It has been 110 years since the Ford Motor Company introduced the Model T, which became an American automotive icon.
It has been 115 years since the debut of the Model A, Ford鈥檚 first vehicle.
But by 2020, the only true car you鈥檒l be able to buy new from Ford will be a Mustang. That鈥檚 right, Ford is getting mostly out of the car business 鈥� in favor of producing trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles.
听
鈥淭he Fusion, Ford鈥檚 most serious effort to challenge Toyota and Honda鈥檚 longtime dominance in midsize family cars, is a goner,鈥� reported Automotive News. Also goners are the Fiesta, Ford鈥檚 鈥渞ecession-era attempt to woo young buyers,鈥� the 鈥渧enerable鈥� Taurus, the traditional Focus and the C-MAX hybrid.
In addition to the Mustang, the company says it also will produce a new Focus Active, which even a top Ford executive has described as a crossover rather than a traditional car with a trunk.
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Maybe it should come as no surprise that Ford is mostly abandoning cars.
The company鈥檚 car sales through the first three months of the year represented less than a quarter of its total vehicle sales of almost 600,000 and down nearly 14 percent from last year.
Ford has only three of the top 20 best-selling cars through March 鈥� including the Mustang at No. 18, according to the results reported on goodcarbadcar, an automotive website. The Fusion was No. 8 and the Focus No. 10 during the same time period.
Best-selling cars
Ford鈥檚 entries were beaten by the best-selling Toyota Camry, the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and Accord, Nissan Sentra and Altima, and the Hyundai Elantra.
鈥淐ar sales have slipped,鈥� reported the technology website engadget.
鈥淎ctually, to be honest, they鈥檝e driven off a cliff and exploded in a ball of fury like an accident from [a movie] … It turns out, we don鈥檛 want small, nimble, fun cars. We want SUVs and crossovers that we can fill with stuff (and friends). As a nation, we want to sit high up in our driver鈥檚 seats and survey the land.鈥�
Plenty of options
Meanwhile, Ford has outlined plans that signal 鈥渢he extinction of the car lineup as we know it,鈥� according to Motor Trend. 鈥淏y 2020, Ford will have replaced 75 percent of its lineup and added four new nameplates, all of them trucks and SUVs, reducing cars to just 14 percent of the lineup.鈥�
Besides cars, Ford鈥檚 2018 lineup comprises the F-Series pickup trucks, including the top-selling F-150, plus the Edge, Explorer, Expedition, Flex and Bronco SUVs, Escape crossover, and commercial Transit. So, starting around 2020, if you really want a new Ford it probably will be a pickup such as the F-150 or SUV like the Escape or Explorer, all three of which already outperform the best-selling Ford cars.
And if you really want a new car, you still will have plenty of options.
They probably just won鈥檛 be Fords.
