AutoWeek - Ford, Mazda, Volvo platform-sharing

[MrFatbooty]

Ford taps Mazda, Volvo to create small cars; variants will be built off shared platform By BRADFORD WERNLE | Automotive News Europe Ford Motor Co. plans to use technology and expertise from Ford, Mazda and Volvo to create a generation of small cars that will spawn sales of about 1.6 million units per year. The program, called C Technologies, calls for seven body variants that will be assembled in 13 countries. Sharing parts and expertise from Ford Motor's corporate family is an important strategy to cut costs and erase red ink. The company posted combined net losses of $6.43 billion in 2001 and 2002. The program's core nameplates, the next-generation Mazda3, which replaces the Protege, Ford Focus and Volvo S40 and V50, will share 60 percent of their components. But the individual cars will remain distinctive and true to the values of their brands, Ford planners hope. In the process, the three brands will get big savings on purchasing and product development costs. For example, a Mazda3 will get driving dynamics knowledge from Ford engineers and safety advances from Volvo engineers, while keeping Mazda's reputation for zippy gasoline engines and build quality. But if the plan works, customers won't confuse a Mazda3 with a Volvo S40 or a Ford Focus. The building block of the strategy is Ford's widely praised Focus. Ford showed the first result of the partnership at the Geneva auto show this month, the Focus C-Max compact minivan. Volvo will show the S40 sedan at the Frankfurt auto show in September, where the Mazda3 also could appear. Those products should appear next year, followed by the new Focus. About 1.6 million cars will come out of the program in its peak year around 2006, according to Global Insight Automotive. Nigel Griffiths, Global Insight analyst, says the program will be one of the largest in industry history. For comparison, last year Ford Motor sold in the United States 1,036,810 trucks off the full-sized pickup platform - Ford F series, Expedition and Excursion, and the Lincoln Navigator. Sharing 60 percent of components need not be a problem, Griffiths says. "It's the 40 percent that really does the work for you. As long as those differentiators are high and have high recognition content with customers, you can easily get away with 60 percent (common components)." The different parts should accentuate differences between the brands, he says. "That could be interior quality, engine sound or the noise the door makes when you click it shut," he says. "Those sensual factors eventually become emotive." The Mazda MX Sportif concept (top) carries many design cues of the Mazda3, which will replace the Mazda Protege. The Ford Focus C-Max compact minivan (bottom) won't be sold in America, but the fascia will be repeated in the next-generation Focus.

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[jaje]

looks like my current pr5 and maybe a future rx-8 will be the last mazdas i'll ever consider or own...i could only justify buying either b/c they are not made at a ford plant and currently do not share any platforms or engines

sorry mazda

[boilers]

let's just hope they don't have ford's reliability. I really love mazda's current line up now.

[redgoober4life]

Well, the current S40 is a mitsubishi carisma. EXCITEMENT. I especially like "the sensual factors." Of hearing a door close? Oh that's so sensual it's almost as good as sex!

Are they seriously going to make the Focus and Mazda3 sound shitty just to justify buying the volvo? Uhm...

SENSUAL

[MrFatbooty]

I think as far as platform sharing is concerned this will look somewhat like the Lincoln LS/Jaguar S-Type/Ford Thunderbird but with even more differentiation between models such as powertrains. I don't know if they'll be building the Mazda3 in the Ford/Mazda plant where the 6 is built. It doesn't seem like that's a huge capacity plant and the 6 is more high volume than the Probe/MX-6/626 triplets ever were.

Originally posted by redgoober4life
Well, the current S40 is a mitsubishi carisma. EXCITEMENT. I especially like "the sensual factors." Of hearing a door close? Oh that's so sensual it's almost as good as sex!

Are they seriously going to make the Focus and Mazda3 sound shitty just to justify buying the volvo? Uhm...

SENSUAL

Um, right...

[95AccordEXR]

I'm sure that the ford car will be getting significantly more mazda and volvo components than they will be getting ford components.

[More&Faster]

no the 3 wont be built in the same plant as the 6 i dont think. i read somewhere that theyll be building the mustang along side the 6.

[yianni64]

Originally posted by More&Faster
no the 3 wont be built in the same plant as the 6 i dont think. i read somewhere that theyll be building the mustang along side the 6.

While that might be true, it doesnt make any sense. They dont share a single component. So whats the point in that? Plus, both are high volume vehicles.

[TheOtherDave™]

^ yeah, it'd be awful tough to cram such a big volume RWD and FWD assembly lines into one plant....