Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechan1k
When Ford took their design and specs of the Territory to the US .... Ford gave them the go ahead ... albeit on a small budget.
Ford US couldn't have the Aussies build something better than them ... so they came up with the Freestyle but in "what they thought would be a better packaged platform being FWD based". It was a flop and was as shocking vehicle from the get-go.
Now if they hadn't have been the way they were ... and actually took on the Aussie design/platform ... and Globalised it back then (keeping it true to the Aussie design) .... it would have been a very different story indeed.
Especially when you look at the sales figures in Australia compared to the "global" Toyota Kluger platform .... The Territory outsold Kluger by a country mile.
Now if that was offered to all the Global RHD market ... and had some $$$$ through at it to have it adapted to the LHD market as well. Things would have been very different.
But ... as mentioned ... the carmakers in the US don't seem to accept anything outside of the US.
Even though everyone in the US has been asking to get the BARRA and its RWD pletform for years ... seems to keep falling on deaf ears.
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In 2011, the D3 based Freestyle and Five hundred were reworked into the new
FWD/AWD Explorer and Taurus / Lincoln MKS / PI car and PI UTE.
That move allowed Ford to close down two BOF plants and move a ton of buyers
onto an existing platform and reworked Vehicles, Chicago AP went to three shifts
and Ford never looked back.