New Ford Mondeo
 

Not that I'd buy it if it was available, but it seems like a great car. I wonder why Ford doesn't offer it here in the states.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2a2JerrjOI

Ford states it doesn't offer it here because it would cost too much and it fills a slot already filled by the Fusion. The real question is why does Ford make cars like the Fusion instead of bringng cars like this over.

Well if Ford would get off their ass and start "synergizing" their global portfolio here, people wouldn't spend so much time bitching about their cars. GM is already bringing their Euro models over, and people are already talking about it. As much as Ford says it would hurt them to bring cars over here, I just can't believe them. They've got a class-leading car in Europe that they keep making excuses about why they can't bring it here.

I don't get it.

I will give the argument against bring the car over. I'm not going to claim it is better than the benefits of bringing them over but it does at least have some legitimate points. BTW, this primarily applies to the Focus rather than the Mondeo.

The primary reason I have heard not to bring them over (or build them here) is cost. Basically the price point of the Euro Focus and the Mondeo is a good bit higher (at least $5k based on what I've read) than the US cars. Basically Ford can't sell the Mondeo for enough money to profit on the car in the US. Remember they did go down this path with both the Contour and Focus mk1 which were basically identical save small changes from the euro versions. Over its time in the US the Mondeo had to undergo some serious cost reducing. The problem was the fundamental platform was rather expensive for the car's market point. I suspect Ford would have the same issues with the new Mondeo. The car would have to be priced like the VW Passat rather than like the Accord or the even less costly Fusion.

From what I understand Ford does want to better synchronize their US and European products. The don't want to bring them over unchanged. Instead Ford is (from what I read recently in MT) planning on developing a few highly flexible world... for lack of a better word... platforms.

The idea is these platforms would be less like traditional platforms and more like component/design sets. The designs would be more modular so say a low cost car and higher cost car could have total systems changed out so long as the systems were installed and used in the same way... or something like that. Honda and Toyota are already using this sort of idea. For more details I would suggest checking out the article.

Either way, basically at the lower price points it becomes hard to sell the same mass market cars in the US market and overseas. Please note that Honda and Toyota both have North America specific larger car platforms used for the Camry and Accords. It shouldn't be surprising that Ford has decided to do the same thing.


All that said, I would LOVE it if they would bring this car over. All three Mondeos have been great cars and it's a pity we were only offered versions of the first with cost reduced interiors.