Ford Suicide?

[andycalvia]

With the recent news that Ford are ditching their Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo and S-Max models is this corporate suicide or very shrewd business?

The Mondeo is kind of understandable as these size of saloon cars in a non-premium brand tend not to sell too well these days and the S-Max will have been superceded by the more popular SUV market.

What I don't understand so much is the scrapping of the Fiesta and the Focus, two of the best selling cars in Europe across all manufacturers.

It's the equivalent of Coca Cola announcing it's going to scrap selling Coca Cola and focus on Sprite and Fanta instead. Or McDonalds scrapping the Big Mac to focus on its vegan range. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[BigJase88]

Completely bonkers move.

Ford's suck anyways if they go to the wall i won't miss them

 

[martin j.]

The worlds obsession with these stupid kid on SUVs is pushing this as is the need for bigger vehicles to carry the batteries required for bigger range.

 

[Seastormer]

Completely bonkers move.

Ford's suck anyways if they go to the wall i won't miss them

Never had one but a couple of my mates swore by them (not at them). One had lots of Capri's and I remember getting blasted along in his 2.8 that could do 0-60 in around 7 secs, which was great back then. I did look at the XR3I back then, but they got stolen too much for my liking.

 

[Seriously?]

Mondeo has already gone - stopped making them in March.

 

[SRGTD]

Completely bonkers move.

Ford's suck anyways if they go to the wall i won't miss them

Never had one but a couple of my mates swore by them (not at them). One had lots of Capri's and I remember getting blasted along in his 2.8 that could do 0-60 in around 7 secs, which was great back then. I did look at the XR3I back then, but they got stolen too much for my liking.

I had quite a few Fords in the 1980‘s and they were pretty much faultless. I never had a 2.8i Capri, but was very tempted. I did own three XR3 / XR3i’s though. I don’t know how modern day Fords compare with the competition though.

@andycalvia - there are quite a few unhappy Fiesta ST owners on fiestastoc.com forum over Ford’s decision to pull the plug on the Fiesta. I dare say Ford felt that it was easier to accommodate the battery packs in a larger SUV body that would give a decent range. However, aren’t Ford in partnership with VW on EV development, and there are certainly plans for VW (and Cupra) to have EV’s in the small car segment, so on the face of it there seems no reason why a small Ford EV couldn’t be developed. Ford putting all their eggs in the SUV / crossover SUV basket does seem a slightly risky strategy as not everyone wants to drive an SUV (I certainly have no plans to buy one).

 

[martin j.]

I’m waiting for a Honda e at the right price.

 

[rafletcher]

Having driven an S-Max, it’s a far more capable load hauler than, say, the Kuga. It’s huge inside but drives like the Mondeo it’s based on. But very few on the roads as the SUV sector is more popular.

 

[BigJase88]

I’m waiting for a Honda e at the right price.

Such a cool car. Love the 80's retro styling

 

[andycalvia]

Having driven an S-Max, it’s a far more capable load hauler than, say, the Kuga. It’s huge inside but drives like the Mondeo it’s based on. But very few on the roads as the SUV sector is more popular.

I agree, having had an S-max as a hire car for a few weeks I was very surprised at both the size of the interior and how much it felt like driving a regular car, it looked pretty good for a people carrier too and would have been a front runner had I needed to buy such a car.

@andycalvia - there are quite a few unhappy Fiesta ST owners on fiestastoc.com forum over Ford’s decision to pull the plug on the Fiesta. I dare say Ford felt that it was easier to accommodate the battery packs in a larger SUV body that would give a decent range. However, aren’t Ford in partnership with VW on EV development, and there are certainly plans for VW (and Cupra) to have EV’s in the small car segment, so on the face of it there seems no reason why a small Ford EV couldn’t be developed. Ford putting all their eggs in the SUV / crossover SUV basket does seem a slightly risky strategy as not everyone wants to drive an SUV (I certainly have no plans to buy one).

Yeah I get where you are coming from as the small car market is always going to be popular and with the development of small models in conjunction with VAG it would seem they have jumped the gun a bit too quick. The Honda E is a prime example of a small, stylish EV with a decent range at sub £30k. With continued development in this market there's no reason these small EVs can't be produced at sub £20k going forward l.

 

[Seastormer]

Is CUPRA not going to drop the Leon from the range as being too small to make any money on when it goes all electric.

 

[andycalvia]

Is CUPRA not going to drop the Leon from the range as being too small to make any money on when it goes all electric.

I don't think it was to do with the Leon being too small, as they have already released details of a small hatch that fits somewhere between Mii and Ibiza size, I think it was more to do with focusing on their own designs of cars and not just rebadged Seats similar to the Citroën and DS range