Leaked email from Ford Employee

[awalbert88]

3800lbs? If not for that single number, I might have been able to believe a little of what was said in that "e-mail". However, I can't even begin to understand how the a non-convertible could end up weighing that much without IRS.

I believe it may well have throttle-by-wire, but as for not allowing mods... that's about as believable as saying the Mustang will only be offered in one color.. pink.

 

[SVTCobra66]

all i know is that ford has alot riding on the new mustang; if they mess up, which i hope they don't, then ford is going to go under... their stocks have been dropping really bad, this is the only thing thats going to pull them out (huge recalls don't help either)

 

[i4power]

first time in a while I dont go on the net all day and I came on to find this. My stomach just dropped when I read that. I hope to god it isnt true.
Rember in one of the other posts how ford was lookin more into what the cutomer wanted and talking about todays car tuners and stuff like that, this is all the exact oppiste of everything we have heard so far.

It is the exact opposite of what Ford was saying because this idiot is trying to discredit them.

Don't worry, the Mustang won't be a 3800lb dog that can't be modified. NO ONE is THAT stupid.

 

[(&)]

all i know is that ford has alot riding on the new mustang; if they mess up, which i hope they don't, then ford is going to go under... their stocks have been dropping really bad, this is the only thing thats going to pull them out (huge recalls don't help either)

Sorry, but you're just flat out wrong about that. Ford can live without the Mustang. The only vehicle that is do-or-die for Ford is the F-150.

 

[Mach172]

Sorry, but you're just flat out wrong about that. Ford can live without the Mustang. The only vehicle that is do-or-die for Ford is the F-150.

I believe this is correct, the F-150 as well as the total SUV market is what keeps Ford alive! If you doubt that, just look at a dealer's lot sometime!

 

[66Satellite]

So does anyone have any confirmed information about the 05 Mustang that would contradict or disprove even one statement in this guy's post/e-mail? And I'm not talking about the silly article about "customizing" or whatever that people keep referencing--that was all about aesthetics, stuff like the corny dash design Ford has already leaked. The Vette has had ETC for years now, why shouldn't the Mustang? And who says that Ford's upper management really cares about tuners or about people's ability to modify engines for more HP? There really isn't that much info in this e-mail, it's mostly just spew, but the few things that are in there seem hard to disprove at the moment, and not necessarily that shocking.

 

[SVTCobra66]

if ford is so alive, why is there stock a few points away from junk status?

 

[tylers65]

if ford is so alive, why is there stock a few points away from junk status?

No one said Ford was Alive. They simply stated that the F-150 is their bread and butter. Not the Mustang. The Mustang is actually middle of the road in importance to Ford. They are actually focused on (imagine this) the Focus than on the new Mustang. The Focus is an extremely high selling world market car. If they mess it up, it will be more detrimental than a botched Mustang launch.

In the world of money making cars. The Mustang is just not as important as others.

Ford could drop the Mustang all together and survive.

 

[SVTdriver]

http://www.blueovalnews.com/2003/cars/must.camaroconquest060903.htm

Sales of the Ford Mustang increased 14.1% in May 2003 when compared to May 2002 sales figures. From January 2003 through May, sales of the Mustang increased 9.6% from a year ago. The Mustang is the 11th best selling car in the U.S. for the first five months of 2003.

Now I may not know a lot about Ford's profitability. But I'd say that 11th best not just makes it important to the Ford in the U.S. But that maybe they would have a significantly harder time surviving without it. But that is assuming a company doesn't take a car that as of oct. had reached 116,000 in sales for the year (which should be pretty amazing considering the people who have stated they are waiting for the 05). Is thinking about it's future. Sure the focus sells around the world. But that doesn't mean Ford can afford to blow the mustang's release. Especially with it's low stock rating.

 

[Omegalock]

SVTdriver is right. While the Stang may not kill Ford it will sure as hell hurt it BADLY if the new Stang falls on it's face. A company doesn't sink that much money into a total ground up redesign of a car and presumablely will sink a bunch of money promoting it not to have it take a huge lump if it falls flat. Not to mention that if the Stang gets panned overall it could hurt Ford's rep(which goes a long way to selling cars). Possibly their most recognizble brand(ask your average person who doesn't know much about cars who makes the Mustang most will know Ford makes it the same can't be said for the F-150 and the Focus in the US) doing poorly and it won't be good.

