GM, Ford Get More Aggressive [View All]

Associated Press
By TOM KRISHER 06.08.07, 3:48 PM ET

When Ford Motor Co. did research to compare the Fusion mid-sized car with its Japanese competitors, it uncovered something scary.

Although many who drove the Fusion and other cars in hood-to-hood tests liked the Fusion's styling, performance and handling better, they still wouldn't buy one because they had such good experiences with their Honda (nyse: HMC - news - people ) Accords and Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people ) Camrys.

General Motors Corp. (nyse: GM - news - people ) found similar results in its research, showing both automakers that they have a long way to go in cracking the Japanese dominance of the all-important mid-sized car market. Both Ford and GM have responded with far more aggressive advertising and marketing campaigns in an almost desperate attempt to pull import buyers back into their showrooms.

"We've really got to fight hard," Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of North American sales, service and marketing, said in a recent interview. "If you see a more aggressive tone, we just want to shake people's consciousness a little bit."

Ford launched television, print and Internet ads comparing the Fusion directly with Accord and Camry, and GM's Saturn brand started urging people to rethink their values as well as how they view Saturn and American cars. On Monday, Saturn will post Accords and Camrys at all 435 U.S. dealerships for customers to compare with its new Aura mid-sized sedan.

More: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/06/08/ap3803900.html