red sedan driving on a curved road, driver visible

Can a hot-selling Ford midsizer outspice the Asians? 7: words frank markus :i photographs david freers MAYBE IT WAS the heat, but Ford got out of the competitive passenger, car market kitchen about a decade ago. lts topeselling Taurus outgrew the midsize sedan segment in its third redesign, and the Eurocentric Contour, which entered the lineup about the same time, was consrderably smaller than the perennial industry benchmark players (Toyota Camry, Honda Accord) The Contour 64 OCTOBER 2005 MOTOR TREND.COM flopped and faded away aer 2000, and the Taurus devolved into a loweprofit rental car Fords Detroit neighbors havent exactly been stirring the midsize pot, either, which means the Asian automakers have been gorging themselves on the spoils of a 2 Zemlionecar market Fords productecreation veep Phil Martens had the unenviable task of cutting Ford a healthy shce of that pie, and the Mazda alumnus knew just where to look for a midsizeecar platform I wanted to use the 6 because [Mazda] builds the best, driving commodity cars and because Mazda is clever With space utilization. The 6s funetoedrive quotient was deemed crucial because the only Chink Fords market researchers could find in the Asians impresswe armor was their perceived lack of soul. The theory: Come close to matching their virtuesiguality. reliability, value, etc in a package With spice and sizzle, and the cash registers will chaeching With conquest customers from coast to coast