Grand Rapids attorney Michael Snapper listens to a voice-mail from Ford CEO Alan Mulally thanking him for canceling his Prius and ordering a Ford hybrid instead
Not too surprising: Michigan attorney orders a new Toyota Prius, has second thoughts, cancels his order, then orders 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid instead.
Very surprising: Attorney gets voice-mail from Ford CEO Alan Mulally, thanking him for ordering the Fusion Hybrid and telling him, "It's one of the finest cars we've ever produced."
The lucky former Prius customer is Michael Snapper, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. His story first appeared on WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, which led to the call from Mulally. The station helpfully taped a video of Snapper listening to the voice-mail for its followup story.
Snapper took pains to say that "we started to pay attention to the kind of products the American manufacturers were making, and we just zeroed in on the Ford Fusion Hybrid." The challenges facing the US automakers played a role, he said, but he and his wife really chose the car because they liked it better.
Perhaps the Snappers were influenced by recent Ford publicity pointing out that the Fusion Hybrid handily beats Toyota's Camry Hybrid sedan on both measures of fuel economy. While Toyota has fought back--saying that the Fusion should really be compared to the Prius, which gets better mileage yet--most observers have rejected that comparison, since the Prius is a five-door hatchback while the Fusion is a four-door sedan. (A few have accused Toyota of sour grapes.)
So here's the question: Short of a call from the CEO, what would it take to sway your purchase away from a Prius toward any other hybrid? And why? We're curious. Let us know in the comments.
