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Ford's Plan for Japan

2 April 1999

Ford's Plan for Japan

    NEW YORK--April 1, 1999--The Ford Taurus, once viewed as Detroit's best hope for an Asian invasion, is saying sayonara to Japan, Business Week reports.
    Ford sold only a few hundred Tauruses in Japan last year, far from the 18,000 annual sales it projects when, with great fanfare, it launched the car there in 1996. Still, the company isn't giving up on Japan. It is now launching the European Ka there. Already, however, analysts are calling the Ka dead on arrival. The bug-eyed little car only comes with a stick shift, while some 90% of Japanese drive automatic transmissions. And in Japanese, Ka means mosquito.