Ford New Hybrid Line

To be fair, Ford's had the luxury of not having 24/7 media coverage of their very real recalls. Unlike the infamous car mat/gas pedal recall of Toyota, Ford recalls are given a few lines. They've had some engine issues, transmission issues, obvious lapses in fuel economy ratings, which all followed a decade and a half of recalls started because of a faulty speed regulator which resulted in many fires. Just last week, they halted sales of a couple of vehicles because of too few ball bearings in their steering.

No major headlines, CU has been their only real foe. But since CU gets so many things wrong or overblown, a lot of people discount their opinions.

Heck, whenever Ford's dismal fuel economy comes to the land of reality, they spend more time dissing EPA tests, while making sure they discuss the industry as a whole, not Ford in particular. It's exactly this tip of reporting that has led to extremely good Ford sales.

 

(1) The Cmax is not a dedicated hybrid. It is a gasoline car that was modified with a hybrid option (same as the Civic and Accord and Jetta and Sonata and.....). I'm surprised you didn't know that. (2) Honda never claimed "the insight will take Prius sales". If you think such advertising exists, please provide a link to it (Hint: a compact econocar was not in the same market as a midsize.)

BTW we've had hybrids that are more sporty than the Prius, including the Accord V6 hybrid (260 hp) and the Jetta Turbohybrid, but they pretty much flopped. Very few hybrid owners are looking for "sportiness" which is why the Prius hangs on. Ford will discover this fact (again).