Quote:
Originally Posted by BlaqWhole
I think Ford got caught with their pants down. They made steady improvements with the S197 Coyote. Then the S550 GT came and instead of setting the bar higher they settled for mediocrity. Chevy set the bar higher than where it was and then jumped over that bar. If Ford had just aimed a little bit higher then the gap would not have been as bad as it was and is. But with all the excuses you and others keep giving them, why would they?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shaffe
This ^ Ford did settle for what was good enough. GM set their internal goals much higher and bravo for them.
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This touches on what I mentioned earlier around the vastly different approaches this generation. I am not sure I can accept that Ford didn't expect GM to come out swinging. The Z28 was proof of how serious GM took track capability, and we all expected the 1LE to come back this generation. Al doesn't hide the fact he wants to push the envelope as far as he can, even encroaching on Corvette territory.
There is no reason or excuse for Ford not expecting this from the GM camp. I think they knew Al was pulling out all the stops, and knew they could not keep up performance wise($ for $) in this generation. Maybe that is due to no cross platform sharing, making improvements to the S550 not feasible in the beginning. I do not have proof, but I think the S550 is a platform that already needs drastic improvements. The GT350's less than impressive performance, the reviews of the PP1 handling are some reasons I feel this way. I think it is more likely they knew all this, and planned their strategy accordingly. Going cheap from the start with tons of incentives on top of that, heavy in to fleet sales, expecting the pricey halo cars to do all the heavy lifting performance wise and selling regardless.
I guess what I am saying, if anything, is Ford was never surprised by anything. They took stock, assessed their limitations, and created a *winning strategy around it.
Winning = selling lots of Mustangs