The Mustang, while not the best sports car around, is no POS.

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Come on... we all know a NAME is the main reason a car sells or doesn't!!!

:) :)

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"Fiesta/Festiva, Aspire, now Focus."

WRONG.

The Focus replaced the Escort. The Fiesta has nothing in common with the platform or market position, and the Festiva and Aspire were both Asian imports which were re-branded.

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Only one problem. You got the cars all wrong.

500/Taurus are really FWD/AWD replacements for the Crown Victoria in size. They are much bigger than an old Taurus.

Fusion is really the Taurus replacement.

Focus replaced the Escort.

The Flex isn't a Minivan. I get that it is replacing that Ford is hoping it will attract those customers but it doesn't in any way resemble or relate to a Freestar or Windstar let alone an Aerostar so why would they keep that name.

Nothing replaced the Aspire until now. Festiva had nothing in common with the Fiesta. It was just a rebadged Korean car as was Aspire. It looks like Fiesta will be replaced with Fiesta in a bit over a year.

I personally agree though. North American car companies throw away names way too easily. The Fusion should have been the Taurus. The Cruz should be the Cobalt if not the Cavalier. Changing names like they do just confuses the customer.

That said their are times when they need a new name. For instance when they are rebadging another automakers car like the Aspire I think it would have been shifty to call it the Fiesta. By calling it an Aspire the general public at least knew it was a different car. I personally didn't like it when GM rebadged a Toyota Corolla and called it the all new Nova. It seemed shifty since it wasn't even a GM and certainly had none of the Nova DNA.

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"I know the easy way to save money on marketing... stop changing car names.

Taurus, no, 500, no Taurus, and Taurus X.
Aerostar, Windstar, Freestar, now Flex.
Tempo, Contour, now Fusion.
Fiesta/Festiva, Aspire, now Focus."

500 was a Crown Vic replacement
Taurus was cancelled
Fusion was introduced as a Taurus Replacement
Fusion is selling like hot cakes
Taurus name was in the wind, gave it to 500
Aerostar was a compact minivan
Windstar was renamed to Freestar
Flex has more to do with NOTHING than any other vehicle and is totally new as a crossover, not an SUV, VAN or Minivan

Tempo was cancelled, Countour was a world platform car, Fusion is new Escort, not Contour! :)

Fiesta/Festiva/Aspire

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But then we'd lose Jill Wagner, who is the Mercury Girl, and the only bright spot that Mercury has had in years.

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Well, first of all Scion is NOT nearly as successful with the 18 - 30 market as it was when announced. Part of the problem is Scion's own fault by making the second gen cars bigger and heavier but the main problem is that, especially in this economy, 18 - 30 year olds aren't buying new cars. What Ford needs to do is rid itself of everything but it's stake in Mazda, meld their product line with their European product line and continue to work on plug-in technology.

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Well, first of all Scion is NOT nearly as successful with the 18 - 30 market as it was when announced. Part of the problem is Scion's own fault by making the second gen cars bigger and heavier but the main problem is that, especially in this economy, 18 - 30 year olds aren't buying new cars. What Ford needs to do is rid itself of everything but it's stake in Mazda, meld their product line with their European product line and continue to work on plug-in technology.

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So, during a time when Ford is losing billions of dollars per quarter and the survival of the company is at stake, you want them to find more billions to start a new brand? Realizing that they are having a hard time finding content for their third brand (Mercury) as it is, and that developing all-new models for a new "youth" brand would take years and still more money that Ford doesn't have?
Not to mention that Ford is one of the most recognizable brand names in the world, why would they want to throw that away?

Even if Ford was flush with cash, the "fun youth brand" thing has been wearing thin with Scion already, as discussed on this very blog just a day or two ago. The number of young people who are buying new cars is not that big, and with Ford soon to begin producing the (hopefully) reasonably priced and fun to drive Fiesta and Euro Focus, they should have some good offerings as it is.

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Why not just simply build products that people want to buy? As the failed Scion experiment has proven, you can attach a different name to a product that nobody wants and they still won't want it. I would rather see Ford invest their limited resources in building great products that will ensure their success and longevity instead of wasting it to launch a new brand that may or may not be accepted by the buying public. Ford definitely doesn't need to relive the Edsel fiasco all over again, especially given their precarious state.

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well, i didn't mean that they have to follow scion's footsteps. i meant that they should try to start fresh on a new brand with a style/image they want that is of more interest to younger buyers.

i think that ford is already building products people want to buy, but no one is interested because it is "ford". and, even if it is a well known brand in the world, that doesn't mean anything. for example, the ford fusion to me is a nice car, but it's a "ford". pontiac did a good job i believe in changing the perception of the brand and if the fusion was launched under pontiac my guess it would sell better than under the ford brand.

also -- just to clarify i meant adding another brand to their portfolio, obviously not ditching what they have now. what they have now serves purpose for 30> market.

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I don't agree. I think that the company's current lag in sales are due to reasons other than the Ford name.

1) I don't think Ford has quite hit the sweetspot as far as styling is concerned. I think the next generation of products based on Ford's excellent Euro sourced kinetic design language will fix that problem. The current crop of bland bodies attached to ultra-blingly three bar faces has not ignited any excitement from the buying public. Ford has lost their edge in the car segment to foreign competition, it will take some truly great styling (like the kinetic design language) to get people to take another look at what Ford has to offer. Bland designs attached to gimmicky grilles will not help Ford gain back any market share. The products are great under the skin, but the styling just misses the mark.

2) The division does not have any truly compelling small car products to offer in a market that is hungry for such vehicles. The arrival of the Fiesta and next generation Focus should remedy the situation. Ford just needs to aggressively and effectively market/advertise these products when they arrive in the U.S. market. I think the upcoming Fiesta is cool enough to appeal to a younger demographic. It doesn't need a meaningless and unnecessary new brand name to increase its appeal to that demographic. It will need a well executed ad campaign to attract these buyers, however.

Ford's money will be better spent making appropriate, stylish, well executed products and properly marketing those products than it would be gambling on creating/promoting a new brand that might quickly become irrelevant in the market (like Scion). It's the products that create the cool factor, not the brand name attached to those products.

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