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Ford unveils dramatic makeover plans

GREG KEENAN

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 9:07 PM EDT 26/07/08

Announcement Thursday will see company shift to small cars ...Read the full article

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  1. F T from Toronto, Canada writes: Well it took them a while but..better late than never. Thanks for noticing we are not interested in driving huge gas and wallet sucking beasts. Thanks for making smaller, comfortable, versatile and great handling cars. Good cars don't have to be big. I look forward to buying domestic again once the domestic have a good lineup of small cars in the showroom.
  2. Observer of the times from Canada writes: What a bunch of brain surgeons... They're mama's must be proud.

    [/sarcasm]
  3. George Duncan from Canada writes: Most people own/drive big vehicles because there is a need. This includes variables such as cold, ice, snow, towing, safety, etc. If you are not faced with these variables and you have been/are driving big vehicles could you please explain.
  4. harry carnie from Northern, B.C., Canada writes: As long as the "smaller cars" are supplied with the following as STANDARD;

    1)Quality workmanship.

    2) Reliability

    3) Follow up SERVICE.

    The Ford Fusion is a "sensible sized" car, with the ALL wheel drive option ,it should prove adequate for the Canadian winters.I would be tempted to try one.

    The wife is downsizing her Impala to a Malibu
    She hates Fords. We owned a couple(Fords) over the years...women NEVER forget, OR forgive.
  5. Paul Wallnutz from Canada writes: I can't believe that the high-paid geniuses running the "BIG 3" never had contingency plans for various oil price scenarios, e.g.,:

    A) Oil price steady at $130, therefore our large vehicle sales will drop 40% and we have to re-tool for smaller vehicles.

    B) Oil price steady at $180; overall sales will drop 40%, therefore electrical vehicles should be rolled out.

    C)...

    I don't know. To me this whole thing has been relatively predictable.
  6. Howard Young from Canada writes: Ford Festiva.
  7. john doe from Canada writes: did i read we are getting some euro spec fords? i think i did well for all you non-believers check out the new euro-spec focus and it's kinetic styling

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FordFocusFacelift_3-dr.jpg
    Anyways enjoy the photo and if you want feel freet to compare it to the table scraps served up here. Oh a mondeo and fiesta would not hurt my feelings as well.
  8. B R from Waterloo, Canada writes: The ford focus ST is europe with the 2.2T volvo engine is classy. Please bring it over...
  9. Ed Wiens from Canada writes: Ford Mondeo, Festiva, Euro model focus, with and without diesels - all look great to me. I drove a Mondeo diesel in 2004, and was impressed. I do not know why we get one brand of Focus here in NA, which is like table scraps compared to what they get in Europe. The Focus ST would be great.

    The European and Japanese manufacturers have realized that you can make lots of money on small cars in the NA market by giving the customer what he wants, without having to provide a major incentive. However, GM and Ford may be too late in realizing this, even though they have the necessary products already in Europe.
  10. Rick C from Canada writes: Thank gawd the think tank in Ann Arbour put their mighty intellect into high gear,.... just in time! Whew!!

    Who could have predicted that people wouldent want to be burning 12 litres per 100k at $1.50 per litre??

    How could anyone have known?!?!

    Thank gawd for the think tanks!!
  11. Ed Wiens from Canada writes: Paul: I agree with you. One just has to look at what is going on in Japan or Europe (one does not have to go there with some great car magazines (eg. Car) and the internet) and it is not hard to see why the NA car makers are going down the tubes.

    Part of it is our bureaucrat's focus on NOx vs. CO2. I agree that it is important to have clean air, but I think that is even more important to use less fuel (for example, you can buy a $250,000 Ferrari (575 Maranello) that qualifies for ULEV (@ 12 mpg). I am sure that you can buy a "clean air" Expedition, Hummer and Armada as well. You can also get a "green" Lexus Hybrid that has 450 hp and gets 20 mpg. The European car magazines, the car stats include CO2 usage along with MPG.
  12. Dr. Strangelove from Edmonton, Canada writes: George Duncan from Canada writes: "Most people own/drive big vehicles because there is a need. This includes variables such as cold, ice, snow, towing, safety, etc. If you are not faced with these variables and you have been/are driving big vehicles could you please explain."

    George, I respectfully submit that the variables you list are mostly rationalizations for owning big vehicles. Heaters work very well in smaller vehicles (I know -- I live in Edmonton). The vast majority of those vehicles never see cold, ice, or snow (see Texas and the rest of the southern half of the US), and tow nothing other than kids and groceries. And the so-called "safety" issue is a crock. Just take a look at the crash test ratings. Owning these vehicles is all about ego --- "look at me, I can afford this gas guzzler, and you can't".

