Returning to the four-cylinder Fox, can it still turn red?

In the domestic market, how unpopular three-cylinder engines are. In recent years, everyone should have a clear understanding. The more thorough the application of three-cylinder engines was, the greater the loss.Up to now, it is basically certain that there is not even a model equipped with a three-cylinder engine that has truly become a hit in the auto market.In order to reverse the situation and try to recover the losses, in addition to individual brands, in the past two or three years, most of the models that have strongly promoted three-cylinder engines in China, such as Yinglang and Fox, have gradually returned to the ranks of four-cylinder engines.

"Three cylinders" is the original sin?

Yinglang is the most famous "victim" of a three-cylinder engine.Yinglang used to be one of the best-selling sedans in China. When a product was replaced in 2018, it was equipped with a three-cylinder engine, which directly led to a rapid collapse of the market performance, even if it soon gave a huge discount in the terminal market. , nor can save the market defeat.In 2018, Yinglang finally delivered annual sales of just over 260,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 40% compared to 2017.After persisting for about two years, SAIC-GM finally compromised with the market in 2020 and replaced Yinglang with a four-cylinder engine.

In addition to Yinglang, Chevrolet Chuangku (the current model name is Chuangku RS), Geely Binrui (the new model name is Binrui COOL) and other models have also ended the so-called three-cylinder engine strategy and returned to the four-cylinder engine.And just a few days ago, another "star" sedan, the Focus, also returned to the four-cylinder camp through a product change.

At the Chongqing Auto Show on June 25, Changan Ford brought a mid-term facelift model of the Focus. The new Focus still offers two versions of sedan and hatchback. This time, it brought a total of four cars with a guide price of 119,800 yuan. RMB to 145,800 yuan.As the most influential sports sedan in China, the most concerned point of Fox's facelift must be that the new car is equipped with a three-cylinder engine in the whole series to a four-cylinder engine in the whole series.

In 2005, Fox was introduced into domestic production. After the domestic Fox underwent a facelift in 2008, the market exploded rapidly and officially became the best-selling car in the domestic sedan market. The monthly sales continued to remain above 10,000 units.In 2012, the third-generation Focus was put into production at Changan Ford. At the same time, the old models that performed well before continued to serve in the name of classic Focus, forming a strategy of selling new and old models together.Both up and down have expanded the market space, and also brought the market highlight moment in the true sense of the Focus model. In 2013, it delivered an annual sales volume of more than 400,000 vehicles.

After entering 2015, with the continuous intensification of competition in the domestic joint-venture sedan market and the gradual formation of the more cost-effective self-owned sedan market, the market pressure on old-brand products such as Fox continued to increase, and sales performance also began to decline significantly.By 2018, the annual domestic sales of Focus were less than 100,000 (66,000).

In order to reverse the decline, Changan Ford decided to replace the Fox.

Change the generation, the customer loses a lot

It has to be said that, as a heavyweight product brought by Ford to reverse the difficult situation in China, the new-generation Focus has undergone quite thorough changes. Ford China’s official statement at the time was that, except for the screws and nuts, everything about the new-generation Focus was complete. is new.

It's just that from the results, Fox's complete makeover this time, not only did not help, but made himself even more marginalized.In 2020, the annual sales of Focus will be 34,500 units, and in 2021 it will be less than 13,000 units. The annual sales volume is no longer comparable to the monthly sales at its peak.

Is such a market gap due to the weaker Fox products after the replacement?Seeking truth from facts, it is not.

First of all, in terms of price, the official price of the new generation of Fox when it was launched in 2018 was 108,800 yuan to 150,800 yuan. On a compact sedan, such an official price drop is not small.

Secondly, in terms of interior and exterior design, because Ford's popular family-style "Martin" face has been used in advance, the real highlight of the replacement Focus is in the car, the floating central control screen, knob shifting, etc., are the first appearances. New elements on this Fords.In terms of configuration, the new-generation Focus has upgraded the engine start-stop to the standard configuration of the whole series, and the functions such as LED daytime running lights and one-key lift of the whole car window have also been popularized in the medium and high-end models to the whole series.In addition, on the top version, the replacement Focus also used an intelligent assisted driving system, which was not common in the joint-venture compact car market at that time.

In addition, there is a very important point, Fox finally stretched the wheelbase.For a long time, Fox's relatively tight interior space performance has been the focus of users' complaints.After the replacement of the Fox in 2018, the wheelbase finally exceeded 2700mm, and the wheelbase of 2705mm was directly extended by 55mm compared with the old model. The improvement of the overall driving experience can be said to be immediate.

The price has been lowered and the configuration level has been upgraded. The replacement of the Fox seems to be more sincere, but the result is a new car that is hoped to boost the market and becomes more marginalized.As for the reason, the main reason is that the replacement Fox dug two obvious "pits" by himself. At the stage of the headwind, these two "pits" are quite deadly.