Quote:
Originally Posted by Mach351
The brand-loyal "car guy" has been a dying breed.
Ford is just another auto retailer diluted in a world market saturated with other competitive auto retailers.
Back in the 80s, their mentality on car quality significantly damaged their reputation and gave the Asian auto makers a secure foothold on the American car market. (And before that, there was the Pinto.)
General masses are comfortable with familiarity. IMO, this is why all the auto retailers ended up making cars that all look and "feel" the same - no one wanted another Edsel. However, this makes it very difficult to keep people in a brand.
Light truck and SUV sales are what is keeping both Ford and GM in business right now. No longer building cars is fine and dandy in the current market; we will see what happens after gas prices and interest rates have significantly climbed.
And... I have no idea where i'm going with all of this.
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Pretty much sums it up, TBH. That and any opportunity for a manufacturer to save money building the cars... Less differentiation and/or models equals similar or shared tooling equals less plant space needed equals more money per sale.