Ford set to build more flex into lineup
02-25-2003, 03:53 AM
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Ford set to build more flex into lineup
February 25, 2003
BY JIM MATEJA
CHICAGO TRIBUNE (KRT)
The plans aren't set in stone, but here's what appears to be in the very near future for Ford Motor Co.
The Torrence Avenue plant in Chicago will stop building the midsize Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable and switch to the midsize Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego sedans as well as the Ford Freestyle sedan/sport-ute crossover for the '05 model year.
Ford's Atlanta plant will continue to build Taurus and Sable until production of the new Torrence Avenue vehicles is up to capacity. Then Atlanta will drop the Taurus and Sable and add a new sedan that will be shared by Ford and Mercury for the '06 model year.
"We're working on products below Taurus/Sable that are more C/D size, though I won't say that they are going to be built in Atlanta," Jim Padilla, president of Ford's North American automotive operations, told us when he stopped in town to help unveil the Montego at the Chicago Auto Show.
In the European vernacular auto executives sometimes slip into, C refers to a Focus-size vehicle, C/D to a Ford Mondeo-size vehicle (the former Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique) and D to a Taurus/Sable-size vehicle.
"There's room for a vehicle between the Focus and the Five Hundred (D size), and we intend to fill it. I'm not going to say if it will be built in Atlanta, but wherever it's built, it will be a flex plant like Chicago," Padilla said.
He also wouldn't say whether the new C/D car would come off a platform from Ford or Mazda, its Japanese partner.
Flex plant refers to the fact that three vehicles will be built here, a trio of front-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive units derived from one platform.
With different body panels and tweaks to engines and suspensions, one platform provides three vehicles with different character and performance traits. The days when the only difference between the Ford and Mercury was that one had a vertical grille, the other a horizontal grille, are long gone.
The only advantage to producing Taurus at two plants is that it gave Ford about 400,000 vehicles annually, enough units to compete against Toyota Camry and Honda Accord for the title of best-selling car in the industry.
Of course, with only one plant producing Taurus, it will stop chasing the title.
Padilla insists that while Ford won't have enough volume from one car to compete at the 400,000-unit level, it still intends to compete against those Japanese sedans.
In other words, Ford still intends to sell 400,000 sedans, just not 400,000 carrying the same nameplate because it's not economical to do so, Padilla said.
So the battle will be fought with 100,000, 125,000 or 150,000 sales from a variety of cars -- whatever it takes, in other words, to reach that 400,000.
"The Five Hundred and Montego are only one piece of our strategy to take on those sedans," Padilla said. "We'll take them on with a new C/D car as well as with others," he said without elaborating. "We aren't going to rely on any one single product to fill one plant, and we certainly aren't going to rely on any one single product to fill two plants."
Steve Lyons, president of Ford division, said, "It's difficult to sell 200,000 or 300,000 of any one vehicle. With Taurus we had to push 200,000 units from one plant and 200,000 from the other."
And when sales were soft, it meant a choice between halting production and idling workers to balance production with demand or offering costly incentives to entice buyers into showrooms to keep the factory open.
"With Five Hundred, Montego and Freestyle, we'll have lots of 125,000-unit cars in the plant," Lyons said.
"With three different models built in Chicago, we can react quickly to any changes in demand because we can build from zero to 100 percent of whichever model is hot at the time and not only meet demand, but minimize incentives," he added.
"With derivatives in the same plant, you have a huge advantage. Lots of us have asked how we could have missed doing this before. It takes a huge investment to build a variety of derivatives off one platform, but actually it ends up saving you money by avoiding the cost of having to shut down a plant and lay off workers when the one model you are building isn't selling," Lyons said.
Insiders, by the way, say the C/D car Padilla referred to will be built in Atlanta and offered in Ford and Mercury versions, though one source suggested, "There possibly could be more."
Perhaps a hint that like the Ford Mustang and Mazda6 to be built at Ford's Flat Rock plant in Michigan for the '05 model year, Atlanta could build a Mazda as well?
BY JIM MATEJA
CHICAGO TRIBUNE (KRT)
The plans aren't set in stone, but here's what appears to be in the very near future for Ford Motor Co.
The Torrence Avenue plant in Chicago will stop building the midsize Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable and switch to the midsize Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego sedans as well as the Ford Freestyle sedan/sport-ute crossover for the '05 model year.
