So, bets on the new Chevy SS?

If you watch any of the auto news sites you know that the 2014 Chevrolet SS has been leaked. Putting all of the puzzle pieces together, Chevy had already announced that next year's NASCAR will be a new nameplate (so not Impala), the new Impala has already been previewed as still FWD, and the Caprice PPV is selling like hotcakes and Holden wants to leverage more of them.

My bet is that it's obviously a RWD Ozzie return, though I don't know if they'll stick with the smaller G8 version of the platform, or the larger Caprice version. Since it's called just the SS I imagine it will be LSx V8's only and RWD, though maybe an AWD option. I think GM is going after the Charger/300 market here (Ford, paging Ford, WTF is taking you so long to bring up the Falcon!??!).

Anyway, it's all very interesting and intriguing...

Would love a Caprice SS. I still regret not having been in a place where I could afford a G8 GXP. Maybe I'll be in a place where I can afford one of these bad boys (or maybe settle for a G8 GXP...)

The Taurus is keeping the falcon down. Twin turbo?

N Sperlo wrote: The Taurus is keeping the falcon down. Twin turbo?

How so? There's a big difference between a FWD-based AWD V6 car and a RWD V8 one. Not to mention the new Taurus is actually physically larger than the Falcon. They can bring the Falcon up as a real sport sedan / 4-door Mustang and just mop up sales like crazy. Ford fans haven't had a non-Mustang, non-CV RWD car in decades. Look at how much old Granadas and such are going for now...

Plus Ford has conceded the cop/tax/fleet sales market by dropping the Crown Victoria.

Between that and the dropping of the Ranger, you have to wonder if increasing their corporate average fuel economy is their only business model.

Javelin wrote: There's a *big* difference between a FWD-based AWD V6 car and a RWD V8 one.

Not to the general, cars-are-appliances, buying public.

In reply to Javelin:

Personally, I'd love to see the Falcon domestically. I just think Ford has other things on their mind for us. The Taurus is the closest that I think we'll get to it for the time being.

The Ford program is to sell trucks and SUV's while keeping the average economy in line with small offerings.

The percentage of an F-150 that is profit is like 65%.
The profit on an SHO is like 2%.
They lost 25% on every GT40 they sold.

(ok I made the figures up, but the point is that profits on trucks and SUVs are way better than cars)

jimbob_racing wrote: Plus Ford has conceded the cop/tax/fleet sales market by dropping the Crown Victoria.

Not entirely: http://www.ford.com/fordpoliceinterceptor/

David S. Wallens wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: Plus Ford has conceded the cop/tax/fleet sales market by dropping the Crown Victoria.

Not entirely: http://www.ford.com/fordpoliceinterceptor/

If SW Washington's agencies are representative of the whole cop market, Ford's screwed. Every agency out here had Vic's. Now that their stockpiles are drying up they're being replaced by the Caprice's and Charger's. I haven;t seen a single Taurus or Explorer.

Yeah, RWD is preferred for fleet use. Ford has offered police versions of the Taurus since '86 and, with the exception of the Robocop movies, nobody has bought them.

I saw a story on the local news the other night about the Minnesota highway patrol's last Crown Vic. In the story they said they would be going with the Taurus interceptor in the future.

I wonder what all the cab companies are going to do when the supply of used Crown Vics dries up.

jimbob_racing wrote: Yeah, RWD is preferred for fleet use. Ford has offered police versions of the Taurus since '86 and, with the exception of the Robocop movies, nobody has bought them.

LOL! I have the issue of Car and Driver where they test drove the 1st Gen. Taurus cop car.

But seriously, why do cops refuse to use FWD cars? The local guys always seem to struggle in their Crown Vics when the snow hits anyway...

The majority of the cop cars I saw in Europe in the 4 years I lived there were FWD. Didn't seem to cause the rivers to run red with the blood of the innocent.

