Can Ford build an Audi?

The September 5^th issue of Autocar contains a very interesting interview with Ford CEO Allan Mulally - a man who managed to turn the fortunes of both Boeing and Ford for the better. He must now face the same challenge that all automakers are sweating over – a contracting market dominated by Volkswagen with their easily scaled, high profit, MQB platform. Autocar’s Steve Cropley asks the difficult question; ‘How come Volkswagen is doing so well in Europe’. Mulally points out that they do exceedingly well in their home market as well as China going on to say, ‘the VW Group is mostly VW and Audi. The Volume is VW, but most of the profits come from Audi’.

‘The Volume is VW, but most of the profits come from Audi’

Trader Dreamer: BTCC Special I

YouTube is a wonderful thing, aside from millions of hours of utterly pointless drivel and many more comments of the same ilk, there’s seemingly no limit to what you can watch. I’ve recently been entertaining myself by watching BTCC videos. I’m a huge fan of the super touring years of the sport, and YouTube makes it possible to watch those races on demand. This is the first of ‘Trader Dreamer’s inspired by this great racing series, and it’s natural to start with the year 1990, the first year to feature the new 2-litre class that would make the series so very special.

(Picture from Ejcallow)

Trader Dreamer: Ford Scorpio

How do you follow up a V12 Ferrari in a series of blogs? Well perhaps something a bit more realistic. Something with half the cylinders but a top speed only 40mph adrift of the now £60k supercar. A car that offers more equipment than the Ferrari, better economy, more seats, and in facelift form, more exclusivity than the Testarossa? Yes it’s all sounding great you say, well, witness, the Ford Scorpio!

Photo from kenjonbro