Maybe Ford is listening after all.

Remember this post?   Well, perhaps I was wrong: maybe Ford is listening after all.  First came the news that Ford is bringing more of their European car designs to the U.S.  Then came the news that Ford doesn't need the bailout, but would take the money and use it as an emergency buffer if conditions suddenly worsened.  Turns out that Ford's latest releases of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars have appealed to American car buyers.  The edge, Focus and Fusion are all keeping Ford afloat. 

Perhaps Alan Mulally IS the right man for the job.  It looks like the decisions to bring European Fords stateside is not being swallowed easily by Ford management.  Tough: it needs to happen.  It's ridiculous that they make more appealing cars in Europe than they do in the United States.  For some reason, American automakers have underestimated U.S. car buyers.  They seem to think this country is full of unsophisticated drivers who will buy any schlock they sell...and for a long time, they were right. 

But it wasn't because Americans are stupid.  It's because in the distant past, America actually did build the best cars.  It took a long time for U.S. drivers to figure out that the Big 3 brands had fallen off.  But once everyone here figured it out, even people in Michigan stopped buying American.  Now, at least Ford is starting to learn that all things being equal, drivers around the world all want the same thing: nice-looking, nice-driving, well-thought-out vehicles across a product line.  Just because gas is cheap doesn't mean you can focus entirely on certain products at the expense of others.

Meanwhile, Honda has already started leasing a hydrogen fuel cell car.

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