That's Ford all over though. They make cheap, reliable, affordable cars. I wouldn't own one as I rmember the European Fords of old. Back in the 80's and 90's Ford usually meant Found Off (the) Road, Dead! They were awful for reliability, not that our own British Leyland - later Rover - was any better. The Europeans were taught hard lessons by the Japanese. Some of them 'got it' and he oters went bust!
Nowadays Ford along with Opel, Peugeot, Renault and Citroen sell huge numbers of cars for the 'Average' car buyer who wants something to drive that's cheap to buy and run but isn't bothered what, and doesn't care about what the options are. They depreciate in value faster than a brick dropped from a high roof but no one cares.
Few manufacturers offer the smorgasbord of choices that BMW, Mercedes and Audi do but then they aren't aiming at the same markets. The 'price points' for us BMW owners are higher, but then allegedly the technology is more advanced and the cars are much more involving to drive. In another 5 years, what we see as the norm for our cars will begin to appear on these other's models too. Xenon lights are still rare, but becoming much more common, as are 6-speed gearboxes, at this market sector. Move up a range to what we know as the Ford Mondeo and they appear on all but the basic spec models.
Then again we have had access to Diesel technology for twenty-five plus years in most car ranges. Every size from 800cc to 5,000cc or more and every type from 3-cyl to V12, with and without turbos. In the US you're still arguing about what emission limits you will allow and only recently went to Ultra Low Sulphur fuel, available as standard across Europe since the late 1990's.
I don't know enough about the US market, but the love if the V8 has a price. Europe as got used to small engined, lower spec cars because it had to. That doesn't mean we like them though.
