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GRWD lives! Four door “Mustang” coming according to dealership meeting


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Ill never understand people who insist the Mustang name cannot be used on a four door. Id understand if it meant the end of the coupe. The two door Wrangler has survived, heck, thrived, because the four door exists.

I get that, but Id see something like this starting at a much higher entry point the what a typical mustang goes for. It would be a premium product-maybe even better off suited as a Lincoln.

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Ill never understand people who insist the Mustang name cannot be used on a four door. Id understand if it meant the end of the coupe. The two door Wrangler has survived, heck, thrived, because the four door exists.

Because there's no need to call it a Mustang, especially when there are perfectly viable legacy nameplates they could use, Falcon being one of them as previously mentioned. Edited by fuzzymoomoo
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Why would a ford try to compete with an Audi or Porsche? Unless its a lincoln, this doesnt make any sense. Also why come out and say you arent going to make cars anymore and then you come out with a new car?

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Ford Vignale trim line competes very well against Audi and Porsche in areas where Lincoln is not marketed and as for a new car...it is more like an extension of the new CD6 chassis into vehicle sales arena where Ford is currently weak in.....I also agree that in certain markets, it should be presented as a Lincoln. Here is an idea...instead of Ford Thunderbird or Ford Falcon....just presented as Thunderbird/Falcon by Ford and in markets were Lincoln is established, Thunderbird/Falcon by Lincoln

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So we're basically getting a rwd cd6 fusion to replace the fwd fusion only it'll be called mustang (or something else as pointed out above).

 

Makes sense to me. Midsize 4-door sedan is too big/important of a segment for mass market automakers like Ford to simply abandon. Although common in the segment, the only reason for fwd configuration is ease of assembly at the factory. Apparently Ford thinks they offset the additional assembly cost (although maybe they engineered that out with CD6) by marketing it as a premium option. Plus, sharing chassis/powertrain with the real/2-door mustang will make a proper Sport/ST/GT version possible vs that torque-managed excuse for a performance version they've currently got going in the Fusion Sport.

 

Although Ford could have saved a lot of hand-wringing by simply saying that fusion will be replaced by a fundamentally different 4 door sedan rather than saying they're going to kill it completely.

Edited by Sevensecondsuv
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.

Ford Vignale trim line competes very well against Audi and Porsche in areas where Lincoln is not marketed and as for a new car...it is more like an extension of the new CD6 chassis into vehicle sales arena where Ford is currently weak in.....I also agree that in certain markets, it should be presented as a Lincoln. Here is an idea...instead of Ford Thunderbird or Ford Falcon....just presented as Thunderbird/Falcon by Ford and in markets were Lincoln is established, Thunderbird/Falcon by Lincoln

Built thunderbird proud!

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Although Ford could have saved a lot of hand-wringing by simply saying that fusion will be replaced by a fundamentally different 4 door sedan rather than saying they're going to kill it completely.

That's what happens when you have an executive who takes it upon himself to announce something on an investor conference call that the company wasn't ready to announce

 

Strangely that guy is still around. Go figure.

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There a couple ways to market this. The first is advertise it as a new extension of Mustang. That seems to be what Ford is hinting at, but I question how much they can really grow the mustang market. Are mustang sales limited by the inconvenience of 2 doors, or are they limited because there's only a certain percentage of the population that's willing to spend disposable income on a toy? The second approach is to market it as a mainstream midsize sedan, except as a slightly higher MSRP "premium" alternative to the offerings from toy/honda/gm/nissan/hyundai. This would be tricky because you'd have to convince people who are buying primarily on practicality that the mustang DNA/rwd powertrain is worth the premium price tag. This would have to include advertisements educating the public about the drawbacks of the fwd competition -torque steer, huge front overhangs, terrible weight distribution, loss of steering capability when the tires spin in snow, etc. Maybe Ford is already planning this for the new Explorer since it's going to be one of the only rwd options in it's segment. Whatever they do though, just don't market it like GM did with the SS.

Edited by Sevensecondsuv
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When I say "rwd powertrain" I mean a longitudinal engine with the transmission between the drivers and passenger footwells that primarily supplies power to the rear axle. I don't mean that it would exclude an AWD variant. Fundamentally different than an engine mounted sideways with trans crammed inbetween the engine and driver's side front suspension, even if it has an AWD option with a ptu capable of sending a percentage of torque to the rear axle.

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Its very smart, Mustang has brand value world wide, probably more than any other Ford vehicle. How many people are not going to buy a 2 door mustang because a four door one is on the lot? The number would be in the tens of customers. This idea that it dilutes or cant change is just boardline insane. Things change and vehicles need to be profitable, what if the business case is to increase volume or just cancel the model? Naming it another name would be a hundred of millions of dollars marketing the first year to build awareness of a separate name and millions of ongoing marking from that point. The Wrangler is a 4 door sells 75% of the volume and everyone went crazy that they were adding a 4 door, early on engineers didnt even want to do it. The Explorer went upmarket and unibody and people complained about that yet is it wildly successful. Customers change and market demands change. If they made the 4 door a Prius competitor (Mustang 2 part 2) then there would be issues, but to take what makes Mustang great and increase the audience for it is very smart.

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Its very smart, Mustang has brand value world wide, probably more than any other Ford vehicle. How many people are not going to buy a 2 door mustang because a four door one is on the lot? The number would be in the tens of customers. This idea that it dilutes or cant change is just boardline insane. Things change and vehicles need to be profitable, what if the business case is to increase volume or just cancel the model? Naming it another name would be a hundred of millions of dollars marketing the first year to build awareness of a separate name and millions of ongoing marking from that point. The Wrangler is a 4 door sells 75% of the volume and everyone went crazy that they were adding a 4 door, early on engineers didnt even want to do it. The Explorer went upmarket and unibody and people complained about that yet is it wildly successful. Customers change and market demands change. If they made the 4 door a Prius competitor (Mustang 2 part 2) then there would be issues, but to take what makes Mustang great and increase the audience for it is very smart.

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Charger and Challenger ....why don't they just call it one model and be done?

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Its very smart, Mustang has brand value world wide, probably more than any other Ford vehicle. How many people are not going to buy a 2 door mustang because a four door one is on the lot? The number would be in the tens of customers. This idea that it dilutes or cant change is just boardline insane. Things change and vehicles need to be profitable, what if the business case is to increase volume or just cancel the model? Naming it another name would be a hundred of millions of dollars marketing the first year to build awareness of a separate name and millions of ongoing marking from that point. The Wrangler is a 4 door sells 75% of the volume and everyone went crazy that they were adding a 4 door, early on engineers didnt even want to do it. The Explorer went upmarket and unibody and people complained about that yet is it wildly successful. Customers change and market demands change. If they made the 4 door a Prius competitor (Mustang 2 part 2) then there would be issues, but to take what makes Mustang great and increase the audience for it is very smart.

 

Agree. The only thing I would add is that I would change the comparison noted here and in other posts from the Wrangler to Porsche. When the first Porsche CUV was announced, the 'purists' were up in arms and the death of Porsche was shouted from the rooftops by that group. We all know what happened. The CUV saved the company. Now Porsche build CUV's, and sedans as well as iconic sports cars.

 

IMO the key to the success of the product at Porsche is that they have kept each new product true to what is expected of a Porsche in terms of attributes. There's no reason that Ford could not do the same with permutations of the Mustang. It starts with styling, but must go beyond that. I'm not convinced that Ford can be trusted to do it right. The accountants will lurk in the background and nickle and dime the product to its death. Time will tell.

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There's no reason that Ford could not do the same with permutations of the Mustang.

I just don't see the need to use the Mustang name for that when they have plenty of legacy names with good value and recognition they can use. Torino comes to mind pretty quickly.

 

It starts with styling, but must go beyond that. I'm not convinced that Ford can be trusted to do it right. The accountants will lurk in the background and nickle and dime the product to its death. Time will tell.

If that "Mach 1" teaser from the commercial is any indication they are onto something good. Let's hope the bean counters don't f*** it up.
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Naming it another name would be a hundred of millions of dollars marketing the first year to build awareness of a separate name and millions of ongoing marking from that point.

I agree, unless they name it Fusion. Then all it would take is a fairly modest ad campaign to educate buyers about the all-new class-exclusive attributes and dna borrowed from Mustang.

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Dear God! STOP! This is FAKE NEWS!

 

I saw this unfold on that forum and I know all the details from the meeting and the product development plan, there is ABSOLUTELY NO 4-DOOR MUSTANG IN DEVELOPMENT and one wasn't announced. This was either a misinterpretation of news or a flat-out lie. The SuperCharged V8 Panamera comparison nonsense leads me to believe it's intentionally faked.

 

You won't find ANY person at the meeting who heard this.

 

Everybody is in for a massive disappointment if they are expediting this to happen.

Edited by Assimilator
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The problem with the SS was twofold. It was too expensive and was redundant sitting on the same lot as the cheaper and similarly sized Impala.

A guy at work bought one new last year. It's a really nice car, even with the V6. Way nicer than any of the fwd stuff in that segment. I'll never understand GM's approach to that car. It's almost like they wanted it to fail and did everything possible to ensure it did.

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