2 posts tagged “ford contour”

One game I admit I waste a lot of time on is Car IQ on Facebook, from CarGurus.com. And, being the good netizen that I am, I report all the errors to the webmasters so they can make corrections.
   Most of the time my complaints are heeded (thank you for taking me at my word) but two have not been in the past few days. I want to share these with Voxers and maybe you can tell me your thoughts.
   Here is the first. Car IQ thinks this is a 1998 Ford Contour SVT:

Pic-87694-iq

4 comments

   Now, I am not American so I do not see these cars every day (well, actually, in 2000, I did see a Contour every day—my rental) but I am pretty sure this is a regular Ford Contour, not an SVT. Where are the skirts, the deeper front spoiler, the larger 16-inch wheels that came as standard? How about the front fog lights? So I told Car IQ.
   Their response:

Thanks for writing. We have researched that photo and believe our answer is correct. If you still think we are wrong, please send us further details or information.

Yeah, right. I’ve sent Car IQ more links and quotations now, because I am a stubborn bastard. But if American readers can put me right (or wrong) I will let this one go. I don’t believe I am wrong.
   The second is far more ridiculous. Car IQ says this is a 1991 Opel Astra:

Pic-99343-iq

That’s right. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out that this cannot be an Opel Astra. An Opel Kadett, Vauxhall Astra or a Chevrolet Kadett—but not an Opel Astra. And the model year is likely to be 1990.
   I was surprised to get the ‘We have researched that photo’ excuse.
   No research on the planet in this particular universe could have confirmed that Car IQ was right on this.
   So I have now provided them pictures of a 1991 Opel Astra and a 1988 Opel Kadett.
   And as it’s an American site then the folks who run it should not dismiss a foreigner’s report so readily about a model that was never sold in the US. By all means, research—don’t just say you researched. Do it.
   Sigh, why do I bother to make things right for the internet sometimes? I should just be uncaring and be done with it.

My comment on the Journeyman Blog today:

Mike, you are being generous. I’m no longer going to watch American serials that don’t have self-contained episodes as my “default” position, making exceptions for presently unforeseeable situations. I feel that strongly about Journeyman.
   Journeyman was an exception, but I have managed to stay away from all the other so-called hits with “story arcs” anyway (Lost, Heroes, The Nine, Traveler, Prison Break, 24, etc.).
   Like you, I was a Day Break fan and we managed to get, fortunately, all 13 episodes networked here (albeit at a really sucky time). I gave Journeyman a chance on the strength of a fabulous pilot but now, if I hear ‘Made in USA’ along with ‘story arc’, I just won’t bother.

   This cannot be good for the US TV industry, but if it has morons running the networks, then what can it expect? Journeyman was the last straw, especially as I tracked how the show unfolded and how inept NBC had been. This isn’t the first series that I have followed that was cancelled prematurely—but after so many of these, where American networks cannot understand that loyalty to the network brand also depends on overall product quality, I am just fed up.
   This is the Ford Taurus syndrome. The story is this: the Taurus was a huge hit for Ford. Instead of continual improvement, Ford opted to abandon the Taurus, letting it get trampled by the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, when the SUV boom happened. Toyota and Honda, instead, kept improving their sedans and developed SUVs. By 2006, the Taurus was a joke, sold to rental car fleets. It was only for the 2007 model year that Ford transferred the Taurus name on to its Five Hundred. By that time, Ford lost a lot of customers to the Japanese and there are people who felt their loyalty had been thrown into their face.
   It also had the Ford Contour in the US, which the company refused to market properly, probably because it had been co-developed with its European branch. The claim was that Americans were not interested in the CD-sized market that the Contour occupied. Reality: Dearborn probably wanted to cover its own butt by saying, ‘We are not taking this European stuff because we have to sell domestically designed.’ It’s perhaps all political. Meanwhile, Americans were buying the same-sized car from BMW and Mercedes. Buyers just kept going foreign.
   Ford’s latest refusal to sell the German-designed C307 Focus, and instead facelift the older model for American buyers, is yet another example. Now the Focus is getting trampled by the Honda Civic, and the next Toyota Corolla will beat it even more. History keeps repeating there at Ford.
   In other words, Ford thinks Americans are dumb Yanks.
   NBC has combined these moves, but really, every network is guilty of this. While Journeyman was not a huge hit, NBC knows its poor scheduling and non-existent promotion are to blame. Instead of allowing an audience to build (the numbers were growing), it decided to interrupt Journeyman’s schedule just as the show found its legs. It had a quality product which it intended to kill. And in the meantime, viewers are feeling that the networks are not listening. They will happily go to cable, DVDs and other services. NBC’s remaining offerings—dumbed-down reality fare—will be like the 2005 Ford Taurus.
   In other words, the US networks think Americans are dumb Yanks. 
   No, foreigners do not think Americans are dumb because of George W. Bush. Foreigners think Americans are dumb because that is how American corporations treat American citizens, by making decisions that disrespect the American consumer’s intelligence. Foreigners then make an erroneous presumption that that is what consumers have asked for—when in fact most Americans are as upset about the strange corporate decisions that take place.
   As television globalizes—and it will—the US networks will be like Ford, where perceived quality and loyalty will no longer be there.
   Bad moves against quality products do affect the overall parent brand—something that even brand consultants need to remember.
   And, sadly, the parent brand’s image can often be tied to the national one.