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Ford To Stop Selling Every Car In North America But the Mustang, Focus Active (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Ford today announced it will phase out most cars it sells in North America. According to its latest financial release, the auto giant "will transition to two vehicles" -- the Mustang and an unannounced vehicle, the Focus Active, being the only traditional cars it sells in the region. Ford sees 90 percent of its North America portfolio in trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. Citing a reduction in consumer demand and product profitability, Ford is in turn not investing in the next generation of sedans. The Taurus is no more. The press release also talks about a new type of vehicle, though it sounds like a crossover. This so-called white space vehicle will "combine the best attributes of cars and utilities, such as higher ride height, space and versatility." Currently, Ford sells six sedans and coupes in North America: the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, C-Max, Mustang and Taurus. This lineup hits multiple segments, from the compact Fiesta to the mid-size Focus, C-Max and Fusion to the full-size Taurus. The Mustang stands alone as the lone coupe.
If people were willing to buy a 20hp car
Interesting side note, the cheapest car available in the USA seems to be a Nissan Note at 88hp, it also is one of the weakest on the USA market based on my 10minutes of intense googling.
My own car, one of the most popular in Europe weighs in at 86hp and it's the 3rd weakest in its range and genre. The SEAT Mii which is probably the cheapest car in Europe comes in at 59hp.
Different priorities.
But my point is that Americans are often genuinely confused at how I could possibly drive such a "weak" car. They are even more confused when I tell them I regularly drive that car at 170km/h :-)