What is more likely to resonate with American consumers the 2007 Mondeo?

I wouldn’t give-up my BMW for either car, but I would at least like to DRIVE the Mondeo, and the only way I’ll drive a Fusion is if that’s the only rental car available. In the mid-sized sedan segment probably the smartest thing for Ford to do is to scrap the Fusion and just sell the Mondeo, the Fusion is basically a ruination of a perfectly good car that would sell well and win buyers from the Camry, Accord and Passat.

Now I’m aware of Ford’s future plans to make a single model to sell as the Fusion in the U.S. and the Mondeo in Europe, the idea is to have the design teams collaborate with both groups implementing tweaks for their respective markets. While this sounds good on paper my fear is that the U.S. market won’t get a true Mondeo, and will instead receive a bastardized Mondeo/Fusion hybrid.

Personally I think Ford is missing the mark with this approach because Ford Europe has already designed a great car that doesn’t need to be modified at all, just sell the Mondeo in the U.S. as is. The so called “design cues” preferred by the American consumer as the very things that are driving the American consumer to the competition, there is no reason to implement them on a perfectly good car.

After all, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Lexus, Toyota, etc, etc, are all having no problems selling a car in America that is exactly the same as its European counterpart, I’m sure there is a lesson in there somewhere. Especially since the ’07 Mondeo has some obvious design cues “borrowed” from Lexus and Acura.