a New Mustang?

1985 Motorsport Capri · Sun Dec 17, 2006 4:38 pm

for those of you heading to the north american auto show in detroit next month, you may want to check out this proto-type.
i got this off the detroit free press website.

"Ford will tantalize visitors to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January with the Interceptor, a concept car based on Mustang's rear-wheel-drive architecture. But don't call the Interceptor a Mustang.

"It is not a Mustang, and no production plans have been announced," Ford said."

mustang marty · Post by **mustang marty** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:16 pm

It is supposed to be a 4 door based on the existing Mustang chassis, but it isn't a 4 door Mustang.

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:08 am

Well......I've heard alot, and yoiu are correct. The next gen Mustang will offer a 4-Door and a small Sport Wagon. (Guess they learned zip from the Pinto Sport Wagon) ... In other shockers.... AFTER 2008 OLDSMOBILE WILL NOT be lying all alone in the Cemetary ! He'll have "Lady Buick" beside him !

The DTS (or DeVille) as we knoiw it will wave bye bye and Cadillacs will move to BMW type of cars, with stark interiors and accent on speed and NOT so much "luxury" ~ With Olds & Buick gone, not much need for Mercury, and Fords & Lincolns may wind up in the same showrooms, yet.....

All is NOT lost.... the Avanti is returning !

Post by **negusm** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:36 am

I have never understood the need for Buick and Oldsmobile.

The only thing I associate with them is old geezer/grannie cars.

Talk about an image problem.

-Mike

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:58 am

What is wrong with "Old Geezer - Granny cars" ? Your Mom & Dad are soon going to be in that catagory. Why do you indicate that you do not like people who were your age 25 years ago ?

Have you forgotten the 4.4.2. ? The Gran Sport Buicks? The GSX, The GNX ? Just because they do not enter the Hi performance sedan classifaction, does not mean that they are without merit? If so, we need to dump all the Camrys, Accords, Civics, Altimas, Maximas, Sonotas into the deep river, too.

Post by **negusm** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:12 am

Ask any person 35 years or younger what they think the average age of a Buick or Oldsmobile driver is. I am sure they will say 55-60.

Ask the same person pretty the same question in regards to pretty much any other car brand and I bet the age will be much younger.

I mean this is obvious....and I'm definitely not just pulling this out of nowhere:

Many people still think of Buick as an old person's car

http://cars.about.com/od/buick/fr/ag_06lucernecxs.htm

Oldsmobile wanted a younger, more performance-oriented, more "expressive" positioning. Thus was born the "Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" campaign.

The campaign featured some very clever spots...remember Ringo and his daughter? But the campaign was a major flop, not reaching the "new generation of Olds" and probably alienating some of the older ones.

http://www.kassof.com/insights/ri-wi940.htm

My fav:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_man_car

-Mike

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:56 am

Yes, but this is a ploy (your last link, I am speaking of)....a ploy by the foreign car mfgrs & supporters, to get the young people into their cars. Proof? Look. They named (almost) every American car!
Crown Victoria, so you have to include Grand Marquis.
Lincoln & Cadillac
Buick & Oldsmobile.

What's left ?????

Chevrolet & Pontiac. Chrysler & Dodge. 4 brands.

I live very near a senior retirement center. 50% of the cars in there are Camrys & Accords. So, where were those on the list?

Why is a Chevy Trailblazer NOT an old person's car, but an identical Buick Rainier is ??

I can tell that 50% of the reasons a person shuns a certain vehicle and 50% of the reasons they buy a vehicle.......are in fact; ill concieved conceptions, formed by a gin rumy partner, or a pal at work or a neighbor in the pet store business.

Post by **negusm** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:30 am

Sandy wrote:I can tell that 50% of the reasons a person shuns a certain vehicle and 50% of the reasons they buy a vehicle.......are in fact; ill concieved conceptions, formed by a gin rumy partner, or a pal at work or a neighbor in the pet store business.

That is true. Image is 90% of what it takes to sell a car.

As somebody who got interested in cars by the late 1980's....I'll tell you that walking into an Olds or Buick showroom will be the LAST thing on my mind when buying another new car. That's how bad their image is to me.