 

[(&)]

The Taurus was eleventy billion times more important than the Mustang several years ago, and Ford totally F-ed up the new model. Yet Ford is still there. It's because the most important vehicles for the business are trucks. The Mustang is important, but it's not like they'd be reeling without it.

 

[tylers65]

I only used the Focus as an example of the importance of the Mustang in the big picture.

Sighting how the Mustang sales have increased over the course of a couple of quarters and saying that for 1 half of one year it was ranked number 11 in the total sales of all cars sold in the US is a scewed view. You can buy Cobras right now for as low as $25,000 and Mach's for $21,000. Of course they are going to sell a lot of them when the prices have been dropped that low. Let us not forget that Ford pushed the $5 a day lease not only once, but are doing it again to celebrate the 300 millionth car (Mustang bye the way) built. And yes, they do count leases as sales. Then let us throw $3000 rebates and 0% financing for 72 months into the mix. They also count fleet sales to rental companies. Rental companies generally turn over rentals every 2 years. If they bought the 1999 for their fleets they turned them over for 2001's then the 2001's got turned over in........2003! let's say that there are an average of 10 Mustangs per Hertz (owned by Ford) rental company in the US. Now to keep the numbers easy, let's say there are 10 Hertz locations in every State. That is 5000 Mustangs that went to Fords rental company alone. These cars would have all been delivered approx. the first 2 quarters of 2003.

Somehow, being #11 doesn't seem so great now. Especially for 1 half of 1 year.

 

[93 teal terror]

Im callin BS on that letter...why would vortech and other aftermarket companies already be tesing them and designing stuff for the 2005s if you couldnt increase torque. Thats total bs....what if you switched oil or put in a different themostat? The computer goes into failure mode?....Also what about the diff. in factory numbers....how each car puts out a diff. amount of hp. If your tryin to tell me ford is gonna tune each and every computer that rolls off the line your crazy.

 

[SVTdriver]

May be I don't get it. But Mustangs are 11th and you don't think that's important? There are lots of rebates for many different cars. Look at the figures. It is also 8th on Fords highest sellers for YTD. Okay so maybe between budget and hertz mustangs sold 10k units. That's still 106k as of October. And that's IF they bought them in your alloted time frame. Sure they sold more F-series than cars total. That still does not mean the cars are unimportant. And if you look at the YTD sales mustangs account for about 1/7 of total car sales. It also only was beaten by the focus by approx. 80k units. And was Ford's 3rd biggest car sales as well as the focus having a larger % of sales drop from 2002.
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=16738&make_id=trust

 

[tylers65]

No, you've got it all wrong. It isn't that I am saying the Mustang isn't a money maker. It just seems as though everyone thinks that Ford HAS to do certain things in order to keep the Mustang enthusiasts happy. They then justify it by saying that the Mustang is Ford's bread winner (when we all know better) and that if they don't keep the Mustang enthusiasts happy, then Ford will go out of business. I get very tired of folks thinking that if a few people on a web forum don't like it, then Ford will go and make the car exactly how 10 members of Stangnet want it.

The Mustang is not a make or break deal for Ford. If it falls on its face or is still born, then yes, it could be a breaking deal. But Ford could end the Mustang in 5 years and never no the difference.

Take the T-bird for example. They dumped a lot of time (= money), development (= money), Labor (= Money) and well, money. into the new T-bird. Guess what? It is being discontinued because it didn't sell very well. Did they get their money out of it? NO! Are they going out of business because of it? NO!

Tomorrow morning Bill Ford could wake up and say to himself "I really see no need to keep the Mustang around. Perhaps I should kill it before we spend too much more money on it." And just like that, POOF the Mustang is gone. Will it bankrupt Ford? NO!

That being said, they could really care less what we (the Enthusiasts) want. If we don't buy the car. They will chalk it up as a lesson learned and continue on to the next big thing.

