mkoesel

http://www.leftlanenews.com/2007/02/01/lou...e-aston-martin/ (First thread I've started here in probably over a year - just thought it was interesting)

I saw the MKR in person earlier this evening and it looks spectacular. It truly is the best looking concept car at the show in my opinion. It will be very unfortunate if this one fades into the history books llike so many past Lincoln concepts.

Its all handled through BMW. They have a program designed expressly for this purpose. Pricing is fairly aggressive. MSRP for European Delivery is roughly 7% under normal US dealer delivery. Then, because the car will not count against dealership allocation, good dealers will negotiate further. You can get them as low as $500 over European Delivery Invoice depending on the model you are buying and where you live. We paid $1200 over.

Posted this in another thread already but - Am I seeing things or does that Lincoln coupe have small rear suicide doors? I guess it could just be a sheetmetal seam, but that seems an awkward place for one, no? Anyway, that new grill rocks. I mean its original and bold. I also notice the car keeps with the trend in Lincoln concepts where they tend to have a defined crease surrounding the front fascia that seperates it from the sides of the fenders. I recall that wacky SUV/Car thing from a couple years back as well as the Mark IX having the same styling feature. And perhaps that T-Bird based concept did too - can't recall for sure on that one. Anywa, I like that look, and I wish they'd bring it to production.

I'm probably going to get flamed out the door for bringing this up here, but... My wife and I just recently picked up a BMW 335i sedan. We picked it up in Europe, so we got a sizeable chunk of change off the purchase price. Of course, we also had to pay for a trip to Europe, but we've all seen the GT500 commercial where the guy takes his car to Germany, right? Well, yeah, its fun. In fact its amazingly fun. Bumping the rev-limiter in 4th gear is surreal, and so is driving across a country in 2 hours. Okay, so there aren'y *that* many de-regulated zones on the autobahns. But many have speeds between 80-100MPH and I made very liberal use of that. In fact, I was never the only one going 30-50MPH over the limit - always lots of company there. Anyway, now back to the car. The out-the-door price was under $40k. It goes 0-60 in under 5 seconds accoding to magazine tests, and I can tell you its definitely faster than my car, so I believe those tests. It handles about as good as any car could hope to. Oh its not a loaded to the gills techno-gadget freak show. But who wants that anyway? No, its pretty much a stripper model. And that's the way it should be, frankly. So, I can't help but wonder, when I see that Shelby GT price, how many people even realize what else they can get for that money. I don't mean to call anyone out, we all have our preferences, and frankly part of me wishes that Mustangs still got me fired up the way they once did. But I am here to say that these horsepower wars are alive and well, and they have permeated their way into the entry luxury market. And that is special because these cars were already RWD and great handlers, and now they are packing some nice powerplants as well. A real fun time to be a car enthusiast, no matter what you like to drive. Ok, back to my Christmas Ale.

Wow. Okay, well nice chatting with you then.

We aren't talking about a Mustang Pinto. We are talking about world class cars that happen to use the Mustang name.

First post here in awhile. If this turns out to be true (and I think that it just might) then I suspect that this is a calculated risk by Mulally to make the most of every last bit of brand equity ford has. The thing we have to realize is that the Mustang will always be limited to 150k (or so) units in its current form because coupes will never reach the volume they were at when the Mustang was conceived. I think that it is almost impossible that they would sell less of these by adding a sedan and wagon. There will be some angry fans. Some will never get over it. But in the meantime, they know that putting this name on a car alone will get it major attention. More attention, IMHO, than almost any other name you could put on a car and especially more than past, forgotten Ford models (like Falcon or Fairlane). And speaking of Mulally this will make or break him. He will go down in infamy if this kills the Mustang (even if one were to assert that it and the entirity of Ford along with it would have died anyway). But if it works, then he may well be labeled the savior.

True. But its no guarantee against it either. I think the key would be combining the pieces of the business that are successful. It needn't be anything more than sharing more component development programs, at least at first.

Richard, I'll bet he'd sell to the highest bidder and never look back.

I think its fairly safe to say that both Ford and GM have lost most of their marketshare to the Japanese rather than each other. So why not team up in some fashion?

That was my first thought also. Taking it a step further, it could be a strategic move to get SAIC to pay a premium price for Land Rover if they wish to obtain the Rover name. In other words they could use the Rover name as leverage to get SAIC to take Land Rover as well.

Wow, had not heard these things from my hometown dealership. Never purchased a Ford in Monroe, but had heard "decent" things. The new spread certainly looks impressive, I guess they are making money despite the poor service and customer relations.

And yet I cannot imagine it being much longer than any other small V8 designed to compete against the 350hp+ V8s already available in this class. How long is the Volvo 4.4L V8? And the Duratec 35 V6? All this talk I hear of a new V8 for FWD applications seems like just that - talk... :shrug:

The W8 actually had two cylinder heads. If they had built a VR8 with a 15 degree bank angle like the VR6, then they'd be able to have a single head. To me this would have been a great idea. But probably too long to mount transversely. Instead they chose to do what is effectively two VR4's connected at a 72 degree angle. It was a neat looking engine (I ogled over it at NAIAS a few years back), but ultimately no more compelling than the current 3.6L VR6. RIP.