10-01-06: It has been a year since the Ford Fusion hit showrooms. Ford reports that customer satisfaction with the new family of mid-size cars is at an all time high.
Now it is time to get that message out. One of the biggest hurdles to getting a mainstream car like the Fusion to out sell the competition from Toyota and Honda is less about the realities of equal quality and value, but perceptions.
For Fusion and Ford it is a classic battle, reputation vs. reality. Paul Eisenstein from TheCarConnection.com communicated it well. “ It‘s going up against a vehicle particularly with the Camry that people expect to be satisfied with. Part of the problem with Detroit is running into is that conventional wisdom has not caught up with reality. So in some cases the manufacturers are struggling to get a message across that consumers aren’t necessarily ready to listen to.”
If you ask most non car-enlightened consumers across the land which is the best high mileage, never have to worry about car to buy you will be told Honda or Toyota. This perception is deep and difficult to shake and frankly those brands have earned it. American car makers may indeed be building equal cars today, but it will take them just as long to convince buyers of this as it did the Japanese automakers in the 70’s.
The other highlight of this episode was the gentle but clear message to the UAW, employees, and management of Ford’s US based plants. The Hermosillo Mexico plant where the Fusion, Milan, and MKZ are built was praised for “embracing” Ford’s lean manufacturing principles, for its “flexibility“ and excellent team oriented attitudes.
What is really being communicated here to all those in the Ford family is that the Hermosillo plant exhibits all the qualities that the US plants had better start mustering up or be left behind. This is a healthy dose of reality for those in America with the perception that business as usual is going to stay that way.
The episode finished up with some staged testing events at the Dearborn Development Center test track, showing how the car can negotiate a rough road, and a few bumps without blowing apart or dropping chunks on the roadway. This will impress Honda and Toyota buyers who expect their car to successfully negotiate bumps.
Dealers seem to be happy with the Fusion, stating that they sell every one of them they can get their hands on. This news is substantiated by the increasing amount of them we see on the roadways. See the entire video documentary and participate in Bold Moves now: www.fordboldmoves.com.
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