Anyone who has ever compared the vehicle sizes in the U.S. with those in Europe will have quickly noticed that the biggest models here are seen as mid-sized cars across the pond. While we Europeans love the Golf, at 165 inches long, Americans love the Toyota Camry, at 189 inches long. However, troubled times are pushing American carmakers to consider the impossible: importing these small European cars onto American soil!
Ford’s CEO Mulally has given the official order to import at least two European-designed Fords in the near future. Ford already sells a compact inspired by the European Focus, but while the Focus adopted the C1 platform in 2004, the American model kept the old one launched in 1998. Ford said that this was because the C1 platform was too expensive for the American market. Nevertheless, Mazda models that uses the C1 platform are sold in the U.S. As a shareholder in Mazda, why was Ford not be able to sell a C1 platform-based car in the U.S.?
In order to meet a potential demand, Ford will probably import the C-Max MPV and new Kuga that will be unveiled at the next Frankfurt Motor Show. The cars will be built in Ford’s Mexico and Wayne factories.
This decision deserves to be questioned. Will European cars save American carmakers? When Ford imported the Ford Sierra at the end of the eighties to be sold as Merkur Scorpio, the public did not really understand the positioning of the car in relation to the rest of the American range. How would Ford fit the C-Max in with the Ford Edge, Taurus X and the Fusion? Only time will tell.
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