High Performance Focus Coming to US

rogerbvonceg wrote: Small, ultra-hot and expensive hatches sell well in Europe. Not so in the US. Here we love our big, powerful V-8 muscle.

Yeah, rumor has it that the 2014 Mustang will be a world car. I'm curious to see how the rest of the world receives it, and not really expecting it to sell well outside of North America.

Especially considering that refresh is also supposed to correspond to going IRS.

I'm hoping that right now is more like '71-73, and these are the jarmoungous cars before people come to their senses and go back to small, light vehicles. I would actually appreciate the modern equivalent of a Mustang II, especially if it had the 3.7L Duratec in a smaller, lighter body.

The 60's mustang have a pretty good following in the UK I know, but I'm sure they won't be selling in record numbers for the new cars. The gas mileage sucks on a mustang, and when the UK is paying close to $7 a gallon, why buy a car that gets 20mpg...

Andrew

New Mustangs sell in the UK for 30-35k GBP that's $45-50k. There's definitely a good market for exporting them there. Don't know if that would equate to a large new car market for production though.

ReverendDexter wrote: Yeah, rumor has it that the 2014 Mustang will be a world car. I'm curious to see how the rest of the world receives it, and not really expecting it to sell well outside of North America.

I think more specifically, the Mustang will be built on a "world car" platform so developement costs can be spread across many models. And while the platform will likely have IRS, that would be no guarantee the Mustang will get IRS, at least in V6 and GT forms. While converting a SRA to IRS didn't work out so well, I'd imagine going the other way would be pretty easy and save money.

Sure, enthusiasts would rather have IRS, but if the average buyer is happy with a SRA and it's cheaper for Ford.... well... I wouldn't hold my breath. Besides, the SRA hasn't seemed to hurt Mustang sales much... Apparently, orders for the 2011 models are well up from the 2010 numbers.

digdug18 wrote: The 60's mustang have a pretty good following in the UK I know, but I'm sure they won't be selling in record numbers for the new cars. The gas mileage sucks on a mustang, and when the UK is paying close to $7 a gallon, why buy a car that gets 20mpg... Andrew

A 2011 Mustang V6 will have 305hp and get 31/19 MPG with the automatic. A manual trans only get 30/19 MPG. A 2L Honda Civic only gets 29/21 MPG, while a 1.8L can get up to 36/25.

http://www.insideline.com/ford/mustang/2011/2011-mustang-gets-305-hp-plus-31-mpg.html

It will still get expensive at $7 a gallon, but so will a Civic. If the next gen Mustang gets a 4 cylinder Ecoboost, the mileage should get another nice jump.

Bob

Schmidlap wrote: Ford didn't give many details, but Edmunds doesn't think it will have the turbo 5 cylinder from the RS, and instead will have a turbocharged 4 cylinder with at least 250hp.

DRTFA. But, that meshes well with something I read in a trade magazine where Ford is developing a 250hp turbo 2.5l four-cylinder using the same technology as the EcoBoost six, as a base engine for the Taurus.

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/hatchbacks/112_0902_2010_ford_focus_first_drive/index.html

Ian F wrote: Apparently, orders for the 2011 models are well up from the 2010 numbers.

I'd chalk that up to the new engines. Honestly, I'm surprised dealers can even sell a 2010 V6 right now