Prius. No price just yet.
The message is unmistakably aggressive, arguably arrogant: Ford just redefined the midsize-car market. The rest of the field, including General Motors' redesigned Chevrolet Malibu and the popular Hyundai Sonata, should pack it in. "I think we're going forward with some quiet confidence," Ford's president of the Americas, Mark Fields, said later that evening over a filet mignon dinner with reporters at the stately Detroit Athletic Club. Aggressive? Nah. "We're just laying
Section:
Strategies
THE AUTO BUSINESS
Chief Alan Mulally and his executives are rightfully proud they avoided bankruptcy. But they're not safe yet. Not by a long shot.
The coronation went exactly according to Ford's script. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit 2,400 reporters hushed as video screens the size of tractor trailers flooded their vision. A booming voice shook Joe Louis Arena: Two household names, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, dominated the midsize car business last decade. "Then," said the voice, "something changed." Their sales and market share ran flat in 2008. When the recession hit, they plummeted. "What you might not realize is that Camry and Accord never recovered." Camry sales fell 31% between 2007 and 2010. The Accord fell 28%. Both slid further after the 2011 quake in Japan.
But not the Ford Fusion. Its sales rose 66% in the last four years. By 2011 it passed the Accord, but still trailed the Camry and Nissan's Altima.
Cue the loud music, the smoke machine and the car: the reinvented Fusion, a pretty sedan with premium features like technology that keeps you in your lane or helps you parallel park. When it goes on sale later this year, it'll be available with a variety of fuel-efficient power trains: gasoline, hybrid and plug-in hybrid that Ford says will get the equivalent of 100mpg-better than a Chevrolet Volt or a plug-in Toyota Prius. No price just yet.
The message is unmistakably aggressive, arguably arrogant: Ford just redefined the midsize-car market. The rest of the field, including General Motors' redesigned Chevrolet Malibu and the popular Hyundai Sonata, should pack it in. "I think we're going forward with some quiet confidence," Ford's president of the Americas, Mark Fields, said later that evening over a filet mignon dinner with reporters at the stately Detroit Athletic Club. Aggressive? Nah. "We're just laying