RE: Bland is the new Black
Friday 21st March 2003
Bland is the new Black
Ted thinks the Ford Centenary is a bit crap
Discussion
I think Ford are there to be shot at, particularly in the UK where we have maintained a close association to brand as we have all grown up. But, give them some credit, as a 'Pistonhead's' editor you may be looking for something a little extreme for a global mass manufacturer. Love em or hate em, Ford definetley tore down some styling barriers with the introduction of 'new edge' re. Ka, Focus etc. which other of the big OEMS has doen anything that radical?? well that's got that off my chest anyway.....
pddmac said: I think Ford are there to be shot at, particularly in the UK where we have maintained a close association to brand as we have all grown up. But, give them some credit, as a 'Pistonhead's' editor you may be looking for something a little extreme for a global mass manufacturer. Love em or hate em, Ford definetley tore down some styling barriers with the introduction of 'new edge' re. Ka, Focus etc. which other of the big OEMS has doen anything that radical?? well that's got that off my chest anyway.....
Renault with the Megane, Velsatis and other silly sounding cars ??
A nice bit of jornalistic one-sided stir-it-up text Ted. In my youth (quite a while back) I aspired to work for Ford - not because I liked their cars at the time, just to work for a BIG company, and they paid well. Much later in life though still not a "Fordie" type person, I got the oportunity and haven't regretted it. Although I am not at all involved with any product planning, styling or even engine design I think what Ford have done over the past 100 years can not be considered close by any other OEM. What about the Zodiac etc from the 50/60's? The Corsair and Cortina (GT, 1600E, Lotus) of the 70's, The whole XR range of the 80's and on then to the Majestic Mondeo - a world beater. I think they did quite well.
I always admired Citroen and Renault for their part in avant-guard styling in the early days but I certainly haven't time for the Avantime or the ghastly Vial Satis. I'm with you on one thing though - the Fusion looks pants - but I bet it sells like hot cakes!
I always admired Citroen and Renault for their part in avant-guard styling in the early days but I certainly haven't time for the Avantime or the ghastly Vial Satis. I'm with you on one thing though - the Fusion looks pants - but I bet it sells like hot cakes!
i have to agree with petrolted,ford havnt bought out anything that inspires me to go out and put myself into debt for.the focus rs may be a good car but look-wise it doesnt impress me as it looks like every other focus,and everything else looks the same as a focus,too.
i used to realy like ford cars,i have had loads of them(from a 1968 ford escort mk1 through to a 1996 escort van)and as my name suggests i do own a cortina.this is not just out of nostalgia,i bought it to customise(tastefully!)and try to keep at least this one on the road and not have it killed at arena essex. i cant see people in 20 or so years buying a focus to restore as they are so bland and i dont think they will stir up memorys like the older fords,like the smell of the interior on a hot day(we probably all remember the smell from a hot cortina/escort/granada etc,hot vinal seats and wood....unmistakable and inviting,until your legs stuck to the seat and you were left with second degree burns!)
why dont they build cars with character anymore????
i used to realy like ford cars,i have had loads of them(from a 1968 ford escort mk1 through to a 1996 escort van)and as my name suggests i do own a cortina.this is not just out of nostalgia,i bought it to customise(tastefully!)and try to keep at least this one on the road and not have it killed at arena essex. i cant see people in 20 or so years buying a focus to restore as they are so bland and i dont think they will stir up memorys like the older fords,like the smell of the interior on a hot day(we probably all remember the smell from a hot cortina/escort/granada etc,hot vinal seats and wood....unmistakable and inviting,until your legs stuck to the seat and you were left with second degree burns!)
why dont they build cars with character anymore????
I agree with the fords of today they are all bland and boring. Ford have fell into a marketing disaster they tried to make a cheap exec[scorpio] and then made the rest of the brand suffer for the next decade by having the same small chunk of brown plastics .They try to sell the mondeo ST220 as a sports saloon and the rest of the range as sporty luxury family saloons but its not. The only way this car can get cred over Vauxall Vectra is by saying it shares a base plan for its chassis and a couple of components with the The Brilliant Extrordinary Jag X-Type and they are nothing alike as the Jaguar is 4wd. The puma was a wierd car it should have been the convertable not the streetKa and the Fiesta - a similar style can be achived by sticking an I AM A BORING PERSON sticker on your forehead. Give all these cars some credit though they are exactley a reliable,plain,everyday a-b car
Looking back on Ford's range puts the whole blandness and badge-engineered image into context, in that pretty much all of their cars have been. The only stand-outs have been the Shelby Mustangs (Ford name eventually dropped), GT40 (built by the AVO in Boreham), the Cosworths (all interesting stuff done by Cosworth) and the Lotus Cortina (made either at Hethel or using all -Lotus componants on a special production run at Dagenham). The fact that people feel rushes of nostalgia when they see a Cortina 1600E is probably because their Dad owned one and it reminds them of the time, in the same way I think back when I see a Fiat 132*
*Please note that as of 1988, all Fiat 132s had dissolved as they were all made of melted tin cans, making this a complete impossibility. Nice twin Cam though.
