Actually, IMO, it was bad planning.
Ford spent too much time and effort on building trucks and SUV's. They did not invest in cars. The Taurus is a great car. Unfortunatly, the idiots decided to make it look like an upside down bath tub. They sales hit the floor and never recovered.
They redesigned the Escort in 1997 and followed the Taurus styling cues. Again, they lost sales. They dumped the Escort and made the Focus. Compare the Focus next to the Escort, and the Focus is a better car build wise. Better suspension, stronger tranny (Escorts used Mazda trannys, I swear they are made of glass. I have three of them in my garage so when I blow one up with 300 HP, I have extra's.
Ford dumped the Contour. So they only really had 2 cars to cover a wide range of uses. Not enough to support the average family.
The Crown Vic is a police car and an old man's car. Few families bought them. They were more of a fleet vehicle then anything.
Ford made the Aerostar. Great van. We have owned two of them. We still have our 1993. Dad has no plans on replacing it. It was RWD on a frame.
Ford dumped that and built the Windstar. I don't think they sold the Windstars as well as they sold the Aerostars.
Ford invested in SUV's. Escape, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion. They sold them like hotcakes.
Ford also invested in trucks. F-series, Ranger, and Econoline. They kept up with the F-series, but forgot about the Econoline. Ford built the best van, bar none. The Chevy's were a joke and Dodge vans were nothing to even consider. GM and Dodge revamped the van line and have taken a big bite out of Ford's dominance. Ford never responded. the Econoline looks the same as it did in the 1990's when they did the redesign. The Ranger has looked the same for too long. When Toyota and Nissan redid thier trucks, the Ranger remained the same. It is still the same today. Dad has a Ranger. Great vehicle.
When Ford bought Jaguar, Aston Martin, Range Rover, and Volvo, they again invested too much money into those companies. Sure it is great to make thousands on one vehicle, but you never forget your core buisness.
Ford did that. People did not like the new designs and decided to buy something else.
It is hard to compete when you make stupid mistakes like that.
In the early 1990's, Ford had 5 of the top 10 vehicles sold. F-series, Explorer, Ranger, Taurus, and Escort. You don't sell that many vehicles if they are junk.
Toyota boosted the Camry sales by selling another vehicle and added a name to it. Toyota Camry Solaris. I did some research years back about the Solaris. It actually shared little with the Camry. Toyota used that name to boost the Camry sales.
People want exciting vehicles. Ford has not started producing exciting cars. The Fusion is a good start, but not enough. The Fusions are selling like crazy. The dealer Theresa works at can not keep them in stock. As soon as they get one in, it gets sold within a day or so.
The Freestyle is a joke. Ford knows it. They are phasing it out.
What does Lincoln have that is exciting? The Navigator? Town Car? Lincoln really needs to go on thier own like Cadillac did. GM has turned Cadillac into something exciting.
GM hurt themselves by being thier own competition. They produced too many vehicles with too little differences between them.
The Mustang has always been an icon. Ford did keep up with it. The new Mustang is awesome. A little more HP and they are set. HP isn't everything though. The Camaro had the SN95 Mustang beat, but they could not sell them once the "newness" died off.
The new Thunderbird was a mistake. They should have made the T-Bird a performance car and not an overpriced old man's car. Anyone spending $40,000+ on a car is going to buy a Corvette. Dad's 1993 T-Bird had over 100,000 trouble free miles on it. He got 30 MPG on it and it would go o