[TW]Fox's 100,000 Marmite posts
- Thread starter Will Gill
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I bet Spie & a few others remember hitting the dizzy heights of 100k posts for the entire forum!
Mind boggling numbers, from little Acorns eh?
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
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- 5,586
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- Stone, Staffordshire
100k is quite an acheivement!
It's funny thinking back to the old days when fox would big up the diesel Xantia as the best car with a ride to die for. I wonder if someone had suggested a BMW to him back then what he would have thought?! (Anyone got links to such a thread?)
Fox is a true guardian of Motors and I think the forum is all the better for his marmite input!
It's funny thinking back to the old days when fox would big up the diesel Xantia as the best car with a ride to die for. I wonder if someone had suggested a BMW to him back then what he would have thought?! (Anyone got links to such a thread?)
Fox is a true guardian of Motors and I think the forum is all the better for his marmite input!
It's because of my Xantia days that its so easy to understand and thus question the thought process behin most diesel purchases.
I bought that car because it was diesel, which meant it was cheap to run. I mean how simple could it be? Everyone knows diesel is cheaper to run, it was a no brainer, right? I then spent my entire ownership period having never driven another car in my entire life trying to convince everyone who would listen that I'd made the right choice and that diesel engines were not noisy, unrefined, slow, or false economy. I got more mpg than a petrol car, this means cheaper to run. Even though I did barely 4k miles a year in it.
In hindsight, this was absolute rubbish. But I really thought that and would argue to the death with anyone who dared disagree with me.
Then I began to drive more and more other cars and realised how totally and utterly wrong I was
Parrallels to be drawn to some of todays diesel owners perhaps?
I bought that car because it was diesel, which meant it was cheap to run. I mean how simple could it be? Everyone knows diesel is cheaper to run, it was a no brainer, right? I then spent my entire ownership period having never driven another car in my entire life trying to convince everyone who would listen that I'd made the right choice and that diesel engines were not noisy, unrefined, slow, or false economy. I got more mpg than a petrol car, this means cheaper to run. Even though I did barely 4k miles a year in it.
In hindsight, this was absolute rubbish. But I really thought that and would argue to the death with anyone who dared disagree with me.
Then I began to drive more and more other cars and realised how totally and utterly wrong I was
Parrallels to be drawn to some of todays diesel owners perhaps?
It is a little known fact, that [TW] Fox, is actually a team of several highly active "industry type" individuals from Cardiff.
The [TW] Fox team was initially lauched by Citroën Total World Rally Team, (hence the prefix [TW]) to advertise PSA cars on motoring forums around the island.
It is widely believed that in early 2000's TW team, single handedly saved Citroën from collapse on UK market by talking large volumes of readers into accepting highly unattractive and unpopular on British market retirement barges, such as infamous self inflatable Xantia model, in diesel format.
Between 2002 and 2004, many believed the team Fox was influenced by Sébastien Loeb and/or his co-driver Daniel Elena - it's around that time we saw TW team switch from Xantia to pressure sales of Xsara. In PSA world, Xsara, was single mothers answer to her cheating husband's ultra cool Pug 306, however despite the fact that pitching this ultra unattractive Citroën car to general public full of young men was extremely difficult, team Fox ultimately succeeded and by the end of year two, all three transporters of Xsaras made for British market were sold.
In September 2003, Dagenham Motors, suffering from plummeting sales of it's C sector, began courting team Fox, and despite initial difficulties, by January 2004 managed to secure long term contract for promotion of its fleet cars among young internautes. The team Fox very quickly convinced general public to accept new terms - "petrol", "Ghia X" and "RSAP" became most repeated key words in forum search engine.
Industry specialists agree that, similar to Citroën few years earlier, the innovative advertising from Welsh team rescued the entire European arm of Ford from inevitable collapse literally on the doorstep of being sold for a pound to Indonesian manufacturer of toothpicks.
Following impressive sales in 2004 and 2005 (by which time, everyone on the forum, and their family members had on average two Mondeos each, with some members collections far exceeding their allocated parking space), in a sudden change in Ford's internal politics, team Fox was suddenly offered for sale, together with other Ford assets, such as Volvo and Jaguar.
Beijing based company behind Landwind 4x4 cars was interested in purchase. Rumours had it that both Daewoo and Perodua also entered negiotiations, but in early 2006, it became very clear that even together they will not be able to outbid one of the German manufacturers that anonymously entered fierce bidding war.
To many observers, it was the longest contract signing in history of the motoring industry, but in September 2006, team Fox was signed to business arm of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, under very strict ultimatum, that in event [TW] Fox shall take over internet advertising and sales lead, Chris Bangle must stop drawing that crazy **** on his projects.
The rest, as they say - is history.
Trivia:
Coming from Gwlad y Gân, team Fox is known for their acquired musical taste. Although their motoring reports and reviews from around the world usually feature the same Linkin Park album set on stereos for photoshoots, on their hoonage trips around Sytner dealership, the team is dubbed to be secretly headbanging to Shakin Stevens, Tom Jones and Dave Edmunds (all of which, btw, are best known for courting legendary band Disturbin The Peace as dmpoole replacements in their time)
Collin McRae once asked if he could lead team [TW] after retirement. However his car, at the time, was deemed to be not cool enough, for the position.
