The lore of NASCAR is filled with stories of backyard mechanics taking cars right off the showroom floor and winning races, fame, and glory with nearly stock cars. This is why NASCAR is called “stock car” racing after all. However, since the late 1980s, the cars have become less and less related to the showroom cousins. For 2013, Ford is trying to mend that gap, at least aesthetically, with their new 2013 Fusion racer.
Taking its cues from the production Fusion that debuted at the North American International Auto Show, the new Fusion race car adapts the cars dramatic headlight and grill treatment. To make the car look even more “stock,” the overall proportions of the stock car were mirrored. Even the character line that runs down the stock car’s side was replicated on the racer.
The Ford Fusion has turned into a homerun for Ford Motor Company since the launch around 4 years ago. After spending some time in the 2011 Fusion SE you can understand how the ball was hit out of the park!
Exterior
The first thing we noticed on our Blue Flame Metallic 2011 Ford Fusion SE was the aggressive front end which was redesigned on the 2010 Fusion. The sleek look of the new hood and front fenders blend well with the three bar grille, which Ford has turned into the face of the company. Our model had sport 18″ aluminum spoked wheels, power mirrors (same as the body color), chromed exhaust tips, and fog lamps. With a rear spoiler this Fusion had that “cool car” feel. The redesign of the Fusion took this vehicle to another level and, considering the sales figures coming in for the Fusion, it was money well spent.
After taking a good look at March sales figures, two companies stand out with tremendous numbers: Ford Motor with a 43 %increase and Nissan with a matching 43% increase respectively. Both Ford and Nissan are selling to what the customer is looking for today and that is value with quality and styling that consumers want. It’s amazing how fast things can turn in this business and if Nissan puts out more product like the new Altima and Ford can duplicate the success of the Fusion we are going to writing about these companies for quite some time ahead.
From MSN.com:
Ford F punctuated a strong first quarter with a 43 percent sales increase in March. Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealers delivered 178,546 new vehicles in March. First quarter sales totaled 428,596, up 37 percent. The 43 percent gain matches a similar increase in February. These are the highest monthly sales increases since February 1984.
From FinanzanaChrichten.de:
“As the industry continues to show signs of life, we want to make sure that Nissan continues to get an even bigger piece of the sales pie,” said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, NNA. “After achieving a record 9 percent share in the first two months of 2010, our 43 percent increase in March confirms Nissan is a big winner in the industry.”
Is this writer from Car and Driver out of touch or does he see something we don’t? Ford is starting to get into gear but he sees things with their product line that could spell trouble.
The Ford Escape may be selling well, but just came in bottom of the heap (as a nearly identical Mercury Mariner) in our latest small SUV comparison test. The Ford Fusion is solid, but it’s not a Honda Accord or a Mazda6. The Ford Flex and the Edge are merely OK. The Taurus and SHO? Ho-hum, and a packaging disaster. The Focus is well past its sell by-date. Only the Fusion hybrid and the Mustang are top of their classes. As for the Lincoln lineup, the MKT is way too expensive, while the MKS is overpriced and underbaked.
OUCH!!!
From Car and Driver:
I’m not quite sure when the media collectively decided that Ford is the only American car company that knows what it’s doing, but it’s certainly the prevailing wisdom right now. A Detroit News editorial by Bryce G. Hoffman summed up the sentiment: “But the Dearborn automaker also scored major points with American consumers by foregoing a federal bailout and avoiding bankruptcy. That good will, together with a strong lineup of new cars and trucks, meant Ford fell neither as far nor as fast as the rest of the industry.”
The comeback by Dearborn’s Ford Motor Co. keeps pace with this shot in the arm from it’s 2010 Fusion sedan.
In 1964, Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award went to the entire Ford lineup, recognizing its combination of design, engineering excellence, and performance. In 1970, we gave the nod to the Ford Torino, which could be ordered in a wide variety of configurations. Forty years ago, buyers could choose from economical, six-cylinder-powered sedans to the dragstrip-ready 429 Super Cobra Jet fastback. These legendary winners had one thing in common: bandwidth. In the 1960s and ’70s, this term wasn’t yet part of popular lexicon. Today, the 2010 Ford Fusion’s impressive bandwidth as a model range was one of the many factors that helped it earn the 2010 Motor Trend Car of the Year award.
Will the Blue Oval repeat next year with the all new for North America 2011 Fiesta?
The automotive landscape has been changing so rapidly it’s sometimes hard to keep up. GM and Chrysler had to be saved by the federal government, while Ford was able to avoid that fate. Their troubles have probably helped Ford, but Ford has also been on a tear with impressive new models like the Ford Fusion, and many more new models are in the pipeline.
Auto analysts expected Ford to show some improvement, but the announced numbers were a pleasant surprise for many.
Ford Motor Co. posted a surprise profit of $2.3 billion for the second quarter — a sharp contrast to the whopping $8.7 billion loss it reported for the same period a year ago — but the profit was largely due to one-time gains related to its debt reduction moves.
Even with those special items removed, the Dearborn automaker surprised Wall Street with a pre-tax operating loss of $424 million for the second quarter of 2009, excluding special items — a $609 million improvement compared with the second quarter of 2008.
After taxes and excluding special items, Ford posted an operating loss of $638 million in the second quarter, or 21 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.4 billion, 63 cents per share a year ago. That also was a marked improvement over the $1.4 billion loss — $1.8 billion after taxes and excluding special items — that Ford reported for the first three months of the year, when it lost 75 cents per share.
Wall Street had been anticipating a loss of 52 cents per share, after taxes and excluding special items, according to a survey of a dozen analysts by Thomson Reuters prior to today’s announcement.
“While the business environment remained extremely challenging around the world, we made significant progress on our transformation plan,” said CEO Alan Mulally. “Our underlying business is growing progressively stronger as we introduce great new products that customers want and value, while continuing to aggressively restructure our business and strengthen our balance sheet.”
It looks like Alan Mulally’s turnaround efforts are on track.