-Mike

1985 Motorsport Capri · Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:24 pm

personaly, i always thought of buick as an old persons car. oldsmobile always had the cutlas, which was always popular amoung teens/twentey somethings around my neck of the woods when i was groing up mid 80's/early 90's.
i think the main problem with olds/buick was they were not as good looking as the pontiac & chevy counter parts.
there demise is due to the image of an old persons car & the popularity/sales of pontiac/chevy.
kind of hard to market buicks when most of there market is dead or about ready to die. (no offence to older/dead buick fans)
if one remenbers about a decade ago, camel cigerettes re-invented there image with joe camel. why? there original customers all died out.
kind of the same story with buick/olds. they both tried to re-invent there image but without sucsess ("not your fathers olds").

anyone remember the line from the movie "Fletch" when he describes his wifes laywers car? it was refered to as a "Oldsmabuick". it was a olds or buick version of the nova. (sorry cant remember the acutal names of those 2 models).

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:39 pm

Apollo & Omega. Later Apollo was changed to Skylark.

True Story:-

Recall the NOVA (Chevrolet)? What did NOVA stand for ?

It stood for all 4 versions (3 trhat were yet to come out) of
that body-style.

N= Nova
O=Omega (Oldsmobile)
V= Ventura (Ponmtiac)
A= Apollo (Buick)

See ?

shelbyscarab · Post by **shelbyscarab** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:29 pm

I've been a little lax? lately keeping up with auto news. I didn't hear about Buick. Not surprised though. I'm surprised it didn't happen before this.

but, anyway, GM in a way did it to themselves. Back in the 80's they produced cars/platforms that were shared by Pontiac, Oldmobile, Buick, & Chevy often. Most of the time there were just very minor styling cues, if any. What was up with that??? The eighties I thought were a very bad time for the big 3 in general anyway.

And speaking of cloned brands. I've never understood why GM has Chevy trucks and GMC trucks. Are you kidding me???? They are identical people! I guess Ford does it too, although much less so. There weren't any Mercury pickups last time I checked. I don't have a problem with the Lincoln pickups and suvs, they are different enough, just like Cadillac and chevy.

Back in the 30's - 60's I think most of the brands had their own identity, many now do not however. Thats part of the problem with Oldsmobile and Buick. I hope Ford doesn't kill the Mercury line.

75coug · Post by **75coug** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:01 pm

The funny thing about image is just how quickly it can change, and then how tough it is to fix. In the 70s and 80s, the Cutlass was a top-selling car. Among the high school crowd that was into image but not performance , the Cutlass was considered to be much cooler than a Mustang or Camaro.

In the span of ten years, Olds became an old man's mark and sales tanked. (I blame this in large part on the front-wheel drive Cutlass that was unattractive, unappealing and lost the millions of Cutlass fans.) Even the excellent Aurora in the 90s could not revive Olds' rep. It was a shame.

Mercury is in the toilet these days, as we all know, and will likely die in the coming years. I would love to buy one, in order to do my part to help the cause, but they simply do not make anything that I would want. It's sad.

1985 Motorsport Capri · Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:52 pm

performance wise, mercury really hasnt offered anything(except for the marauder) in quite awhile. there was some talk of bringing back the cougar as a current style mustang counter-part, but i dont think it ever progressed past talk.
as far as the rest of the mercury line, you can get the same exact car at the ford dealer but cheaper.
they better do something quick or there will be no more Mercury.
soon mercury will be in the same boat as Plymouth, Olds, Buick & AMC.

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:26 pm

It wasn't on the news, about Buick, it's VERY inside(er) info.

The New GM
Cadillac
Pontiac
Saturn
GMC
Chevrolet

Hello, 2008 !

75coug · Post by **75coug** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:23 pm

Sandy wrote:It wasn't on the news, about Buick, it's VERY inside(er) info.

The New GM
Cadillac
Pontiac
Saturn
GMC
Chevrolet

Hello, 2008 !

If a person really wants to be objective about things, Pontiac should be scapped too. What point does it serve these days? I am saying this, and Pontiac has always been my favorite GM division by far.