What on Earth is happening to the design of cars. The Ford Explorer looks more like a very expensive golf trolley. Which is such a shame because behind the front is a very nice looking car. I wish they did them with a 2 litre diesel engine, I’d buy one tomorrow, and I suspect many other people would too.
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Leccy’s don’t need grills, that is a problem for designers.
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Let’s not forget: The design of volume models such as the Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo didn’t work. They have not led to commercial success. Now Ford is playing the American card across the entire portfolio. The European Ford borrows from the US icon without imitating it, or so the story goes. This makes it a classic compact SUV of the cooler kind on the old continent.
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I don’t think that is entirely true they have a cooling system for the batteries as I understand it.
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Bruce, I was talking aesthetics not functionality.
Wasn’t Toyota’s bZ4X the ugliest car you’ve ever seen, Bob? 
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Me too. The functionality design principle is the idea that designs should be functional and capable of fulfilling their intended purpose.
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It looks like a wannabe ‘squashed roof’ Range Rover, they are ugly too, i mean, why would you do that to a Range Rover?, just goes to show, designers do get it wrong, so wrong
The c1996 VW Golf Harlequin is a perfect example
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Yes they do, but the radiators are miniscule in comparison with an IC engines, and can be mounted just about anywhere.
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We get cars like that here but it is usually because it’s had a ding and the owner has got new parts from a wreckers off a different colour cars. My son in law loves old bangers
My daughter calls it patina
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This is the result of fords tie in with vw, it’s based on the vwi Id 4 and uses the same platform, it has a quartec steering wheel, which just goes to show how far ahead the allegro was…I think it looks quite good
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I don’t understand your comment Dachs…Weren’t those vehicles the most popular and best selling cars for lots of years, including the Escort? How could they not have been a commercial success? Most of those cars are still highly sought after especially the Escort.
I believe they were one of the most reliable and durable vehicles in the Rover line Rox.
I worked with a bloke who drove one of those and had two more in his garden to use as spares.I bet he is still driving around in it.
Yes Dachs, and it still ranks pretty low down on my list of future acquisitions, but the Ford Explorer has now surpassed it, but only for the front, I think it looks quite nice behind that obstrocoless bonnet.
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I had a Mk1 Escort, it was the only car I sold for more than I paid for it. Stupid underpowered engine common to British cars but made really silly by putting a cross flow head on the old block meaning that the distributor was under the inlet manifold and adjusting/changing the points was a nightmare.
Had fun with it none the less however when my daughter arrived I had to go back to a HJ Holden Kingswood with more room and an agricultural but sensible 3.5litre straight six.
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I agree Bruce all Escorts were not the same, and I think the sought after ones now are the Escort RS, weren’t they very successful rally cars?
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OK, they were but that was too long ago. The Fiesta never got off the ground on the US market as planned. Sales figures in Europe had been falling continuously before the production of the car was stopped two years ago. With profit margins also going down, Ford didn’t earn enough money with its bread-and-butter cars which is why it stopped manufacturing traditional cars also including the Focus. Six per cent market share in Europe does not keep the company afloat. VW’s share is still 25%. Ford’s crossover and SUV models are just more viable. I was astonished that the boss of Ford Germany is quoted as having said that the company intended to stop manufacturing confusable and boring products.
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Actually Ford are doing very well in the UK Dachs, with the Fiesta being the best new car for 23…
In total, 1,516,560 Ford Fiestas were on the road in the UK last year, said the trade body. The Fiesta was also named the best selling new car of the year for 2022 with 288,639 finding homes.26 Apr 2023
According to wiki…
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