version of Ford's new "world car" known in Europe as the Mondeo, is a pretty slick car. Add the only available options, a $500 moonroof and a $140 compact disc player, and the price rises to $23,540. "But we're able to bring this car to the market for about $13,000 less."Īt $22,900, the 1998 Ford Contour SVT is the most expensive version of the Contour, about $2,000 higher than a comparably equipped SE version. "We think the BMW 328i really defines the sports sedan segment," Boyd said. "For sports sedans, the growth rate is very strong in a down market," Boyd said. While the leap from Ford's sporty Mustang to the awesome Cobra seems logical, the compact Contour sedan takes a bit more explaining. But you can be sure that Ford is working on a Thunderbird comeback around the turn of the millennium. After years of neglect, the T-Bird simply didn't contribute enough to the bottom line to justify its existence. And if Ford is so committed to performance cars, why did it let the venerable Thunderbird die out before the SVT could work its magic on the rear-drive coupe?īoyd said the SHO was already in the market before the SVT's creation five years ago. One would assume that the powerful Taurus SHO, for example, would fall within SVT's purview. Still, the SVT's role seems a little fuzzy. It relies on car buffs and writers to tell its story.ĭealers themselves have to earn the right to sell SVT vehicles, which consist right now of the Cobra, the new 1998 Contour SVT and the Lightning pickup truck. Most enthusiasts have heard of the Ford Cobra, a high-performance version of the Mustang that retails for $27,700 as a coupe and $29,995 as a convertible.īut they may not know about the SVT. as a whole, we've really accomplished something." "If we can influence how these people think about Ford Motor Co. So, why is the second-largest automaker investing in three models that account for just 50,000 sales a year?"This is a very small part of the automotive market, but it's extremely influential," Boyd said. But our contribution to the bottom line is so small that you couldn't see it with a microscope." "We are a business-within-a-business at Ford," says Tim Boyd, manager of Ford's Special Vehicle Team, or SVT.
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