Ford's Atlanta plant will continue to build Taurus and Sable until production of the new Torrence Avenue vehicles is up to capacity. Then Atlanta will drop the Taurus and Sable and add a new sedan that will be shared by Ford and Mercury for the '06 model year.
"We're working on products below Taurus/Sable that are more C/D size, though I won't say that they are going to be built in Atlanta," Jim Padilla, president of Ford's North American automotive operations, told us when he stopped in town to help unveil the Montego at the Chicago Auto Show.
In the European vernacular auto executives sometimes slip into, C refers to a Focus-size vehicle, C/D to a Ford Mondeo-size vehicle (the former Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique) and D to a Taurus/Sable-size vehicle.
"There's room for a vehicle between the Focus and the Five Hundred (D size), and we intend to fill it. I'm not going to say if it will be built in Atlanta, but wherever it's built, it will be a flex plant like Chicago," Padilla said.
He also wouldn't say whether the new C/D car would come off a platform from Ford or Mazda, its Japanese partner.
Flex plant refers to the fact that three vehicles will be built here, a trio of front-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive units derived from one platform.
With different body panels and tweaks to engines and suspensions, one platform provides three vehicles with different character and performance traits. The days when the only difference between the Ford and Mercury was that one had a vertical grille, the other a horizontal grille, are long gone.
The only advantage to producing Taurus at two plants is that it gave Ford about 400,000 vehicles annually, enough units to compete against Toyota Camry and Honda Accord for the title of best-selling car in the industry.
Of course, with only one plant producing Taurus, it will stop chasing the title.
Padilla insists that while Ford won't have enough volume from one car to compete at the 400,000-unit level, it still intends to compete against those Japanese sedans.
In other words, Ford still intends to sell 400,000 sedans, just not 400,000 carrying the same nameplate because it's not economical to do so, Padilla said.
So the battle will be fought with 100,000, 125,000 or 150,000 sales from a variety of cars -- whatever it takes, in other words, to reach that 400,000.
"The Five Hundred and Montego are only one piece of our strategy to take on those sedans," Padilla said. "We'll take them on with a new C/D car as well as with others," he said without elaborating. "We aren't going to rely on any one single product to fill one plant, and we certainly aren't going to rely on any one single product to fill two plants."
Steve Lyons, president of Ford division, said, "It's difficult to sell 200,000 or 300,000 of any one vehicle. With Taurus we had to push 200,000 units from one plant and 200,000 from the other."
And when sales were soft, it meant a choice between halting production and idling workers to balance production with demand or offering costly incentives to entice buyers into showrooms to keep the factory open.
"With Five Hundred, Montego and Freestyle, we'll have lots of 125,000-unit cars in the plant," Lyons said.
"With three different models built in Chicago, we can react quickly to any changes in demand because we can build from zero to 100 percent of whichever model is hot at the time and not only meet demand, but minimize incentives," he added.
"With derivatives in the same plant, you have a huge advantage. Lots of us have asked how we could have missed doing this before. It takes a huge investment to build a variety of derivatives off one platform, but actually it ends up saving you money by avoiding the cost of having to shut down a plant and lay off workers when the one model you are building isn't selling," Lyons said.
Insiders, by the way, say the C/D car Padilla referred to will be built in Atlanta and offered in Ford and Mercury versions, though one source suggested, "There possibly could be more."
Perhaps a hint that like the Ford Mustang and Mazda6 to be built at Ford's Flat Rock plant in Michigan for the '05 model year, Atlanta could build a Mazda as well?
02-25-2003, 03:55 AM
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Big Three counting heavily on renewed interest in sedans, coupes
February 25, 2003
BY JIM MATEJA
CHICAGO TRIBUNE (KRT)
CHICAGO -- The numbers tell the story.
Light trucks -- pickups, sport-utility vehicles and minivans -- outsold passenger cars in calendar 2002, 8.5 million to 8.3 million.
Of the top 10 industry nameplates in sales, six were trucks, sport-utes or minivans and four were cars. Three of those cars wore a Japanese nameplate -- Toyota Camry and Honda Accord and Civic, and one a Big Three moniker, the Ford Taurus, which was outsold by the full-size Dodge Ram pickup by 64,000 units.
Little wonder the industry has focused on trucks and SUVs the last few years, especially since demand for those machines caught the industry off guard and its production mix was 60 percent cars and 40 percent trucks when demand for trucks and SUVs reached 50 percent.
The industry switched from building cars to trucks at some plants and began offering a wider variety of sport-utes and trucks but only modestly updated cars.
