The Cadillac Cimarron, a badly blinged "luxury" version of GM's J-car compact that launched in 1981, was an unmitigated disaster. So can small and luxury really sit together in America? Yes, says, J Mays, who points to the success of the Mini, a small car that commands a premium price in the U.S. Meanwhile, Peter Horbury, the Brit who overseas Ford's North American design studios, indicates the demand among young people for increasingly smaller, yet more sophisticated, personal communications devices could be reflected in their choice of personal transport.
But what's likely to make the Concept C work in the American automotive landscape is that it's an American compact car that doesn't look, well, all that compact. Its broad-shouldered bulldog stance and expansive styling endow the Concept C with a big personality and substantial road presence. "If you saw it on the freeway," says Farley, "you wouldn't think it was a short car."
A production version of the Concept C would be front drive. Although the show car has a 1.6-liter EcoBoost four under the hood, there's easily room to package alternatives ranging from the 225-horsepower five-cylinder turbo from the Focus ST to the highly economical hybrid powertrain of the Fusion. Transmissions would be six-speed conventional or dual-clutch automatics.
Ford Motor has a history of teasing us with great-looking or interesting concept cars that never make it past the auto-show circuit. But Jim Farley insists a production version of the Concept C is very much on the agenda. "We're looking at it seriously because the reaction we got was so encouraging," he adds. "It's certainly stirred quite a debate in the company. The question is just the economics-the investment and stuff-but we're as excited about the car as the dealers are." So build it, Jim. Just build it.
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