More “Euro Fords in the US” news.
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Ford has confirmed today that production of the Expedition/Navigator beasts will move away from the Louisville plant (To Kentucky), allowing Louisville to produce small Euro Fords for the US.
But that production won’t start until 2011.
Which means… This what they told us a while ago when they said the next generation Focus will be the same for Europe and the US.
So that’s no real turnaround, is it.
Here is some of the vague official PR BS from Ford’s CEO:
“We continue to take fast and decisive action implementing our plan and responding to the rapidly changing business environment”
“Ford is moving aggressively using our global product strengths to introduce additional smaller vehicles in North America and to provide outstanding fuel economy with every new product.”
All we know for sure is that the new small car will be based on the C-car platform.
Which again, could just mean the next Focus.
Meanwhile, the next Explorer will be car based and get 25% better fuel economy.
That’s for 2010.
LOL, fast, LOL, fast, LOL, fast! Do you think he said it with a straight face?
Bite the bullet, make the new lines now, 8 billion loss this quarter!!! These guys need to get a clue.
Yeah…Those zero-profit small tin cans the europeons call cars will help Ford get back that $8B loss. The big 3 have been bled to death by the UAW monkeys…Unless gas comes down under $2.50, they will go bankrupt.
It might be some of the old fart board members who don’t want an immediate chance. I would just keep
the Focus and rename the Euro cars for the U.S. market and sell them within 10 months to keep the competition alive.
Something tells me that it could be too little, too late.
They’re really not making “fast and decisive action” or implementation if they’re waiting 3 years to start producing smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
There is no reason why they can’t use Mercury (which I’ve been screaming for for years now) to just sell Euro Domestic Market cars here in the US (of course, they’d have to make them compliant to US law, but that shouldn’t take 3 effin years!).
How is a wasteful product line of mostly SUVs the fault of the UAW?
Wasteful to whom?
The UAW demands (Labor unions are gangs of thieves backed up by government guns, aka, ‘laws’) require the big 3 to make $6K profit per unit so now that their profitable big units don’t sell…They will all go out of business. Selling small cars will get them to bankruptcy faster.
I blame the UAW and the bastards controlling the gas market who only care about their profits. Both don’t care about the big 3, just a fat pay check. No more US pride.
You all don’t understand how much DEBT the big 3 have…It costs them billions just to pay interest on the borrowed money. The big 3 are insolvent and have been for many years. Selling small/unprofitable cars is a waste of time.
The next Explorer is going to be interesting…Any news on it, Vince?