End of model life

[sc0tt]

When does a car company decide to end the life of a model. Example the fiesta has been churned out for ages.

The escort equally so but ended to be replaced by the focus. Why was the focus not just another escort.

I suppose much like the sierra mondeo replacement.

I could understand killing it off if it was a poor seller but without looking at figures they both seemed to be doing ok?

[Mr Sparkle]

Thought it was just like having a fresh start, so there would be no pre-conceptions. etc.

[rumple]

I think it depends on the perception of the badge, for instance the focus wasnt called an escort because ford felt it deserved its own identity, the escort name was seriously devalued in the last couple of versions, the cortina on the otherhand, when the mk3 came out it was a completely new design, the cortina name was a success, it was supposed to be called something else, golf, very successful name so retained over and over again, the ascona was replaced by the vectra but in the uk the cavalier name was retained because it was seeen as a success, also car manufacturers feel that names get stale, they want to appear as forward thinking not stuck in the past, these days cars are essentialy platforms, these are shared so the name really is just its brand, this could be bks though, its just my take on it

[MH82]

All about image, the mk5 Escort (1990 - 1992) killed the Escort name so the Focus name was brought in. The Focus has a really good perception so why change the name? The Sierra change to Mondeo is not so clear cut imo as the Sierra didn't have a bad name although they may have wanted to highlight the fact that everything had changed not just the body so a name change is the best way of doing this.

Another example of this is the Vauxhall Vectra, a lot of people hate the Vectra, but by changing the name from Vectra to Insignia, the image changes and the Insignia doesn't suffer with a perception problem.

[0a]

As above, it's when you realise you have produced a really crap car.