Sanity, lunacy and death

April 21, 2006 - By John LeBlanc

This just in: Reports of sanity in Sweden running rampant In an industry where more often than not corporate egos or whining dealers push products into production without, let’s say, the most rationale of business cases (Lincoln Blackwood, Plymouth Prowler, Pontiac Aztek, etc.), leave it to ol’ level-headed, look-twice-before-crossing-the-street Volvo to get all practical on us. Instead of knee-jerking to continue with the moderately successful S60 sedan, Automotive News is reporting that the Ford-owned Swedish carmaker is thinking the just introduced S80 four-door might take the S60’s place in their lineup and that the money saved would be more better spent on new models like a crossover, coupe or sports car. S60 sales peaked right after the launch in 2000 with 100,000, down to just 60,000 last year, and with sedans being viewed more and more as a compromise for people with active lifestyles and a bit of a an old man’s form of car, this bit of product planning restraint is a breath of sanity. Ultimately, the future of the next S60 will depend on the next-generation S40/V50, due in 2010, which will be pushed upmarket when an expanded range of C30-derived hatches and sedans taking its former position in Volvo’s lineup.
 
Did you hear the one about the customer who walks into a Volkswagen dealership to buy a Golf, and drives away with a Rabbit? In a marketing move smacking of desperation similar to Lincoln quickly renaming their new Zephyr a MK-Z after only being on the market for a few months (will that be Mark-Zed in Canada?), Volkswagen has made a last minute decision to rebadge their fifth-generation compact hatchback that’s arriving in dealerships this summer as a Rabbit. After launching the car as a Golf at the Chicago auto show in March, the PR spin is that "Volkswagen customers want a relationship with their cars. Names like The Thing, Beetle, Fox, and Rabbit support this.” Concerns? Oh yeah. First, playing the nostalgia card is risky. Most 20-something Golf-cum-Rabbit targeted customers were running around in diapers when the Rabbit badge was canned in ’84. Second, bye-bye brand equity, as the Golf is only VW's best-selling badge in history, with more than 24 million built as of 2005. Finally, the insinuation is that North American buyers aren’t sophisticated enough to take to the Golf as it is. Peculiar, as historically, the Golf’s mojo is that it’s a real, honest-to-Hans German car. Ironically, what VW is failing to promote with the gen-five Golf is that its manufacture has been moved back to Germany instead of Brazil or Mexico and is an amazing value for under $20k.
 
Rumours of the death of fast Fords have been greatly spun This might be a case for CSI: Detroit. With the Ford Focus SVT canned, Sport Trac Adrenalin iced and a Fusion SVT for all of those SVT Contour faithful tagged as not-gonna-happen, one would be left with the impression that Ford’s SVT group is dead. Not so, according to Mark Fields, the automaker's President of the Americas. “The plan is to offer one performance car (Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra GT500) and one truck (F-Series), going forward," Fields explained recently at the New York auto show. A far cry from the boast of one-year ago at the same show when Ford said SVT (similar in concept to BMW’s M division) eventually would have as many as five products. Maybe Ford needs to poach some of Chrysler’s SRT gang who have managed to produce nearly a dozen (and counting) high performance vehicles over the last few years.
 
- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com

© National Post 2006. This article originally appeared in The National Post's Driving.