A group of Counter Strike players named themselves after team [TW], as token of respect.
The second part of groups name - FOX, is rumoured to be abbreviation of initial reaction uttered by the team [TW] after Citroën presented outlines of the initial marketing campaign - to paraphrase - "ef off! Xantia???"
Top Gears The Stig, is modelled loosely on one of the [TW] early campaigns - after suggesting Mondeo to any given thread, the character was meant to be just standing silently for impact, in full uniform and helmet, without uttering single word, as a sign of ultimate approval. However, the idea proven to be unworkable in internet conditions. In January 2003, Perry McCarthy, together with uniform, was sold to BBC.
All four black Xantias 1.9 XUD and all seven silver Mondeos Ghia X With RSAP Kit as used by team Fox over the years for "immaculate" photos on this forum, were recently seen among 14,000 scrappage scheme cars parked on disused airfield at Thurleigh, Bedfordshire.
It was apparently Citroën's idea to masquarade team of Welshmen as late teens/early twenties "forever student" type from Devon. Other possible ideas included "Portugese porter from B&B in Torquay" and "shapeshifting time traveller typing from Police call box". Both latter projects, however, were rejected because of overlapping licensing issues.
The [TW] Fox team was initially lauched by Citroën Total World Rally Team, (hence the prefix [TW]) to advertise PSA cars on motoring forums around the island.
It is widely believed that in early 2000's TW team, single handedly saved Citroën from collapse on UK market by talking large volumes of readers into accepting highly unattractive and unpopular on British market retirement barges, such as infamous self inflatable Xantia model, in diesel format.
Between 2002 and 2004, many believed the team Fox was influenced by Sébastien Loeb and/or his co-driver Daniel Elena - it's around that time we saw TW team switch from Xantia to pressure sales of Xsara. In PSA world, Xsara, was single mothers answer to her cheating husband's ultra cool Pug 306, however despite the fact that pitching this ultra unattractive Citroën car to general public full of young men was extremely difficult, team Fox ultimately succeeded and by the end of year two, all three transporters of Xsaras made for British market were sold.
In September 2003, Dagenham Motors, suffering from plummeting sales of it's C sector, began courting team Fox, and despite initial difficulties, by January 2004 managed to secure long term contract for promotion of its fleet cars among young internautes. The team Fox very quickly convinced general public to accept new terms - "petrol", "Ghia X" and "RSAP" became most repeated key words in forum search engine.
Industry specialists agree that, similar to Citroën few years earlier, the innovative advertising from Welsh team rescued the entire European arm of Ford from inevitable collapse literally on the doorstep of being sold for a pound to Indonesian manufacturer of toothpicks.
Following impressive sales in 2004 and 2005 (by which time, everyone on the forum, and their family members had on average two Mondeos each, with some members collections far exceeding their allocated parking space), in a sudden change in Ford's internal politics, team Fox was suddenly offered for sale, together with other Ford assets, such as Volvo and Jaguar.
Beijing based company behind Landwind 4x4 cars was interested in purchase. Rumours had it that both Daewoo and Perodua also entered negiotiations, but in early 2006, it became very clear that even together they will not be able to outbid one of the German manufacturers that anonymously entered fierce bidding war.
To many observers, it was the longest contract signing in history of the motoring industry, but in September 2006, team Fox was signed to business arm of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, under very strict ultimatum, that in event [TW] Fox shall take over internet advertising and sales lead, Chris Bangle must stop drawing that crazy **** on his projects.
The rest, as they say - is history.
Trivia:
Coming from Gwlad y Gân, team Fox is known for their acquired musical taste. Although their motoring reports and reviews from around the world usually feature the same Linkin Park album set on stereos for photoshoots, on their hoonage trips around Sytner dealership, the team is dubbed to be secretly headbanging to Shakin Stevens, Tom Jones and Dave Edmunds (all of which, btw, are best known for courting legendary band Disturbin The Peace as dmpoole replacements in their time)
Collin McRae once asked if he could lead team [TW] after retirement. However his car, at the time, was deemed to be not cool enough, for the position.
A group of Counter Strike players named themselves after team [TW], as token of respect.
The second part of groups name - FOX, is rumoured to be abbreviation of initial reaction uttered by the team [TW] after Citroën presented outlines of the initial marketing campaign - to paraphrase - "ef off! Xantia???"
Top Gears The Stig, is modelled loosely on one of the [TW] early campaigns - after suggesting Mondeo to any given thread, the character was meant to be just standing silently for impact, in full uniform and helmet, without uttering single word, as a sign of ultimate approval. However, the idea proven to be unworkable in internet conditions. In January 2003, Perry McCarthy, together with uniform, was sold to BBC.
All four black Xantias 1.9 XUD and all seven silver Mondeos Ghia X With RSAP Kit as used by team Fox over the years for "immaculate" photos on this forum, were recently seen among 14,000 scrappage scheme cars parked on disused airfield at Thurleigh, Bedfordshire.
It was apparently Citroën's idea to masquarade team of Welshmen as late teens/early twenties "forever student" type from Devon. Other possible ideas included "Portugese porter from B&B in Torquay" and "shapeshifting time traveller typing from Police call box". Both latter projects, however, were rejected because of overlapping licensing issues.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 5,586
- Location
- Stone, Staffordshire
^^^Superb 
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