PILOTJPW1 said:
I have made this point to the very few people that cared what a dealer thought over the past 10 years and everyone has a bs reason. That they are different markets, yet Toyota and Honda seem to pump out the same stuff for both markets.
Please make this thread go on and on!!!!
The real reason is simple: stupidity. You can coat it in a couple hundred different layers but in the end it's stupidity. People don't want to get eliminated because they are redundant, and what would they do if they didn't have perfectly good cars to re-engineer, dumb down, and re-style when they come from other markets? Everyone wants to be the big shot and it's a bitter pill to swallow when some guy from another continent designs a car better than the ones you make.
Same reason the Mondeo flopped as the Contour. De-contented, softened, improperly marketed. Same reason the Focus here is a generation behind. The Focus here is a good car, but the European version is simply BETTER.
It's almost like a government bureaucracy and not a corporation in that respect. Imagine the cost savings Ford would have if they had a truly WORLD Focus. Imagine the cost savings if they canned the 500 and had a WORLD Mondeo. The Japanese have figured it out, why can't the domestics? I recall hearing that you can count the number of platforms Toyota has on one hand, and Ford had around 35. :bang We're still playing why buy one when you can have two for twice the price.
I know one guy that lobbies hard for this, but nobody listens to him...
p.s don't even get me started on all the cool toys the Aussies get