Ford: Medium cars are the new Large

[Brazen]

http://www.caradvice.com.au/153718/m...arge-car-ford/

Interesting comments today from J Mays. Especially considering the Large Commodore outsold the Camry over 2:1 (40,000 compared to 19,000)

Ford’s global design boss says the medium-size car – such as the company’s own Mondeo, the Mazda6 or Toyota Camry – is the new large car.

With global sales of large cars in decline, including the locally built Ford Falcon that plummeted in 2011 to its worst sales result on record, J Mays told Australian media at the 2012 Delhi Auto Expo that it will become increasingly harder for the company to justify investment in the segment.

“I like big D [segment] cars but the market doesn’t like them,” says Mays. “It’s not a decision we’re making, it’s a decision the customer is making that they’re just not buying into that [large car] segment any more.

“And it’s not a function of Australia, it’s of anywhere in the world. That segment is shrinking. The new large car – in a big way – is sort of the C/D [medium] car.

“And beyond the C/D car you get a very small piece of the market.

“There’s always somewhere in the world that will buy [a large car] but trying to sustain that over the next 10 years is going to be really tough I think.”



Ford will reveal its all-new global medium car at this month’s 2012 Detroit motor show – a model that will retain the Fusion name in the US and be called Mondeo for other markets such as Europe and Australia.

The current Mondeo is already a sizeable car that isn’t much shorter than the Falcon.

Mays says the new Fusion/Mondeo will make a significant statement in the market and that, as with Ford’s other ‘One Ford’ global products so far – including the Fiesta and Focus – a number of variously styled off-shoot products could be produced.

Ford’s design chief wouldn’t confirm or deny whether the company could create its Taurus large car replacement – which is expected to underpin the next Falcon – with larger sheetmetal placed over the Fusion/Mondeo architecture.

“We want to get to get the Fusion launch [at Detroit] out of the way and then we can talk about potential top hats on the same platform.

“What you’ve seen with One Ford, we’ve done it [establish multiple vehicles off one platform] on B cars [like Fiesta], C cars [like Focus] and logic would tell you that there’s got to be some possibility for different top hats on every different platform we do.

“The possibility is there should we decide to [to put different top hats on Fusion].”



Mays believes the new Fusion/Mondeo will worry manufacturers of medium-car rivals.

“I think [with Fusion] we’ve got a bit of a milestone moment with this car. This is not just another C/D car. It’s going to be a real contender in that [medium car] market.

“And when I look at the competition, whether it’s Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan …we’ve got a really strong product that we’re bringing to market.”