Originally Posted by
Badlatitude
Ford also lost a chunk of police and taxi sales to imports and to dodge and chevy. Ive seen many a tahoe , new style impala , charger and even a few F'n nissan pathfinders in police use. several chevy pickups also.
Ford has the same problem GM does. They make too much shit and most of the shit they make is changed with no common sense or though. Hell the full size 4 door used for taxis and police cruisers is all but gone. When last up north i noticed a HUGE amount of import mini vans also
Ford is giving up a small chunk of the police market to Chrysler, but Chevy has not made a real police vehicle since the Caprice. Almost every officer who gets stuck with a lumina (the new impalas are not worthy of the name) hates it. almost every department has to have massive services on them by 20,000 (entire suspension rebuilt, transmissions, not to mention the legendary GM interiors.)
if ford wants to regain their 10 year dominance on the police market then they need to give the Vics some more power. 250hp? come on, the 6 cylinder Chargers are more than that.
the Panther platform is the only car Ford makes money on. The majority of the tooling costs were paid off 15 years ago, now the only tooling they have to pay for is the minor redesigns every 5 years or so. They wont try to sell any.
Wanna hear a real brilliant decision on Fords behalf? They are going to kill off the Town car and replace it with a FWD car based off the 500. There goes their limo and livery sales. Who the hell is going to want a front wheel drive limo? The town car chassis is used to build a lot of different limos, all the Bently limos all ford underneath. the Town Car assembly plant in Wixom Mich was closed down and Town Car production was moved to St. Thomas with the Vic and Grad Marq.