These drivers – squeezed by $4 a gallon gasoline — also vent loudly about Ford’s timetable, suggesting its got a lot of nerve withholding the Verve from the American market: “Why do we have to wait till 2010? Bring VERVE to America first!” complains a man named Michael.
A Ford media spokesman was not available Friday to address foot-dragging, SUVs, fuel economy or American tastes in cars.
A clue to their thinking can be found on the web pages for the Verve, where Ford touts the model’s style and sustainability.
“The Ford global design team remembered, not so fondly, the econo-boxes of the 1970s and created the Verve concept as a vision of just how good a small car can be,” said J Mays, Ford’s group vice president of Design and chief creative officer. “Verve aims to ‘right’ North American buyers’ earlier small-car experiences by offering a product that changes customers’ views of small cars from ‘cheap’ to chic — and from affordable to desirable.”
But this “righting” apparently requires testing first in Europe and Asia.
Perhaps the company is still thinking on it. Compact cars weren’t the only reasons Ford cleared the high bar in Q1. The company also benefited from renegotiated contracts with American workers, other cost-cutting measures and rising sales of commercial vehicles in Europe, though again, those included more fuel-efficient models.
Suffice it to say that going forward, sales trends might convince Ford that customers in the United States, along with their European counterparts, have green-lighted concepts that American automakers have been slower to showcase in their own backyard – small, feisty cars that don’t sear a hole in the wallet or the atmosphere.
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