Re: 35mpg? No, Americans are too dumb.

Eeyore wrote:

Alex Terrell wrote:

Why don't the Mondeo, S-Max and Focus sell in the USA?

They're probably not big enough for Americans.

" In Europe, the Mondeo is considered large, but in other markets such as the United
States and Australia, it had not fared well, as there were larger models that had
stronger brand loyalty and offered better value for money. Ford claimed that it was a
'world car', but in a letter to Autocar magazine in the UK, a Ford dealer retorted 'What
world was it designed for?' Because of this, the Contour and Mystique proved unpopular
with American buyers. While the Contour sold at an average rate, the Mystique bombed. The
Mondeo Mk 3 was much larger than the Mk 1/2 version but was not sold in North America,
where Ford now offers the Fusion.

There is however, another theory advanced by some motoring journalists: that because the
Contour and Mystique were not created in the United States, it suffered from a lack of
enthusiasm from inside Ford's North American operations."

As the Contour goes, I think the truth is a little of both -- beyond the initial "world car" marketing splash when it was introduced here, Ford didn't seem particularly enthusiastic about it. It *does* seem to be a bit larger in the States than the ones I've seen in Europe, and the gas mileage is much worse that in the European version. I don't think it ever won any awards here, but it did get high marks from some consumer organizations.

I'm not familiar with the S-Max, but the Focus sells quite well in the US. It was introduced in late 1999, IIRC, as a replacement for both the Contour and the Escort. As I understand, it's not all that different from the international version, but it's built at different plants and when they first introduced it here they had some serious quality problems. It won some awards (prior to all the safety recalls), but it was originally marketed as kind of a "starter car" for young people without a lot of money. Lately, their print ads have switched to touting its high gas mileage, but I haven't seen a TV ad for it in awhile. That will probably change later in the summer, as the body and interior have been redesigned for 2008.
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