Longevity of American Car Models

lol the last 5 or so posts are hilarious ahahaha

But no, on a serious note...Ford has been shit these days
 
BlaRo said:
And yeah, Ford's naming problems would be hilarious if they weren't so pathetic. Hey we'll name all our SUVs with E's and all our cars with F, except the GT because we can't name it a GT40 because some douchebags in a barn in South Africa own that name, and we can't call it the Futura either (totally badass and cool retro name) because Moe and Larry and Curly or whatever at Pep Boys own it for a line of shit tires nobody's heard of and nobody's bought since 1996! Oh, and maybe Five Hundred is a shitty pointless name because "Taurus" has become outdated and shitty since we haven't upgraded it since McKinley's assassination, but wait! we'll call it the Taurus and Taurus X (the X is XTREME) to confuse and drive away the American population from our horrendously lamely facelifted barges! Yippie!
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And they wonder why Americans buy Camrys, Accords, Civics and Corollas.
 
KaJuN said:
*cough* Mustang and Crown Victoria *cough* :whistle:

Those names haven't changed in a long, long time.
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True, but there is a lot of brand loyalty in those names. You would have to be a complete wack-job to axe those names.
 
Shawn said:
I have been wondering this for a while, why do American car companies rename and rebrand their cars so much more often than other manufacturers? I'm not here to flame cars, genuinely wondering why this is.

Take Ford's minivans... it started off with the Aerostar, then the Windstar and then the Freestar. I get Aerostar isn't the best model name but why did they change it for every generation?

I can't think of other examples right now but there does seem to be a definite propensity among the US makers to do this. Anyone agree? Anyone know why this is? I mean not just renaming them... there's also the constant discontinuation and reintroduction of nameplates.
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It boils down to marketing execs in the company being able to KEEP THEIR JOBS

If sales for a particular car are down from the norm, they can convince their bosses that a name change will positively effect on sales and legitimize why they are being paid. Think about it, If you were running the company and the car's name didn't change decade after decade and the marketing guys were really doing anything else, why keep them around or pay them to do no real work?

Summary: its because of corporate idiocy.

Ed
 
KaJuN said:
*cough* Mustang and Crown Victoria *cough* :whistle:

Those names haven't changed in a long, long time.
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Those examples are in the vast minority. He's talking about the MAJORITY of car plaques constantly changing names. Of course there are going to be a few cars with a 40-50 year history. but what do we have with these two long standing names:

Mustangs: overrated sports cars with primitive ill-handling suspension compared to japanese/european counterparts, seeped in 'tradition'

Crown Victoria: police cars <_<
 
There is a very simple answer with the American demographic. Americans like catchy names and catchy phrases that are dumb and simple: Wrangler, Explorer, Freestyle, Vibe, etc.. Many European cars use names like 300, 500, M, E, C, 9-3, etc. We Americans don't want to think we just want something catchy and don't want to deal with these silly so called numbers and such. If you went on the street and asked what a Ford 500 was most people would probably be confused, if you asked what a Ford Freestyle was they would probably know.

Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen and many of the other Asian automotive companies have figured this out and they sell like hot cakes. Just about every American can describe a VW Jetta or a Toyota Prius even. Ask them what the difference between a BMW 3- Series and a 5-Series is or a MB E class vs a C Class or what they look like.

This is not an attack on European cars (I drive a Saab 9-3 and when registering it I was told that I put the model year on the form in the wrong place!). I love Eurocars. This is just teh way Americans work :) We even elect our officials based on silly lines and campaign slogans.
 
mitchellknight said:
This is not an attack on European cars (I drive a Saab 9-3 and when registering it I was told that I put the model year on the form in the wrong place!). I love Eurocars. This is just teh way Americans work :) We even elect our officials based on silly lines and campaign slogans.
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Agreed, the average american consumer (non car enthusiast) level of sophistication towards automobiles and names....well there just is no sophistication.

Ed
 
edkwon said:
Those examples are in the vast minority. He's talking about the MAJORITY of car plaques constantly changing names. Of course there are going to be a few cars with a 40-50 year history. but what do we have with these two long standing names:

Mustangs: overrated sports cars with primitive ill-handling suspension compared to japanese/european counterparts, seeped in 'tradition'

Crown Victoria: police cars <_<
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Mustangs are still the best selling car in America in their segment. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE CHEAP.

There are *no* other RWD coupes that you can buy for under $20K (for the V6 version) in the US. And there's an enormous aftermarket for them here, so you can update the suspension to modern standards for cheap, you can add bolt-on upgrades for cheap that will get it to some insane power numbers, and you can get something that will whomp an M5 (in a straight line or on a track) for a fraction of the price.
 
mitchellknight said:
There is a very simple answer with the American demographic. Americans like catchy names and catchy phrases that are dumb and simple: Wrangler, Explorer, Freestyle, Vibe, etc.. Many European cars use names like 300, 500, M, E, C, 9-3, etc. We Americans don't want to think we just want something catchy and don't want to deal with these silly so called numbers and such. If you went on the street and asked what a Ford 500 was most people would probably be confused, if you asked what a Ford Freestyle was they would probably know.

Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen and many of the other Asian automotive companies have figured this out and they sell like hot cakes. Just about every American can describe a VW Jetta or a Toyota Prius even. Ask them what the difference between a BMW 3- Series and a 5-Series is or a MB E class vs a C Class or what they look like.

This is not an attack on European cars (I drive a Saab 9-3 and when registering it I was told that I put the model year on the form in the wrong place!). I love Eurocars. This is just teh way Americans work :) We even elect our officials based on silly lines and campaign slogans.
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That is a very good explanation: In most parts in Europe it works just the other way around. Especially the Germans can't get enough of car specific numbers and letters. If I tell someone, I drive an 525iA almost everybody knows that it stand sfor 5 series and 2.5 litres displacement. I don't even have to ention the word "BMW". Same goes for E500 etc. So here it would be almost impossible to change the name of such an car. There was even an loud outcry back in 98 when Ford changed from Escort to Focus. Most weren't fond of it at all. And I remember when the Scorpio was introduced in 1985 the name Granada from the predessesor stayed in England on the it until the facelift.
 
BlaRo said:
And naming it MKZ after they had already printed out all the brochures and ads touting the Zephyr (another cool retro name) is beyond pathetic.
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Oh, no, you don't. Don't even suggest that "Zephyr" is a cool retro name - the old Zephyr was a horrid pile of steaming feces. They never should have brought back that name in the first place.
 
I think they changed it to the Freestar because they wanted more vehicles in their lineup that begin with an F.

Five-Hundred (Now renamed the Taurus but still the same car, unfortunately)
Freestar
Fusion
Focus
Financial Faiulre
F-Series
Freestyle

With vans like the Ford Aerostar, I truely do not understand why they just couldn't sell the Transit here. :|

The new motto for the so-called "new" Taurus is:

"We designed the perfect family car, then we gave it the perfect name: TAURUS"

It should be:

"We designed the perfect family car, then we slowly ruined it over the next twenty years and axed it, and our current car isn't selling very well so we rebadged it with the perfect name: TAURUS."
 
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edkwon said:
Mustangs: overrated sports cars with primitive ill-handling suspension compared to japanese/european counterparts, seeped in 'tradition'

Crown Victoria: police cars <_<
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C'mon man, you're smarter than that. (You drive a Legacy, of course you are!)

Oh, no, you don't. Don't even suggest that "Zephyr" is a cool retro name - the old Zephyr was a horrid pile of steaming feces. They never should have brought back that name in the first place.
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Anything sounds good when compared with that word search jumble that is Lincoln's current naming scheme.

People like names, not a bunch of bank account characters. Then again, it's hard to come up with creative names which is why we're stuck with Elantras and the Saturn Outlook. Remember Wildcats and Cougars and Starfires and Comets and even Cordobas? We're not that creative anymore, and if the Europeans can get away with designating cars after engine sizes then we should too since they're so classy and sophisticated. Alphanumbers = luxury, names = too much effort.

Right around now I'd be willing to buy a car called the "Utopian Turtletop". +10 life points to whoever can get that reference.
 
That's even worse... like having a BMW Three Three Five Eye.
 
edkwon said:
Those examples are in the vast minority. He's talking about the MAJORITY of car plaques constantly changing names. Of course there are going to be a few cars with a 40-50 year history. but what do we have with these two long standing names:

Mustangs: overrated sports cars with primitive ill-handling suspension compared to japanese/european counterparts, seeped in 'tradition'

Crown Victoria: police cars <_<
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Ahem :mad:

Mustang isn't a sports car, never was. It's a pony car, a inbetween muscle car and sporty handling car. For what it is, it handles fine. If it doesn't handle like you'd expect, then there's the Huge aftermarket available for these cars.
Very few actually get a mustang and keep it stock, the aftermarket is what drives these cars. Its basically a good platform to start with.

Police Cars? Well, yes...you have a problem with a dependable, reliable, strong car? So what it's geared for cops, it'll go 150k plus without problems, and that's a bad thing?
 
Don't be so defensive... he never said Crown Vics were bad, did he?

He's right about that though, all CV are either cop cars or Budget rentals. Except for yours of course. ;)
 
I love Crown Vics but seriously, Ford needs to update it. Its been 28 years and its starting to show it's age. I may be big on the outside but the interior really isn't that spacious. The engine just sucks ass. If Ford was able to get 300 bhp out of the Mustang GT, why does this one only have 240 or so bhp?
 
The Marauder was actually quite cool, as was the name.
 
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