We should know more about Mustangs specifications in just over a month from today, so stand by.

As for the D2C, there's likely alot of ways to make it cheaper without having to resort to massive weight increases over the DEW.

The DEW (almost like the MN12) was intended to be spread out over a wide range of cars that never happened (Lincoln Mark IX, small Lincoln sports sedan, Ford Taurus replacement) as well as the Jaguar, Lincoln LS, Thunderbird & Mustang. Without that cost spread, the LS is still an expensive chassis.

Ford essentially created a new chassis when they took cost out of the Mustang's version of DEW (the lack of a wider cost spread made DEW too expensive for Mustang to use it profitably). A live axle is one way to cut alot of assembly cost, but also creating a chassis that's modular in construction (ie: GM) can create a wide range of vehicles for little money.

What's really ironic is how the mistakes of the MN12 were all but repeated with the DEW. Weight: The V8 LS weighs as much as the larger V8 MN12 Thunderbird, Complexity: DEW & MN12 are world class, but expensive chassis, and marketing mistakes: Both were created to be widely used, but many models that were to use these chassis were cancelled, dooming the chassis way before it's time.

 

I wouldn't be too surprised to see Sigma "evolve" once the cheaper Sigma Mass is on line.

 

Well, the CTS is due for it's 1st major change in 2007.

 

Good One

 

DEW98 was supposed to encompass both a RWD and a FWD platform - it was more of a "program" than a mere "chassis designation." Poor market demand killed the Mark IX, a move that happen latter than most people think. After all, Ford held on with the Mark XIII a year after it should have died. The European Ford Scorpio replacement died because of a market shift away from "non-prestige" executive cars. (That, and the last restyling of the Scorpio was so appalling that fleeing Ford buyers kept the Omega longer than most of the "big" mass-market cars.)

Of course, the FWD part of the program died long before the lower-end RWD application. Perhaps that's why the '96 Taurus platform has lingered so long.

More proof that GM hasn't learned the lesson of short model cycles from the Japanese. Even the current E46 3-series is getting a full redesign sooner than most people think.