Now, the industry insists, a revised lineup of trucks and SUVs is in place or about to be (Ford's full-size F-150 is remade for this fall), and it's time to get back to cars.
"The emphasis back on cars is important," said Jim Hall, vice president of industry analysis for AutoPacific Inc., in Southfield, Mich.
"It's always bad to depend too much on one segment of the business like the domestics have with trucks. When you do, you can't react quickly to even little shifts in market demand and you get in trouble. Trucks are more profitable than cars, but you still must have balance in your lineup," Hall said.
As evidence cars are back in focus, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have formed operations to develop high-performance cars to lure folks back into the showroom. And limited-edition, low-volume, high-priced machines, such as the Cadillac XLR roadster and Ford GT coupe, will appear as well.
Cars dominated the Detroit Auto Show last month: The 2004 Chevrolet Malibu, the '04 Pontiac GTO, the '05 Dodge Magnum SRT8 and the '05 Ford Mustang among production models and the Dodge Avenger, Mercury Messenger, Lincoln Navicross, Chevy SS and Pontiac G6 among the concepts awaiting production go-ahead.
Initially, the new cars primarily will be midsize models, for two reasons -- Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.
"We've got to get the midsize market back," said Gary Cowger, president of GM's North American automotive operations.
"They don't have a choice," said Art Spinella, general manager of CNW Marketing/Research, the Bandon, Ore.-based company that concentrates on why consumers buy the vehicles they do.
"The Japanese have done so well in cars, as evidenced by Camry and Accord, that the domestics have to shore up and can't afford to lose any more sales on the car side," Spinella said.
"Sometimes it takes a whack with a 2x4 to get the attention and wake up the domestics. When Taurus collapsed (it was the best-selling car in the industry as recently as 1996, but has since slipped behind the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord), GM, Ford and Chrysler took that to mean it was time to focus on trucks. Now they've gotten smarter. It's dawned on them that 45 percent of the consumers still buy cars and you don't want to give away that market," Spinella said.
The Japanese have taken command of one segment after another: economy cars (Honda), luxury cars (Lexus) and midsize cars (Toyota and Honda).
"We never left the car end of the market. Passenger cars account for about half the market so you can't overlook them," said Toyota spokesman Mike Michaels. "We kept our eyes on cars all along, which is why we have the best-selling car in the market (Camry).
"Now some are getting more aggressive and more motivated to sell cars. That will serve to renew interest and awareness in cars for all of us. The only question for the future is what cars will be -- sedans or crossovers," Michaels said.
With the Toyota Tundra and the arrival this fall of the Nissan Titan, a run is being made on full-size trucks, too, which along with full-size sedans has been the stronghold of the domestics for decades.
"There's a higher acceptance of U.S.-built trucks and sport-utility vehicles than there is U.S.-built cars among those who buy Japanese cars, lots of people with an Accord parked next to a Chevy Suburban in their garage," Cowger said.
"We have to get consumers out of Japanese cars, and we have to have cars to get them back," he said, noting that in the last few years, 65 percent of GM's investment in new product has been in trucks. Now 65 percent is being devoted to cars.
For years GM and Ford dominated the midsize-car segment. GM had the most offerings; Ford had the best-selling model, Taurus, until its reign ended in 1996. Camry and Accord have since taken turns as the best-selling car in the industry.
That explains the counterattack by GM and Ford while Chrysler hinted at its planned replacements for the Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Sebring sedans with the Dodge Avenger concept.
GM is first up. The next-generation Pontiac Grand Prix comes out this spring as a 2004 model. The next-generation Chevy Malibu joins the Monte Carlo SS and Impala SS models this fall. The return of the GTO is scheduled for November/December, and the next generation of the Buick Regal is due for 2005.
"How do we get 'em back from Camry and Accord? With cars like our new Malibu," said Kurt Ritter, general manager of Chevrolet.
"We'll have two versions, regular sedan and a stretched-wheelbase Malibu Maxx hatchback four months later, as well as a (gas/electric) hybrid (in 2007), and hopefully a high-performance SS, too," Ritter said.
"We'll also do little things to attract consumers away from the Japanese, such as offering power adjustable pedals, remote start and rear seats that can be moved forward or backward to provide more leg or more cargo room (on the '04 Malibu Maxx) to make us a credible alternative to Asian imports," Ritter said.
Ford and Chrysler plan little things as well. The Dodge Avenger, for example, features all-wheel-drive, which neither Camry nor Accord offers, and Ford has come up with a Freestyle concept that converts to a pickup at the touch of a button.
