I agree. I believe that one of the selling points for the SVT brand is exclusivity. Without out that you may as well buy a SLP Camero. Simular in nature to SVT but on a larger scale. At my former place of employment there were approximately 3000 people. In the parking lot there were no less than 5 SLP camero's about 10 Corvettes maybe 3 SVT Mustangs and 1 SVT Contour (Mine). I enjoyed the fact that I had the only one. If there were more of them I probably would not be as proud of mine. Much of the attraction to the SVT brand is in the Exclusivity. Without that SVT is no more than another option package on a mass produced car. The SVT brand allows the average person to own a car on the rareity scale of a Ferrari or a M series BMW or Turbo Porsche without shelling out OVER $50k. I think it was C&D that called the SVT Contour the Working Mans M3.
Ford does need to do a better job of advertising the cars and letting the general public know what they are. They need to take a lesson from Dodge and the Viper. The Viper does not make Dodge money from it's sales, the Viper makes Dodge money by attracting people to the dealerships to look at the car. While they are there they sell them an Entrepid, or a Neon. That is the same thing that Ford should do with SVT.
Case in point about general lack of knowledge for the CSVT.
This has occured several times at drive through windows (McDonalds).
Hey, Nice Honda. (
A what did you call my SVT).
Wow that looks fast, what is it? Ya runnin Nitrous. (Short Pause. Aaa, No. I Autocross this car and Nitrous is not allowed. I don't even bother attempeting to explain Autocrossing. What is even worse is I was asked that question twice by the same guy in the same week.)
Anyway, nobody knows what the CSVT is, or how they perform which I think also holds true for the SVT Lightning. Before I owned my Contour I never knew that truck existed. The only reason most people know of the Mustang Cobra is because it is a car engrained in the basic personality of American culture. A car that many people have aspired to own since childhood. It is that type of recognintion that Ford needs to develop with the rest of the SVT line, and I don't think they will achieve that goal by mass marketing the Focus SVT to every dealer in the country. I don't think that even SVT approved dealers treat these cars or their owners in a manner that befits the quality of the car. If they did I would not be driving away in a Escort, Focus, or Protoge when I take my CSVT in for service. In my opinion Ford should not only have SVT certified Dealers and Mechanics for their cars, but Exclusive SVT Trained Service Reps and Salesmen. We pay a premium price for the car, so why shouldn't we recieve a premium service along with it.
Sorry for rambling, but a statement like that is just one more reason why my next car won't be a Ford.
My 2 cents.
But hey, do bring the Focus RS and Cosworth over here ASAP!!!! I will buy one of those.
