The Ford Fairmont was Dearborn’s first “downsized” car. Unlike GM, Ford started at the middle of its lineup post-OPEC and worked outward. But like GM’s “Project 77” cars, what became the Fairmont actually started off…
Posts tagged Ford Motor Company
Mazda Navajo: Kentucky, not Hiroshima
“America builds one for the Japanese!” read the headline introducing the Mazda Navajo. It came after almost two decades of American brands offering “captive import” Japanese vehicles (starting in the early 1970s with the Dodge…
Ford Bronco Mk1: A Horse Untamed
It could be fairly said that 1964 was Ford’s year of the horse. That April, Ford’s epoch-defining Mustang debuted at the New York World’s fair. The Mustang not only created an entirely new market, it…
The Blue Oval’s Supermini: Ford Fiesta Mk1
“Mini cars,” Henry Ford II famously once said, equal “Mini profits.” That was on May 13, 1971 and said in reaction to the early sales success of the Pinto. It came at the end of…
SUV Mania: 1993 Ford Explorer Limited
The year was 1985. A year earlier, Bob Lutz had returned to Dearborn from a hugely successful stint at Ford of Europe where, among other things, he had shepherded the creation of the Ford Sierra….
Ace Archbishop: Ford Cortina Mk1 GT
In the 1950s, English Fords had done quite well in the USA, but aside from the Anglia they had been swept aside by the Falcon. But the Falcon didn’t compete directly with the smallest cars…
Ford’s Roadrunner: 1969 Ford Torino Cobra
Despite the slightly earlier arrival of the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda, Ford was the first company to introduce a compact-based “pony car” as they became popularly known – and it took GM, Chrysler, and AMC until…
Econline Pickup: The Forward Control Ford
The big news in Detroit in 1960 was the arrival of “compact” cars – and in particular, the Ford Falcon. But just as imported cars had encroached on domestics 1950s, smaller and more fuel efficient…
The Future is Now: 1986 Mercury Sable
The 1986 Ford Taurus and it’s close sibling, the Mercury Sable, were landmark cars six year in the making, and they revolutionized Ford’s U.S. operations.
Ford Festiva: The Cult Favorite
When it was new the Ford Festiva was often regarded as a bottom-feeder – a cut above a Yugo or a Hyundai Excel, maybe, but a bare-bones economy machine, not something to be coveted. Over…
Rough and Rare: 1979 Ford Ranchero Squire
Ford’s Ranchero was the first modern North American “coupe utility,” but it never sold as well as anticipated – rarely more than 23K units a year through its early variations until it was tied to…
Canadian Cargo: Ford Cortina MkII GT Estate
After Ford UK’s CEO, Sir Patrick Hennessy, discovered in 1960 that Ford of Germany had been gifted an unused front-drive Detroit compact (“Project Cardinal” – the Taunus 12M), he convinced Dearborn to allow Dagenham to…