Maybe I’m not patriotic enough, that’s probably it, but on the news they were giving a review of this new Ford concept muscle car called the Interceptor (shown below). The news anchor literally said “This is an attempt by Ford to keep the muscle car alive.” I think it’s about time to give up on creating new muscle cars. If you want a muscle car, invest in an authentic old school muscle car. Those, I like.

But with gas prices not exactly ideal at this point, I don’t think investing in production of a gas-guzzling muscle car would be smart. I also don’t really like the look of it either, but that’s personal preference.

Now, I’m not sure if this car will go into production or not, but is the Mustang not enough muscle car? I’m sure sales aren’t hurting on them. It’s a car with history, though, so I totally understand continuing that, especially if it’s successful. I think work could be done on the Mustang too (again, personal preference). At this year’s auto show, they had a redesigned Mustang from an Italian designer that looked all kinds of hot. If the Mustang looked like this (shown below), I’d seriously consider buying one…

It looks a ton better, and still holds that Ford Mustang look. I would be willing to bet money that if the Mustang looked like that, it would sell tons.

What I think would be a good idea for our car companies would be to focus on making current cars better, and not waste time/money coming up with new bullshit like the Interceptor. Just a personal opinion though.

Peace

First off, as a disclaimer, I know some of you have fam that work for Ford, especially Bill. And I really hope that non your family members are apart of the downsizing. I’m not that evil. I also hope I don’t hit any soft spots with anyone, and if I do, then feel free to voice your opinion.

So what’s wrong with Ford. To keep it short and simple, their cars aren’t selling, they’re losing billions of dollars, therefore they are needing to downsize to cut costs. It really sucks for Ford as well as the economy of Michigan because their company, as well some other big dogs in the car industry, have helped Michigan, and brought tons of jobs.

Now those jobs are declining, as well as the industry, as well as the economy. So what is happening currently? Well, they just brought in Alan Mulally, as the new president and CEO. Ok, sounds good at first right, get some new minds in there and fix it all up. Well, Alan has a background of making airplanes and shoes. Neither of those are exactly the car industry.

So, Alan also proclaims that “Lexus is the finest car in the world.” He also, still, drives a Lexus. So, you’re going to run a company and expect the company to believe in you, when you don’t even drive their car, and give Lexus/Toyota free publicity? Smart…..real smart.

With this latest addition, they are changing up management. Ok, wrong again. Well maybe not totally wrong, but that can’t be the only reason the company is hurting. I think what Ford needs is new marketing, and to take a risk and re-evaluate the branding of their company as well as their cars. If people aren’t buying these cars, then something needs to change about them. It’s not management that causes the cars not to sell, it’s the cars themselves!

So what could these new thinkers bring in. Well, you’ve heard the saying “you have to be a thief to catch a thief.” Well maybe they need new creative people and car designers to actually study and pay attention to what people want to drive. I guarantee that if they were to design an awesome car that struck big with young people (18-25) like the Toyota Scion did and it turned the whole company around. They did it with just three cars.

The only thing close to change that Ford did was come up with this Bold Moves campaign. Now honestly, what the fuck are their bold moves, because maybe I’m missing something? You can’t just slap a slogan on your company and think that cars will fly off the lots. People pay attention to this stuff. And from what I see, there is nothing bold about old/average thinking.

It seems that these days, old thinking doesn’t fly anymore. These old thinkers don’t change with the times and think that the same old shit will work forever, and they are getting a big slap in the face now. I really don’t think much can help the company and that sucks. You never want to see monster companies like Ford start to fall.

Another person wrote in saying to still buy American because of how you support your country by doing so. Well, I am going to have to say that I disagree. Why? Because if American cars aren’t appealing to me then I am not going to buy them. Yes I support this country and yadda yadda, but if you aren’t making stuff that I like, I am going to look elsewhere. Now I’m not 100% against people buying American cars, but they just don’t appeal to me. Simple as that.

They said that if people aren’t buying American, then they are hurting the country. Well, if American car-makers are being selfish with old thinking, then they are hurting themselves. You can’t blame it on the car-buyers.

High-paid executives make poor decisions and then ask dealers, workers, or the public to bail them out.

That quote hits it right on the head. It says what the problems are with Ford and other hurting car companies of our country. Now I’m sure there more problems, but I think Ford really needs to make smart changes in the way they market their cars. They need to take some risks because right now, they don’t have too much to lose.