*Please note that as of 1988, all Fiat 132s had dissolved as they were all made of melted tin cans, making this a complete impossibility. Nice twin Cam though.
As a life long Ford hater i have to confess that i find the GT program a breath of fresh air.
For a huge multinational to recreate a 60s icon with 21st century know how but leaving out the worst of electronic big brother excess is a great idea. The only fords that have excited me in the last two decades were the RS200 which promised much but gave little in the latter days of group B and the original RS Cosworth Sierra which was a daring move towards the family 'supercars' which almost every manufacturer offers these days. When it was introduced 150mph rep mobile was an extraordinarily brave move. It remains an icon in 3 door guise while its successors and immitators- sometimes in Max P guise- appear overhyped or in the case of home build imitations, frankly laughable. The RS1700, RS 1800 and many rally homologation specials whether developed or not were always wild, fast and lustworthy but the production mass of Escort, Fiesta and all the other trash was a travesty of marketing over engineering which was eventually burried by the Japanese icons from Subaru, Mitsubishi and even the Nissan sunny GTI-R. The 205GTI made the XR3 and its wayward big brother , the RS Turbo seen irrelevant while the fat boys from VW looked after the sportalook market.
No amount of badge engineering made any inroads, despite the almost competent but fearsomely insureable RS Escort Cosworth which was after all not really a Ford but a contracted out limited production chopped Sierra. Even the RS200 was built by Reliant, more famed for there often misnomered Robin.
Ford have been through a godawful period where people like myself who are true car fans have been indoctrinated into considering Ford as a car fot the rest of them. The advances in recent years in car ability in particular with the Fiesta, Mondeo and Focus have done little to draw us back from the negative image that pervades us still.
But the GT - GT40 is owned by another company to which Ford sold the rights - might just be the thing which relights the Ford fire within us 30something car nuts who only remember the halcyon days through Dukes Video footage of long departed motorsport events.
For a huge multinational to recreate a 60s icon with 21st century know how but leaving out the worst of electronic big brother excess is a great idea. The only fords that have excited me in the last two decades were the RS200 which promised much but gave little in the latter days of group B and the original RS Cosworth Sierra which was a daring move towards the family 'supercars' which almost every manufacturer offers these days. When it was introduced 150mph rep mobile was an extraordinarily brave move. It remains an icon in 3 door guise while its successors and immitators- sometimes in Max P guise- appear overhyped or in the case of home build imitations, frankly laughable. The RS1700, RS 1800 and many rally homologation specials whether developed or not were always wild, fast and lustworthy but the production mass of Escort, Fiesta and all the other trash was a travesty of marketing over engineering which was eventually burried by the Japanese icons from Subaru, Mitsubishi and even the Nissan sunny GTI-R. The 205GTI made the XR3 and its wayward big brother , the RS Turbo seen irrelevant while the fat boys from VW looked after the sportalook market.
No amount of badge engineering made any inroads, despite the almost competent but fearsomely insureable RS Escort Cosworth which was after all not really a Ford but a contracted out limited production chopped Sierra. Even the RS200 was built by Reliant, more famed for there often misnomered Robin.
Ford have been through a godawful period where people like myself who are true car fans have been indoctrinated into considering Ford as a car fot the rest of them. The advances in recent years in car ability in particular with the Fiesta, Mondeo and Focus have done little to draw us back from the negative image that pervades us still.
But the GT - GT40 is owned by another company to which Ford sold the rights - might just be the thing which relights the Ford fire within us 30something car nuts who only remember the halcyon days through Dukes Video footage of long departed motorsport events.
Ted, nothing is wrong here. You start to no longer fall for their marketing anymore, thats all. Their product range was always bland and boring, will always be. You said it yourself, the cars you found desirable were only so, because you believed their marketing blubber.
Congratulations for waking up.
Congratulations for waking up.
Lutz said:
Ted, nothing is wrong here. You start to no longer fall for their marketing anymore, thats all. Their product range was always bland and boring, will always be. You said it yourself, the cars you found desirable were only so, because you believed their marketing blubber.
Congratulations for waking up.
welcome to 5 years ago Congratulations for waking up.
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