awsure

American Dream: We drive the Interceptor, the full-size sedan that could save Ford


http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...eptor_concept/

ress the electrically triggered chrome door handle and the door pops open. The sculpted one-piece leather seats are as stiff as the suspension, and you slide onto them as into a Barcelona chair. A 21st-century "shaker" looms in your view, and the rest of the hood is long and upright...you're overlooking a similar expanse of sheetmetal as in a Chrysler 300. Hit the electronic ignition button on the headliner just aft of the header, and the 5.4-liter V-8 fires up with a rumble.

The clutch is a bit heavier than a Mustang GT's, but it releases smoothly and progressively. This big sedan is easy to drive-if you're into low-riders. It bounces along the smooth test road like a candy-colored 1964 Impala on the haunches of its hydraulics. It feels like one good bump could launch it into the air. You shift cleanly into second gear, but that's all she'll show today.

Interceptor. It's just another Ford concept car. A nice piece of eye candy designed to take your attention away from the real horror story playing out in Dearborn amid collapsing sales, massive losses, and a demoralized workforce. Don't you believe it: Even as you read this, Dearborn insiders are sweating the details on a secret plan to radically change the way FoMoCo develops new cars and trucks. And the Interceptor reveals a key part of that plan.

Two things make the Interceptor important: the way it looks and the way it drives. Especially the way it drives. Ignore the fact the Interceptor rolls on a cobbled-together Mustang platform with a nonexistent show-car suspension. It's the thinking behind the car that matters. And the thinking is this: Ford wants an all-new rear-drive sedan for North America by 2011 or 2012.

Not that long ago, rear drive was on life support at Ford. The company had axed the slow-selling Lincoln LS sedan and Ford Thunderbird, both built on the expensive DEW98 platform shared with the Jaguar S-Type, and announced the plants building the Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand, Marquis, and Ford Crown Victoria would be closed in 2010. Under this scenario (Motor Trend, August 2006), the Mustang would be the only rear-drive Ford car on sale in America by 2011.

Now, under new CEO Alan Mulally, Ford is rethinking rear drive for North America. Insiders say Mulally has looked at what GM has done to reinvent Cadillac, seen the buzz it's generated around new rear-drive cars like the Chevy Camaro, Pontiac G8, and the Chinese-market Buick Park Avenue (all based on the Australian-developed Zeta rear-drive architecture), and asked: "Why can't we do that?"

It's more than just an obvious question. It also addresses a major dilemma for two key Ford products, the Mustang and Ford Australia's Falcon. The Mustang has been a runaway hit for Ford, but by 2011 the platform will have been in production for seven years, and its live rear axle is no match for the sophisticated independent rearends under the newer Camaro and Dodge Challenger. Down in Australia, the Falcon, Ford's rear-drive rival to GM's Holden Commodore, is getting a major overhaul for 2008, but its platform dates back to 1998.

Neither platform has the volume (2006 sales totaled 160,000 Mustangs and 50,000 Falcons and variants) to justify an all-new replacement each. So Mulally has asked for a plan to bring Ford's rear-drive cars together onto a single, global vehicle architecture. That means Mustang and Falcon. And it also means potential replacements for the Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis, and Ford Crown Victoria. Which is where Interceptor comes in.


If you peel away the stupid looking grill I think this resembles the 300 in styling.

RLSH700

I think it looks like a coffon on wheels for a reason. I hate that car. Too much lavage. They just need to bring the Falcon to the U.S. to solve their problem.

RoswellGrey

Your reference to the Falcon made me curious, so I found a pic of one. Not a bad-looking car.



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GTO JUDGE

I was had.......

On the way to the GM Nationals in Carlisle PA... I was driving towards the fairgrounds when I looked in my rear view mirror and saw this Chevy Caprice with a shaker hood and twin spotlights on each side of the windshield some 2-300 yards and closing. As I stopped at a traffic light this car stops behind me... I notice the bubble in on the dash and see the driver on a walkie-talkie. I say to my wife check this cop put behind me in his Interceptor, looks to me like he's running a make on us. I then hear him gunning the throttle and hear a loud rumble. He is doing this over and over again.... I said, this a$$hole is baiting me. He's dying for me to gun it, or get on it so he can nail me.

So the light changes and off we go, all the while he is gunning it and tauting me. I look close and see 3 heads in the car, I tell my wife this ain't right. I then figured..... A show car.

As I pull into the registration building I see the Interceptor go past. As my wife and I are checking out the cars I come across this car and the owner. Laughing I tell him who I thought he was and was trying to get me to launch. He tells me while he is laughing, he was gunning the car to agitate of the car behind him. His buddy tells me the owner of the car is always playing with others this way.

The car was in pristine shape and had all the official looks of an in service Interceptor. I noticed several others at the show as well.

TeeWJay426

That Interceptor looks hideous. If that's what Ford is counting on for their salvation, they will not likely survive!

Nero

When I hear the title Interceptor two things come to mind:
1st a Police car
2nd The car from the games "Spy Hunter"
The Ford "Interceptor" is a very poor name for that car it should be instead named something like "Lead Sled" or even revise the Mercury Marauder name. Also it is much to lavish for my tases also.

RLSH700

I love the Falcons. They should use the styling of those to inspire at least some model in their line-up.

Nero

Oooh. (in the background) Hunny what do you want for Lunch? Me:Falcon (Background): What?