Winning sales back from the Japanese seems the motivation behind several cars coming from the domestics.
"Who have we been losing sales to? We haven't been capturing people in their 30s and 40s when they decide to move up. They've stayed with the brand and moved up from compact Civics to midsize Accords rather than move from Civics into midsize Taurus," said Chris Theodore, vice president of advance product development for Ford.
That's why, Theodore said, "we've taken care of trucks and the '04 calendar year is going to be the year of the car at Ford," the time frame for bringing out the next-generation Mustang, Ford Five Hundred and Freestyle.
Once the midsize car segment is taken care of, watch for the domestics to protect full-size sedans.
"People don't aspire to big sedans today because the industry builds boring ones," noted J Mays, vice president of design for Ford. "It's not that people walked away from big sedans, it's that the industry walked away. If we go back, customers will go back."
There may be another reason you'll see more focus on midsize and full-size cars in the near future -- hints that the government may encourage the sales of more large sedans, which it considers safer than small cars and safer and more fuel-efficient than large sport-utility vehicles, by easing corporate average fuel economy regulations.
"Large passenger cars and minivans are the safest way to move around large numbers of people, and yet we've CAFE'ed large cars out of existence," said Jeffrey Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in a recent speech in Detroit. CAFE stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy.
BY JIM MATEJA
CHICAGO TRIBUNE (KRT)
CHICAGO -- The numbers tell the story.
Light trucks -- pickups, sport-utility vehicles and minivans -- outsold passenger cars in calendar 2002, 8.5 million to 8.3 million.
Of the top 10 industry nameplates in sales, six were trucks, sport-utes or minivans and four were cars. Three of those cars wore a Japanese nameplate -- Toyota Camry and Honda Accord and Civic, and one a Big Three moniker, the Ford Taurus, which was outsold by the full-size Dodge Ram pickup by 64,000 units.
Little wonder the industry has focused on trucks and SUVs the last few years, especially since demand for those machines caught the industry off guard and its production mix was 60 percent cars and 40 percent trucks when demand for trucks and SUVs reached 50 percent.
The industry switched from building cars to trucks at some plants and began offering a wider variety of sport-utes and trucks but only modestly updated cars.
Now, the industry insists, a revised lineup of trucks and SUVs is in place or about to be (Ford's full-size F-150 is remade for this fall), and it's time to get back to cars.
"The emphasis back on cars is important," said Jim Hall, vice president of industry analysis for AutoPacific Inc., in Southfield, Mich.
"It's always bad to depend too much on one segment of the business like the domestics have with trucks. When you do, you can't react quickly to even little shifts in market demand and you get in trouble. Trucks are more profitable than cars, but you still must have balance in your lineup," Hall said.
As evidence cars are back in focus, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have formed operations to develop high-performance cars to lure folks back into the showroom. And limited-edition, low-volume, high-priced machines, such as the Cadillac XLR roadster and Ford GT coupe, will appear as well.
Cars dominated the Detroit Auto Show last month: The 2004 Chevrolet Malibu, the '04 Pontiac GTO, the '05 Dodge Magnum SRT8 and the '05 Ford Mustang among production models and the Dodge Avenger, Mercury Messenger, Lincoln Navicross, Chevy SS and Pontiac G6 among the concepts awaiting production go-ahead.
Initially, the new cars primarily will be midsize models, for two reasons -- Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.
"We've got to get the midsize market back," said Gary Cowger, president of GM's North American automotive operations.
"They don't have a choice," said Art Spinella, general manager of CNW Marketing/Research, the Bandon, Ore.-based company that concentrates on why consumers buy the vehicles they do.
"The Japanese have done so well in cars, as evidenced by Camry and Accord, that the domestics have to shore up and can't afford to lose any more sales on the car side," Spinella said.
"Sometimes it takes a whack with a 2x4 to get the attention and wake up the domestics. When Taurus collapsed (it was the best-selling car in the industry as recently as 1996, but has since slipped behind the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord), GM, Ford and Chrysler took that to mean it was time to focus on trucks. Now they've gotten smarter. It's dawned on them that 45 percent of the consumers still buy cars and you don't want to give away that market," Spinella said.
The Japanese have taken command of one segment after another: economy cars (Honda), luxury cars (Lexus) and midsize cars (Toyota and Honda).
"We never left the car end of the market. Passenger cars account for about half the market so you can't overlook them," said Toyota spokesman Mike Michaels. "We kept our eyes on cars all along, which is why we have the best-selling car in the market (Camry).
