[Auto] The rise and fall of Ford's great saloon cars

[Mr.BaZzAr]

Europe may be one of the saloon’s last bastions, but Ford recently announced that the Mondeo — which was once wildly po[CENSORED]r, especially in the UK — will be cancelled in 2022 and not replaced. It's part of a wider decline of the Ford saloon, once a bedrock of its range, offering the likes of the much-loved, and much-aspired to, Granada (pictured), as well as the Sierra and Cortina, the Mondeo's predecessors.

In America, Ford announced plans to eliminate saloons, estates, minivans, and hatchbacks in 2018, and it quickly put its plan into motion by consigning the Fiesta, Focus, and Taurus nameplates to the automotive attic — at least in America. Production of its last US market saloon, the Fusion, ended in August 2020 in Hermosillo, Mexico.

The only model that hasn’t been cancelled or replaced by an SUV is the Mustang. Ford’s decision represents a stunning about-face because its saloons regularly appeared on the list of its best-sellers for decades. Times change, markets evolve and the unthinkable sometimes becomes inevitable. Ford of Australia unknowingly blazed this path; it canned the rear-wheel-drive Falcon in 2016 and hasn’t looked back. Join us for a look at the rise and fall of the Ford saloon car, and some of its other related models and other shapes that aren't SUVs: