[Focmachine]

Yes your spot on about the marketing I worked for Ford dealers in sales during the LR release and LS era, that "we can be heros" ad was just spectacular! it even showed some of the car.

All they had to do was a side by side driving test and follow up with the practicality of the interior and show the design deficiencies of the competitors, such as folding down rear seats or seating 5x 6' tall people in it.

I wanted one with a hands off the wheel acceleration showing the neutral torque steer against all of the other cars kicking the wheel on the throttle.


They also did a press day and the cars were loaded with the incorrect software, making the cars dead in the low to mid revs.
Customers who were test driven and presented the car properly were generally converted to buyers but the market share went to the best marketers, toyota and I could never be convinced that the corolla was superior to the focus in any aspect, maybe the engine has some good points.
Those old Corollas did not age well.

Ford did do the best job at giving us the product information and the pro's and cons of the competitors, even down to high tech for the early 2000's, interactive satellite based training other manufacturers I'd worked for just had the sales brochures.