Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General if only Ford were the same as VW....

First off I didnt say you couldnt bag onthem. I said your barking up the wrong tree.

What a dealer and their lack of knowledge has to do with SVT is beyond me. First off you dont even know if said post was true! Second who cares if it is? how is Ford responsible for that one guy? Perhaps he was new ?

Ford does listen, they built a four door and again couldnt give it away! cry all ya want about marketing but the car got great reviews from all the magazines! and SVT was not as large then to support the car!

You think Ford doesnt listen... How about that 337 that post, it was up for six months? wheres the Polo or the RSi????? Ford on the other hand had the GT40 concept in detroit... guess what it goes on sale soon.. took em about four weeks of listening! Road and Track didnt even have to send its signatures in, the e-mail worked!
The Mach 1 is coming ! How about a Cobra that pumps out 390 horsepower???? Hows that not listening any less then any othe company?
What about the SVTOA are you a member? you could ask the head of SVT what he thinks in a chat session.... or perhaps one of their engineers! you could ask the vortex crew how many reps from VW motorsport drop by on the boards? (thanks Troy ) r you could maybe hit a VW motorsport sponsered on track event! no wait thats a SVT thing!

You get back what you put in. Kuhudos to VW for the 337... But I like my SVT choices just the same!

I think the dealers lack of knowledge has everything to do with Ford & SVT. Dealerships sell and maintain the cars and interact directly with the public. Ford & SVT engineer's rely on these people to sell their product.

A poor dealer experience can turn off a person for life from a marque. Sure, the person can try another dealer but I'm sure that some people wouldn't bother.

I think Ford knows it has a dealership issue, whether it be real or perceived. Remember "Blueoval Certified", why did Ford feel the need to roll that program out ?

I think that decision to introduce the GT40 has absolutely nothing to do with the public opinion as it will be a very limited production car. Everyone might want one, very few can afford one so whether 1 million or 10 thousand people want one, it is immaterial as they will not be making that many. The "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" theory doesn't apply here either as there is nothing comparable on the showroom floor.

I am not a member of SVTOA as I don't own an SVT. Maybe they accept non SVT Ford's, I don't know.

If complaining to/about Ford is barking up the wrong tree, than what is the right tree?

Ford dropped the ball in marketing the Contour in general, as well as the SVT. This is proven every time someone posts and comments that their Contour is confused for an Escort or a Taurus, or that noone heard of the Contour. It is the job of Ford's marketing department to promote and differentiate their product lines. They clearly failed to do this.

What has Ford marketing have to do with the SVT getting great reviews from magazines? Is automotive journalism that corrupt? They built a good car, but they didn't capitalize on the good press with an aggressive ad campaign. Think the 1985 Chrysler LeBaron GTS Turbo for an example of how you can promote yourself as a bargain-priced Euro sports sedan with proof to back it up. The whole "Over there" campaign was genius.

It may sound good that Ford listened to a handful of drag racers (probably fewer people than have contacted them about the Contour) to save money by retaining a live axle. It's cheaper, plain and simple.

SVT is marketing to one crowd in different generations. The SVT Focus is merely a Cobra, Lightning, or GT40 for the younger more urban market. It still leaves people that want practicality with their performance out in the cold.

There is a viable market for the Contour, and a SVT variant. Hundreds of thousands of buyers are going unchecked to Grand Am's, Aleros, Galants, Sebrings, Stratuses, V6 Jettas, Subaru WRX's. Ford needs to fill this gaping hole in their lineup between the Focus and the Taurus (they differ 20(!) inches in length!).

I want to see figures before anyone says the Contour lost money. I find the way the costs were attributed a form of reverse Enron, doctoring the figures to make this car deliberately look bad. The SVT Contour was never given a fair chance to make it.

Even if the Contour lost money, I think the attitude Ford needs to take is "how do we make a car in this essential market segment profitable", not "it wasn't profitable, so ditch it."

FWIW, Mark, SVTOA does accept non-SVT's. I'd be a member, but they don't have a Minnesota branch.

This is a pretty good discussion. I think comments such as these are important to continuous improvement and understanding of customer perception. So, don't worry I won't take it the wrong way and run off (but thanks to TLP for the props). Here are a couple of things I'd like to add.

There is obviously some truth to this statement. Though we don't have any control over the personnel at the dealership level, we do have a duty to effectively communicate so the personnel know the product. First this is why there are only 600 out of 4500 ford dealers that are authorized to sell SVT. Second we are, more than ever, focusing our efforts on dealer communications and training. As a matter of fact my new job is solely dealer communication and training.

