Quote:
Originally Posted by theholycow
A community crying out doesn't mean much. Money talks...and I guess it's been pretty quiet.
Ford, the worst offender with that strategy (rental Taurii and government/service Crown Victorias), is the only one of the Big 3 that didn't need bailout money.
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I need to call you on these two points because you draw incomplete conclusions. First, you argue since Pontiac G8 sales numbers are low, no one actually likes the car enough to buy it. However, notice the brand. Pontiac. It is a significantly lower volume brand than Chevy, and is kinda polarizing. Not everyone has a Pontiac dealer near them, and Pontiac is on fewer buyer's radars. However, if you give it to the far more visible, mainstream Chevy brand, you open it up to a much larger audience. Chevy has wider appeal, more marketing dollars, more dealerships, and less polarizing history and stigma. So there is no reason to believe it will be received by buyers the same way as a Chevy the way it was as a Pontiac.
Secondly, you seem to imply that Ford keeping old designs around for years and selling them as fleet is the reason they didn't need a bailout. There is no logical way you can take that correlation and make is causation. There is one primary reason Ford did not need a bailout - it took out lines of credit before the credit crisis hit, so now it is accumulating debt to ride out the economy. Saying the key to survival was selling antiquated cars and no profit does not make the slightest bit of sense at all. And I'll have you know that Ford has either replaced or is in the process of replacing all of its old products. The wonderful Euro Focus and Fiesta will be here soon, the new Taurus is heavily updated, and the Mustang is getting modern engines. There is none of this "Well lets keep a decades old design around for another half decade".