J Mays: The Good Stuff is Coming!

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

“Oh, it’s you two! I love you guys! Let’s talk about cars!” J Mays broke away to greet Rob and I as we worked our way through the Ford stand at NAIAS. And Rob and I love J Mays, Global Executive Vice President for Design at Ford. We sat down for a few minutes with Mays to chat yellow Mustangs, the future of the hatchback (that’s five-door to you!), the lack of Ranger, and what to expect for a Crown Vic replacement. Details after the jump!

Last year, we asked Mays about station wagons, this year it was the color Yellow Blaze (Mays and I love it, Rob doesn’t) and whether the hot hatch market really exists. The hatch thing remains a conundrum for Ford: its best-selling cars globally are snappy hatchbacks that wither in the US market. The solution? Drop the hatch moniker. “They’re five-doors over here. We have to call it a five-door because people still associate hatchbacks with econoboxes here,” remarked Mays. We all agreed that the new Focus hatch, er, five-door, is the clear style winner over the sedan. But it comes with some baggage: Mays pointed out that the taillamps on the hatch are “the biggest production taillights ever.” And that’s before they get pushed and pulled for aerodynamic efficiency purposes.

Once again, any hope of a new Ranger was dashed: “the market isn’t here for it. Even the smallest trucks, like Tacoma, are getting close to full-size. And smaller SUVs and CUVs are nearly as big as a Ranger. Small trucks have basically been squeezed out of the market.” Mays seemed to chide us for our mini-truck love. “It won’t work. No matter how you slice it.” Can’t blame us for trying!

That brought us back to the Focus, and the possibility of an RS for the states. I drove the previous generation RS on the track last summer and found it to be fantastic - nothing really compares to the Focus RS for suspension tuning. It’s so tight and so predictable that you can launch it off a ramp and land on four wheels four feet over to the side and still going straight. Mays winked and again directed us across the pond. “Look to Europe for the future. The US and European markets are coming together more quickly that ever before.” No doubt we can read into this not just for future product plans, but for options and trims that will make their way over. We took this as a yes to RS. The prospect is nearly too much to handle – the already successful Spec Focus program would have the option of picking up one of the hottest hatches on the planet, and all of the US would risk discovering what a proper car drives like. Yikes!

So what about Crown Vic? Cops around the US are trying to figure out how to eek the last few hundred thousand miles out of their trusty steeds, and what to replace them with. Mays expects an announcement later this year on a Crown Vic replacement, but was mum on the details. Can we hope for a RWD Taurus? Or is that too much to ask? Stay tuned. We’ll have it for you when it happens.