 

[SVTdriver]

I agree with you on some points. Yes Ford does not have to do anything to keep mustang enthusiasts happy. And yes they don't have to listen to any group of people here on stangnet or any other forum. I'm sure they take opinions into consideration as long as it is a majority opinion ( as an example people thinking they should have made the mustang exactly like the concept.). But I think I would have to at least slightly disagree with you on the Ford being a make or break. If you lose the #3 seller for ford (as far as cars are concerned). That would be a major setback. It is close to 15% of Fords car sales. Now I'm not sureI haven't spent a lot of time on it. But I don't think the T-bird was ever really meant for that kind of volume. Selling 16k per year is not production near the mustang. And Everyone can agree they are not trying to build 100k per year. That alone makes it easier to get rid of. Sure the mustang lose may not bankrupt them right away. But it would put a large dent in their earnings. Which would hurt stock ratings. You also have to look at them having thought about killing it in favor of the probe. Which did not happen. Due in at least part to the enthusiasts.

 

[tylers65]

3rd highest selling car?

Ford only has 5 cars.

Focus
Taurus
Mustang
Crown Vic
Thunderbird

The amount sold was probably in the order I just put them.

It's not like it had a lot of competition. You already stated that the T-bird was a niche vehicle when you said it was not meant for large volume manufacturing or sales.

The rest of the Ford car line up (Focus excluded) rely heavily on fleet sales to either rental companies or police departments.

Now if the Taurus outsells the Mustang, then how is it that Ford is discontinuing the Taurus?

EDIT:
Also, the Probe was not slated to replace the Mustang. The Probe was going to be named Mustang. And you are right. It was the flood of hate mail they recieved from the public and enthusiasts that brought that idea to a halt.

 

[RiceEating5.0]

How could the mustang not be VERY important to Ford? Untill the supercar GT came along, the Cobra was the Halo car at Fortd. It was also their single "real" performance car. Just take a look at all the surveys of America's favorite cars and i can gauruntee (sp??) that the Mustang is ranked either 1st or 2nd by the general public. That's saying a lot. Plus, mustang buyers tend to be very loyal. I didn't care for Fords till i got into mustangs. Wich vehicle would a mustang buyer be more inclined to buy? An f-150 or a silverado? A TB or an explorer? A ranger or an s10? See where owning a Mustang can influence other purchases? I bought a 2003 F-150 and i'd buy an SVT focus before i by any other sport compact. 4 years ago, i bought nothing but Honda's.

I think it is a very important "image" car for Ford. Personally, i think the Mustang is just as important to Ford as Corvette is to GM. These cars don't have to sell F-150 or silverado numbers to be considered "important".

Another thing. FORD RACING PERFORMANCE PARTS. Sure, Ford may only sell 120-180k Mustangs a year (which btw is best seller in its class), but how about the money Ford makes off aftermarket performance parts? FRPP would be broke without mustang. Speaking of volume, over 8 million stangs have been built since 64. 8 million!!! that is a lot of cars.

It is an image car, it is an excitement car, it is a popular car, and it is a car that actually sells/makes money. Yes, it is "important".

Btw: How many Ford vehicles have their own engineering team? Is there a team taurus? A team Focus? If there is, i've never heard of them. But there is a Team Mustang. What does that tell you?

My 2 cents. You can't really say that the mustang isn't that important to Ford.

 

[tylers65]

I will agree (to a point) about it being a "Halo car" for Ford.

But "Best selling in its class"? What class? It's pretty hard to be the best selling pony car out there when it is the ONLY ONE!

But I am splitting hairs a bit.

Front engine, Rear Wheel drive, 2 door car, 4 seats, under $40,000. We will call that description it's class for now.

The list of competition there is pretty short too.

The term "Halo Car" is a car that is the first one that comes to mind when the manufacturer's name is mentioned.

I Say Dodge - you think Viper
I Say Chevy - you think Corvette
I say Ford - you think F-150...ERR Mustang

Trust me, I for one know how much the Mustang means to the credentials of Ford. I too know that it is a good money maker. I guess I am just trying to despell the GOD complex everyone relates to Mustang when it comes to Ford. Mustang is NOT the be-all-end-all within FOMOCO.

 

[SVTdriver]

Yes Ford only itself makes 5 cars. Although they also considered the escort in those numbers. But the mustang also outsold volvo,jag,landrover.