[Thameth]

While sitting at the not so local AutoX yesterday i got to thinking. Doesn't anybody think its pretty interesting that Mazda came out with the MP3 which sold well and quickly then noticed that the market had outpowered it. So the next year they decide to fix its only major flaws power, traction, and braking. It only took them one year to do this, while not bringing the price up too much.

Then you have Ford which did come out with the MazdaSpeeds power to begin with. But its slowly being passed, Mazda made the change within a yr don't u think Ford could have done it within 2? People will say "ohhh the R&D and blah blah" but Mazda did it....

 

[svtsvtsvt]

American work ethic Vs. Japanesse work ethic.

Or maybe its managment.

 

[wileytheman]

I'm sure Ford would have put the badly needed changes into the SVTF more quickly if they weren't so concerned about saving the company. Serious man, Ford really cut into the SVT budget the past couple years.

 

[Virtual_Insanity]

Plus Ford continues to bleed red ink so R&D budgets are getting cut all over and Ford is trying to salvage the Premier Auto Group that they are having financial problems with in Europe.Also Ford has a controlling interest(ownership) in Mazda too.

 

[J-Rod]

I was reading an article on the MSP today on Forbes.com The total production of their entire vehicle sales (across all lines) was something like 275,000 per year.

Compare that to Ford, then factor in the profit margin on the Focus and you'll know why they don't put more into the platform. Granted, I see why everyone says "why can't Ford put in the R&D into the Focus" but you've gotta look at it from their perspective. The first year of the SVTF, where it was toted as the number one sport compact, Ford had to give 3000 rebates to get them off the market. Unfortunatly, Fords attitude lately has been one of dropping programs that aren't going to make money, instead of really sitting down and looking at what they are getting into to begin with (i.e. The Avaiator, Cougar and a few other programs that didn't make it to consumers) Ford is a truck company, and unfortunatly I don't see them jumping into the sport compact market until they get all their ducks in a row and pull a profit off their other vehicle lines.

Long story short, while I completely agree with you Joe, Mazda seems to be marketing most of their line up to entry level market segments execpt for the RX-8. And what better way to get to us 25 somthings but listen to what they complain about and fix it.

Oh, and the reason I was reading about the MSP is because I'm looking at getting one