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Old 01-04-2011, 03:55 PM   #19
Luke Plaizier
Lukeyson
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW
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Default Re: A Badge Engineered XR8?

There was talk originally of FPV bringing the Focus RS out to Australia. But Ford Europe didn't want the Ford badges taken off, so it very nearly didn't make it here.

The point of this is that some people are proud of the Ford badge and want to retain it. Others want to rip it off and replace it with FPV badges. A shared GS/XR8 makes a lot of sense in increasing the number of people that you would satisfy.

At one point Ford were badge engineering Mazdas. And Nissans. And those from a whole other country let alone across the street. And now a bunch of people here are saying that badge engineering can't be done because it would 'eat away sales' - totally forgetting the value of increasing total sales. The Ford guys already have the service manuals and training, there's NOTHING left to do except satisfy more people.

Remember that Ford already have a product placed to compete on price with the SS Commodore - the XR6T. I mean, when the XR6T came out, did people complain because it wasn't the same price as the XR6? If the SS were ever to be supercharged from the factory, only then would I consider it a competitor to a shared XR8/GS. I'd imagine we'd see price differentiation then too.


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Last edited by Luke Plaizier; 01-04-2011 at 04:00 PM.
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