"Now some are getting more aggressive and more motivated to sell cars. That will serve to renew interest and awareness in cars for all of us. The only question for the future is what cars will be -- sedans or crossovers," Michaels said.
With the Toyota Tundra and the arrival this fall of the Nissan Titan, a run is being made on full-size trucks, too, which along with full-size sedans has been the stronghold of the domestics for decades.
"There's a higher acceptance of U.S.-built trucks and sport-utility vehicles than there is U.S.-built cars among those who buy Japanese cars, lots of people with an Accord parked next to a Chevy Suburban in their garage," Cowger said.
"We have to get consumers out of Japanese cars, and we have to have cars to get them back," he said, noting that in the last few years, 65 percent of GM's investment in new product has been in trucks. Now 65 percent is being devoted to cars.
For years GM and Ford dominated the midsize-car segment. GM had the most offerings; Ford had the best-selling model, Taurus, until its reign ended in 1996. Camry and Accord have since taken turns as the best-selling car in the industry.
That explains the counterattack by GM and Ford while Chrysler hinted at its planned replacements for the Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Sebring sedans with the Dodge Avenger concept.
GM is first up. The next-generation Pontiac Grand Prix comes out this spring as a 2004 model. The next-generation Chevy Malibu joins the Monte Carlo SS and Impala SS models this fall. The return of the GTO is scheduled for November/December, and the next generation of the Buick Regal is due for 2005.
"How do we get 'em back from Camry and Accord? With cars like our new Malibu," said Kurt Ritter, general manager of Chevrolet.
"We'll have two versions, regular sedan and a stretched-wheelbase Malibu Maxx hatchback four months later, as well as a (gas/electric) hybrid (in 2007), and hopefully a high-performance SS, too," Ritter said.
"We'll also do little things to attract consumers away from the Japanese, such as offering power adjustable pedals, remote start and rear seats that can be moved forward or backward to provide more leg or more cargo room (on the '04 Malibu Maxx) to make us a credible alternative to Asian imports," Ritter said.
Ford and Chrysler plan little things as well. The Dodge Avenger, for example, features all-wheel-drive, which neither Camry nor Accord offers, and Ford has come up with a Freestyle concept that converts to a pickup at the touch of a button.
Winning sales back from the Japanese seems the motivation behind several cars coming from the domestics.
"Who have we been losing sales to? We haven't been capturing people in their 30s and 40s when they decide to move up. They've stayed with the brand and moved up from compact Civics to midsize Accords rather than move from Civics into midsize Taurus," said Chris Theodore, vice president of advance product development for Ford.
That's why, Theodore said, "we've taken care of trucks and the '04 calendar year is going to be the year of the car at Ford," the time frame for bringing out the next-generation Mustang, Ford Five Hundred and Freestyle.
Once the midsize car segment is taken care of, watch for the domestics to protect full-size sedans.
"People don't aspire to big sedans today because the industry builds boring ones," noted J Mays, vice president of design for Ford. "It's not that people walked away from big sedans, it's that the industry walked away. If we go back, customers will go back."
There may be another reason you'll see more focus on midsize and full-size cars in the near future -- hints that the government may encourage the sales of more large sedans, which it considers safer than small cars and safer and more fuel-efficient than large sport-utility vehicles, by easing corporate average fuel economy regulations.
"Large passenger cars and minivans are the safest way to move around large numbers of people, and yet we've CAFE'ed large cars out of existence," said Jeffrey Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in a recent speech in Detroit. CAFE stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy.
02-25-2003, 05:47 PM
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Originally posted by Samson
I like it that they think the new Malibu is gonna take over Camry and Accord.
I like it that they think the new Malibu is gonna take over Camry and Accord.
What is the Ford 500? I've heard of the 427, but not the 500.
02-25-2003, 05:54 PM
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Ford 500 was a concept car. I forget all the details, but basically a blocky looking, high horsepower sedan. Do a search. I convientally have the button in my signature. 
02-26-2003, 10:16 AM
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The Ford 500 is an upcoming large sedan, the 427 was the concept car. A sketch of the 500 was released a few years ago, and it has a very Audi A6-like profile. It will come with the 3.0l Duratec V6 standard, and I've heard a larger 3.5l version of this engine may be available. It will compete with the Passat, Avalon, XG350, etc (I don't think so much Impala and Intrepid, as they're goin' RWD).