Ford Says Large Sedan to Redefine Family Car
Moving away from the fiercely competitive mainstream sedan market, Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it would produce a larger, near-luxury sedan that it said would redefine the family car.
The move indicates that the No. 2 auto maker is refocusing its attention from the mid-size Taurus, once the best-selling passenger car in the country, toward roomier cars including “crossover” type vehicles that combine the attributes of passenger cars and sport utility vehicles.
The new car, called the Ford Five Hundred, will share its platform with a crossover called the CrossTrainer. That fact underscores the importance the auto maker is placing in the market for crossovers, which are emerging as key family vehicles of the future.
“The Five Hundred will change the face--and space--of the family sedan,” said James O’Connor, president of the company’s Ford division, in making the announcement at the New York International Auto Show. No model or prototype was at the show, but O’Connor showed a brief video animation of the car, set to go on sale in 2004.
It will be powered by a four-cylinder engine or a new 3.0-liter V-6, but O’Connor would not give other details about the powertrain.
The car, which gets its name from the Ford Galaxie 500 sedan of the 1960s, will be built alongside the CrossTrainer at Ford’s factory in Chicago, which is ending its production of the Taurus.
The Five Hundred will offer seating that is two to four inches taller than that of the Taurus and an upscale treatment that will pit it against higher-end sedans such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Avalon and Nissan Motor Co.’s Maxima.
Analysts wondered whether the Five Hundred might compete against the Taurus as well as Ford’s Crown Victoria full-size sedan, but O’Connor said the vehicles would appeal to different consumers. The Crown Victoria is a larger, rear-wheel-drive car widely sold to police and taxi fleets, whereas the Five Hundred is a front-wheel-drive car aimed at retail customers.
Ford insists that it is not abandoning the Taurus or its twin, the Mercury Sable. Production of the two models--which compete against Toyota’s Camry, Nissan’s Altima and Honda Motor Co.’s Accord--is being consolidated at Ford’s Atlanta plant.
The lack of other details left some analysts scratching their heads.
“I’m not sure what the message is they’re sending with this vehicle,” said Rebecca Lindland, an auto analyst with forecaster DRI-WEFA. “Will both the Sable and the Taurus be continued? My suspicion is they will be keeping the Sable because they don’t want anything to suggest they may be phasing out Mercury.”
The Mercury line has suffered from a lack of clear positioning in the market. As part of Ford’s sweeping restructuring announced in January, two Mercury vehicles--the Cougar sports coupe and the Villager minivan--are being discontinued, though Ford insists the brand will stay.
In retooling the Chicago plant for models that should have higher profit margins than the mass- market Taurus, Ford aims to become more competitive in car-based vehicles, said Joseph Phillippi, a longtime Wall Street analyst who is a principal at AutoTrends.
“The Big Three have had substantial passenger car market share losses and clearly will lose share in trucks” as imports make greater inroads, he said.
“But they have to make at least an attempt to put a finger in the dike and get stabilized to the point where maybe they make money on passenger cars,” Phillippi said. “Ford’s making a major effort to turn around profitability by concentrating production in Chicago.”