I believe it has a tremendous amount of influence on public opinion, especially if they continue with this direction. This is hard to explain but lets try it this way, What is the first word that comes to mind when I say Saturn, how about Jaguar, Kia, Dodge vs. Chrysler, what about Ferrari? Now everyone will probably come up with words that are descriptive of that particular manufacturers "public opinion". The GT-40 and the direction of performance at Ford is an effort to change the word that pops in to your mind. Will it work instantly, no probably not, but like I said before if they stay the course it will.

One thing we don't do, with the exception of our website, is advertise. We rely solely on magazine exposure, enthusiast auto shows, and most importantly word of mouth.

Though we at SVT have little to do with the proposed Mach 1, the second comment couldn't be further from the truth. Please don't take offence, but as the former manager of the SVT Information center and close to 4 years of interacting with customers at events and on the phone, I say this with confidence. Suggestions for an "SVT Contour replacement" are few and far between, probably the lowest. I personally have taken more suggestions for an SVT Crown Victoria. I'm sure it took a lot of effort on a VW enthusiast part to achieve what they had done; I applaud those customers for their enthusiasm.

I think Ford (and SVE or whoever) has a great opputunity to run with Subaru, Mitsubishi, and Nissan (hopefully Mazda too - even though owned by Ford, still a seperate company) if they could just get off this SUV and Family Car bandwagon.

Time will tell.

I just wanted too add that I was looking through my old car and driver and low and behold there was a three pager on theGTi 337 with a wih to bring that car hear as well! I wonder how musch that helped compared to say the 13,000 signatures the vortex rounded up????

Another note is about the delaers. Ford in my area owned all the dealers they made an effort to control them and when they found that didnt work(same time blue oval certified rolled out)they started to sale them off! So you cant say they didnt try!
The mach one and its live axel are for enthusiast! not cost cutting or the Cobra would be a blowin 2v without the IRS!

I also wonder about the statement of hundreds of thousands of people wanting a high performance four door! Let alone one with a Ford badge????

Either way I would say that Ford has one of the best performance teams and nich car programs out there.

I guess I would encourage SVT to change their "no advertising policy" for selected products. A sports sedan isn't going to have the market already tapped in for it, you have to reach out to the potential buyers. People expect Ford to have a muscle Mustang, a muscle truck isn't much of a stretch. The SVT Focus has gotten a lot more in its debut than the SVT Contour ever did.

I'm a car fanatic, and I barely knew the car existed before I bought mine. Many sports sedan buyers aren't as rabidly car orientated as I am. If I barely knew about the car, there's a lot of people who would have bought the car that never knew it existed. That's the same reason that you haven't been getting a lot of calls. People don't expect to see a sports sedan from Ford.

Therefore, it's necessary to kind of beat people over the head with the facts of its existence.

On the GT-40, I can't help but think the car projects the wrong image of Ford. Basically it puts a figurehead vehicle on top of car line that needs serious revamping. I'd rather see Ford put the money into building a line of cars that's ready to kick butt.

The Windstar, Taurus, and Crown Victoria desperately need redesigns. Ford is absent from the specialty coupe, entry-mid size, sporty car, and economy car markets. They also are desperately in need of a line of practical cars with high levels of performance. The market is heading this way, and Ford seems to be ignoring it.

I'm not trying to be mean Troy, and I 100% appreciate you being out here. I just think there's a better way to do some things.

TLP, my hundreds of thousands of sales are for both an entry-mid-size product and a performance variant combined. I'm not saying Ford doesn't build niche cars. They just don't seem to care about my niche.

"One thing we don't do, with the exception of our website, is advertise. We rely solely on magazine exposure, enthusiast auto shows, and most importantly word of mouth."

I think that the points that have been made about ford not marketing the contour were meant in a more general sense...not specifically related to the svt version. Though perhaps by advertising the svt you might have interested buyers in the contour in general and given it a different image instead of being percieved as a small taurus or a large escort.

The announcement of this vehicle was the first step of many, not the only. I'd agree with you if it was the only one, but it isn't.

I guess I would need competitive examples, I think Ford motor company has a strong presence in each, not necessarily the Ford Division.

Lets put it this way. Would you produce a vehicle that has a strong potential in its class, has an obvious customer, and requires little promotion because it is already established with aftermarket etc. or would you produce a car that doesn't have a specific market, and requires millions of dollars in promotion just to convince the mass public that it can be considered as a performance vehicle, and you can't do both? Remember I would love to see an SVT performance sedan, and I get a sense that most of your comments stem from that same want.

To Troy, thanks for your comments. I sincerely hope they did not cause offence. I'm just trying to bring some good debates to the board.

An SVT Crown Vic would be interesting !! although it is disappointing to see that demand for a Contour SVT replacement is so low.

One last point...if a car is good enough and gets the right promotion, it can create a market. Example : Miata.

Regards.......