In reply to ShadowSix:

I don't think it's the cops themselves, I think it's the fleet managers and mechanics. A CV is so easy to work on you can train a monkey to do it, but the FWD Impala and Taurus require three 4-fingered hands and a Master's Degree to change the plugs.

Also, it's durability, at least when the CV was around. A body-on-frame car can mount a curb at 100MPH and not even knock the alignment out, a uni-body FWD is usually totaled. The new cars are all unibody though, so we'll see how they survive the bashings, sorry "regular use", of fleet service.

jimbob_racing wrote: Yeah, RWD is preferred for fleet use. Ford has offered police versions of the Taurus since '86 and, with the exception of the Robocop movies, nobody has bought them.

I don't ever remember seeing any Taurus before the current that was manufactured any differently than the stock citizens model.

Javelin wrote:

David S. Wallens wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: Plus Ford has conceded the cop/tax/fleet sales market by dropping the Crown Victoria.

Not entirely: http://www.ford.com/fordpoliceinterceptor/

If SW Washington's agencies are representative of the whole cop market, Ford's screwed. *Every* agency out here had Vic's. Now that their stockpiles are drying up they're being replaced by the Caprice's and Charger's. I haven;t seen a *single* Taurus or Explorer.

Same story across the river in PDX...

N Sperlo wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: Yeah, RWD is preferred for fleet use. Ford has offered police versions of the Taurus since '86 and, with the exception of the Robocop movies, nobody has bought them.

I don't ever remember seeing any Taurus before the current that was manufactured any differently than the stock citizens model.

The 1st gen special service Taurus was easily identifiable by the louvered grill that came on them. Only seen one in person and that was one that a Ford parts department ordered just to see what it looked like. It ended up mounted on their loaner car.

My thunk is that Ford will have a sedan based on the new Mustang chassis. The rumor mill says that the chassis will be a global one, and I just don't see the financial sense of making a global chassis with out any variants. At the very least, I expect it to be used for both the Mustang and Falcon, even if both aren't sold in the same markets, and probably as a Lincoln (a Mark IX, perhaps? God knows someone needs to give Lincoln a full reboot).

Didn't Chevrolet go out of business years ago? They might as well have, and saved the world any continued mysery.

Aeromoto wrote: Didn't Chevrolet go out of business years ago? They might as well have, and saved the world any continued mysery.

why do people spout E36 M3 like this?

Cotton wrote:

Aeromoto wrote: Didn't Chevrolet go out of business years ago? They might as well have, and saved the world any continued mysery.

why do people spout E36 M3 like this?

Because they are uneducated bafoons that haven't been taught manners and think that "vtac" is torque.

As for the subject at hand... I would give my left nu.... umm, unused body part... for a nice RWD V8 Sedan featuring the 6L60 trans and independant rear end, that would cruise at 70mph and knock down 30mpg.

stuart in mn wrote: I saw a story on the local news the other night about the Minnesota highway patrol's last Crown Vic. In the story they said they would be going with the Taurus interceptor in the future. I wonder what all the cab companies are going to do when the supply of used Crown Vics dries up.

As long as they don't get SHO's- I'm happy. SHO's and the occasional UC R/T Charger scare me a little bit. Not that i'd run, but I've always had a faster car than theirs.

Bobzilla wrote: As for the subject at hand... I would give my left nu.... umm, unused body part... for a nice RWD V8 Sedan featuring the 6L60 trans and independant rear end, that would cruise at 70mph and knock down 30mpg.

I'll pour one out with you on what might have been...

N Sperlo wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: Yeah, RWD is preferred for fleet use. Ford has offered police versions of the Taurus since '86 and, with the exception of the Robocop movies, nobody has bought them.

I don't ever remember seeing any Taurus before the current that was manufactured any differently than the stock citizens model.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the police Tauruses (Taurii?) were made from '90-'95. There used to be a bunch of them running around here back in the day. Maybe they got the idea from Robocop?

This one is a 1990, the first year: