Wednesday, August 29, 2007

This is what I'm talking about, these are Bold Moves!

The Iosis concept! The showpiece of "Kinetic" design for Ford of Europe! This is where Ford should have gone for their North American designs, not the "Taurus/500". Not DAVE

I want a Reflex! This is a hot little car, and could be built on Fiesta mechanicals.
And even the "lowly" Fiesta is going to be a real hottie.
Hey Allen, Bill, Mark! This is where you should have gone!



What's going to happen to poor Ford?


What's going to happen to Ford? I doubted and they denied for the longest time, that they would sell their Premiere Auto Group brands, but it keeps popping up in the news. The latest that Indian auto maker Tata may buy Jaguar and Land Rover. And while there are new and interesting models coming from all sectors, what's coming from Ford? What happened to the much hyped Fairlane and Bronco concepts? When will the new Fiesta get here? Why drop the Focus hatchbacks ? How many variations of Mustang can you sell? Where is the Way Forward leading?
It's been depressing for a devoted Ford Fanatic like myself to watch what's been happening or not happening over the last 2 years. And I just don't see Mulally or Fields pulling any rabbits out of their hats. Yes, I know it's not just FoMoCo that's doing poorly, GM and Chrysler have made their mistakes too, but I'm a Ford guy! Yes, I know I bought a Mazda, but I still have my Ford truck and bleed Dearborn Blue.
Over the last 2 years I've said countless times what I think Ford should have done, but I'll spit out some quick one liners here to remind you.
Bring out the Reflex! Based on the Fiesta/Mazda 2.
Bring the Euro Focus here to North America!
Bring the Mondeo here!

Bring the EcoSport/Fusion here!
Bring the Australian Falcon here!
Bring the new Ranger/BT50 here with their Diesel powertrains.
Bring a new Econoline to market!
Bring a new Bronco out based on the EcoSport!
If the Interceptor comes to market, make sure it has IRS!
Get more power in the base Mustang and Mustang GT now! 210 hp for the 4.0 and 300 for the GT are not enough. I read today that Hyundai's new 4.6 V8 may put out as much as 360 hp, and it will be in a new RWD sedan and coupe, FoMoCo needs to get it's head out of it's ass and make some of these things happen!
So much for Driving American Inovation!
Oh and one last cheap shot, concerning this new Sync system developed with Microsoft. Stupid! I mean I fear each time Microsoft comes out with a new system, because I know there will be bugs and service packs for months. Do you want that with a new car?
Poor Ford my ass! If they go down, it will be because of their own stupidity! And if a Ford fan says that, then you know it's serious.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Look at that spike in June!

I found this amazing, I posted a video in June from YouTube of TopGear's review of Focus ST and look at the traffic spike!! I have to admit that I'm also amazed at the traffic level for the months where I posted nothing at all??

Sorry about these nonsensical posts tonight, but getting back into the groove of blogging again is a process. Besides, I'm not a professional, just some guy.

Looking back at my begining...........

I don't know what I was hoping for when I started this blog. Just over 2 years ago, in April of 2005 I started MyFordDreams. And at the time I knew nothing about blogging and little about computers. that first year I posted over 900 times, that's for 9 months by the way, averaging 100 posts a day.

I guess I wanted to be the Ford version of AutoBlog or Jalopnik, I don't know.
I learned a lot in the last 2 years and Blogger added a lot of features that made it easier too.

I had some fundamental guidelines, it should be FREE, not cost me a dime, and it should be fun.
When it started to be painful, I slowed down.

Linked in the title is my first post on MyFordDreams, take a look.

Not dead, not yet




MyFordDreams isn't dead yet, really I plan on coming back in the fall, just a few weeks.

I needed to push back from this and get perspective. FoMoCo hasn't been doing well and it had been discouraging. I'm not going to try and be AutoBlog or Jalopnik anymore. No more rehashing of press releases. I'm just going to do this for the fun. Now that may mean that I'm not here everyday, and that my posts are sometimes just the fun YouTube videos but I'm not going to kill it.


I was over at The Auto Prophet's blog today and he pointed out that many blogs are dead or dying. Take CarPundit, he's ended it after 3 years. CarsCarsCars hasn't posted since July. My friend JD of AutoEratic hasn't posted in months either. The Autobloggers group is dark too. The last post over there was my post in July about my friends' Blogathon efforts over at KMRL.


Igor a faithful reader and source of inspiration had offered to take over MyFordDreams months ago when I had my crisis of faith, but I couldn't give this to somebody else. I loved doing this! I started MyFordDreams in April of 2005 and MyFordDreams2 in April of 2006.


I've interacted with some great folks, people I respect and admire and I don't want to just end it, I'll be back, check with me in 30 days.


Joe

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Can I proudly wave the Blue Oval bannter driving this.....?

So there's the $64 dollar question, can I claim to be BigFordFan driving a Mazda?

I say yes! Because this is the Ford I should have been able to buy. The Mazda3 shares more in common with the Euro Ford Focus than the current offering in the US does. Same great chassis, better appointments, the works.