Ford has a bunch of new products coming out in more mainstream segments than what GM is doing well in for the moment. Right now people like us like Cadillac, the new 'vette and the GTO. But would anybody here ever consider buying a mainstream GM product other than maybe a truck? I doubt it.

Ford on other hand is coming out with some good cars in bread-n-butter segments. They have appropriated the Mazda6 platform as the basis for pretty much all of their next generation mid sized fwd and awd products--I read somewhere that they have 10 models world wide in the pipeline on this platform. There's the Ford Futura/Mercury Montego sedans, Ford 500 (I think maybe this one is maybe rwd to go against the Chrysler 300C...not sure though because it might be a bigger version of the same platform with awd too), and a sport wagon called the Ford Freestyle which is going to have a Mercury and possibly a Lincoln variant. All of these are coming out for 2005. They also have a new 3.5 liter DOHC 24-valve V6 in the works with output right now at a hypothetical 245 hp.

I do like what GM and to a lesser extent Chrysler are doing with their premium models but I'm not sure if the top-down approach is the way to go. I also don't think Joe Schmoe consumer after seeing a GTO willl want to buy a Sunfire. Ford is starting out with actual good cars in large market segments and then once they establish themselves as capable of building stuff that can compare favorably against Accords and Camrys they can bring out the halo models.