Whats going on with Bill Ford? They make a crewcab ranger with a diesel overseas, but you can't get it here. They make turbo charged focus's overseas, but not here. They build a concept bronco with front wheel drive, instead of competeing with the jeep wrangler, and giving us a true offroad vehicle. The only performance cars ford builds here, is ether a 150,000 gt-40, or a mustang, while dodge is offering the hemie in about everything. Chevy has a colbolt ss, dodge has the nron srt-4, honda has the civic si, ford just has a focus. Dodge has an srt-10 ram, where's the lighting? Ford is becomeing boreing, as other auto makers are exploding with new idea's. Pontiac has a soltice, and saturn, the sky, ford has gas guzzling suv's. Is Bill smokeing crack, or what? Even with riseing gas price's, you would think that they could at least come up with some exciting 4 cylinders, they must have a death wish!

 

I have been thinking the same thing...

for example
the V6 mustang comes with around 215 horsepower (sports coupe)
the V6 honda accord comes with around 245 horsepower (family sedan)

whats wrong with that picture??

 

As the saying goes..."***** or get off the pot."

Ford and GM (Ford being mundane and GM making nothing but gas guzzlers) it seems are not exactly eager to make that bowel movement, but feel plenty good just sitting on the can.

I guess Bill has to please the Sierra Club.

 

When they're having to fork over $1500-2000 a car to legacy costs, they can't put that money into R&D and higher quality parts.

Of course you can also attribute that to Ford refusing to make a standard cross plattform V6 in the past decade. They've got one V6 for the Mustang, another for the Fusion, another one for the trucks, another for the minivans, etc., etc... If you build ONE motor, instead of 3-4, you can put all of your time and research into it and just expand/contract it for displacement needs. As much as everyone likes to poo-poo on the modular engines, its not a bad idea in theory to try to standardize your V8 across the board.

 

You can't look at things that way. Mustang is muscle car, Accord is family sedan. Ford's new 3.5L will produce 265 hp which is more than Honda's 245 hp.

 

Look for a diesel Focus in the near future. It's already on the streets and actual, real world testing is being performed as this thread unfolds. Nope, it ain't no tire burner but then again, who can afford to run a gas guzzler nowadays.

 

i have to agree, in the next 10-12 months we are going to be replacing my wifes '98 olds aurora and she wants the same type of car, sports/luxury sedan with fwd or awd. we have alot of cars to look at buick lucern, vw passat, toyota avalon, chrysler 300C, lexus es350, acura TL and even on the less expensive side there is the pontiac grand prix, honda accord and the toyota camry. the one thing i can say is we will not be visiting a ford or linclon/mercury dealer

 

Fusion too small? They handle pretty nice, and I think the top of the line one has most of the luxury trappings that some people (definitely not me...) like.

 

I think the fussion is one of the better things they've done lately, it has the looks, it's selling very well. It just needs a motor to match the style, the 3.5 should do it, now give it a 6-speed manual option behind the 3.5, and a turbo 4 cylinder option, you have a real winner at ford.

 

I respect wlihntr's opinion, but I have allways bought fords, and allways will, i'm a very loyal person, and ford has never done me wrong. I currently have an 04 ranger 4x4, and an 06 zx3 focus ses, I have no complaints, the power is good, handleing, mpg, and quality are all excellent. As a matter of fact, my ranger is an xlt supercab 4x4, witha 4.0 sohc, 5-speed manual, and 410 gears, and I get 19 mpg city, amd 22 highway, thats not bad at all. My biggest thing with ford, is that I don't understand thier long term stadegy, they have killed the svt program, and thier lineup is so conservitive compared to other auto makers. Mazda, volvo, and land rover are doing some exciting things, but ford it's self is just floating along in a sea of boredom, afraid to take risk's. Look at what gm has done with the caddy line, the lincoln cars are so bland. They have some great name plates from the past, that they could bring back on some exciting new vehicles, such as bronco, fairlane, falcon, pinto, maverick, and torinio to name a few. the lincoln line has so much potential, if they would just do the work, they could barrow from jag, and volvo to make some cool lincoln's. Ford could even barrow from the mx-5 matia to make it's own version of a small roadster. COME ON FORD, GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!

 

> the V6 mustang comes with around 215 horsepower (sports coupe)
> the V6 honda accord comes with around 245 horsepower (family sedan)
> whats wrong with that picture??

Which one has more torque under 4K rpms?

 

I was going to reply "Look at the torque curves".

GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS GUYS!

You can NOT compare two different manufacturer's motors in two different platforms based on HORSEPOWER.

The only thing you need to do is move the torque curve up the power band about 800RPMs and you get 245HP instead of 215HP. Retard the cam a few degrees and that would be that.

HP numbers are meaningless unless you are comparing the EXACT SAME engine and platform. For instance, when the 215HP 4.6L Mustang went to 260HP. Now that has meaning.

But comparing some high-revving low-torque motor to a Ford V6 based on HP numbers is about as usefull as a third nipple.

 

wendell, I'm with you on being a loyal Ford owner. Have you seen the Lincoln Zephyr? I saw one coming to work this morning-nice ride.

 

I understand that, but most consumers don't...

 

Which is why we must educate them and not continue to disperse bad information.