    .
  13. Red Black from Down home, Canada writes: Oh ford, please bring teh Mondeo over: my 10-year old Mystique is starting to show some signs of aging. I promised my wife I would not get a new car uness it is a Mondeo, my Mystique's twin at the origin.

    Better yet, build the Mondeo here in Canada!
  14. J S from Toronto, Canada writes: "George Duncan from Canada writes: Most people own/drive big vehicles because there is a need. This includes variables such as cold, ice, snow, towing, safety, etc. If you are not faced with these variables and you have been/are driving big vehicles could you please explain."

    Cold, ice, snow - I've always driven a little car and have never been stuck. The heater works fine too. It's also easier to reach the windows for clearing the snow and ice.

    Towing - I've been towed a couple of times, it's what tow trucks are for. Besides, most of the soccer Mom's I see driving these huge beasts are not about to be towing anything.

    Safety - It's been proven in independent testing that big vehicles are not safer than small vehicles.

    Yes, I admit there is a need. Construction workers and other trade workers that haul equipment and materials need big vehicles. Tow trucks are needed. Farmers need trucks. Mom driving the kids to school everyday doesn't need a truck. Guy that's a weekend warrior but sits at a desk all week long does not need a truck. Big SUVs are about showing the world that you've got more than the Jones's down the street. At least that's the only need I see.
  15. George S from Toronto, Canada writes: Glad Ford is making these changes- lots of people recommended the Big 3 make these kinds of cars long before fuel hit such high costs- they wanted them for environmental reasons. So their are now at least two big reason's to retool these plants to make smaller more fuel efficient vehicles- the environment and our pocket book. It is obvious that it is the mighty dollar that people are choosing smaller more efficient vehicles- the environmental information has been with us for a long time we just chose to ignore it and continue to purchase gas guzzlers when fuel was cheap.

    Good to hear that Ford is changing the products being manufactured at the plants mentioned in the US and Mexico, but, I hope that they don't ignore the Oakville plant. It is a fairly modern plant that is quite flexible and could cheaply be retooled, relatively, to produce one of these fuel efficient vehicles.

    I hope Ford and the other companies continue to try and develop an efficient electric car that could handle a full days drive on Canadian roads.
  16. George Levecque from Fergus, Ontario, Canada writes: BEFORE any of you all jump to either Ford or GM's new offering of smaller cars, you should maybe wait to see what the reliability of these vehicles will be say in two years or more! One should never jump into any new model until they have proved themselves over a period! My friend has a two year old Chev. Malibu and at 70,000 kms and over the older warranty period found out that the Tie Rods on this vehicle are gone and need to be replaced, she plans on taking GM to small claims court as they would not do anything and lets face it, Tie Rods should last longer than 70,000 kms! What's works in Europe, might not work here in North America, take the Ford Mondeo, it was brought to NA and came out in two Ford versions, one a Mercury and one a Ford model, both turned out none too good here and were eventually taken off the Market, so its buyer beware, right now Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla have proven them selves all over the World and not just here in Canada or the USA!
  17. Martin Fedgrass from Canada writes: The article pinpoints the problem rather accurately...the majority of intelligent world wants cheaper, efficient cars - yet all the profits car companies make come form selling horribly overpriced monster trucks, SUV's to redneck 'bubba's' who really dont give a tinkers fart about the environment.
  18. Chris Williams from Ottawa, Canada writes: It's amazing to me how judgmental a lot of folks have become over larger vehicles. Let's get real here for a second. For decades consumers wanted and bought large SUVs and trucks. The larger the better. The Big 3 would have been silly to not supply that demand. Toyota was criticized for years for not having a large pick up. And it now does, along with a large SUV to go along with that truck.

    The real issue for the Big 3 is not so much that consumer demand changed to smaller vehicles; it's that the consumer demand changed so quickly. You can't make a new car overnight folks. It takes years and major dollars to bring a new car to market. For an automaker to suddenly change plans is a major deal. No automaker has the flexibility to change products on a dime. Previously planned products have to be shelved at huge costs and new products have to be designed at even more costs. This could result in costly changes to assembly plants and suppliers. These changes take time, lots of money and, as we have seen, often take jobs also.

    I wonder though of all you smug folks who look down at folks who drive anything with more than a 6 cylinder engine - how many of you are living in and heating and supporting homes with rooms that you never use? What's that saying? People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
  19. John Doucette from Canada writes: I am constantly amazed how our ruling elites, both corporate and political, only see the disaster long after it arrives. Is stupidity a prerequisite to being a member of those elites? It reminds me of a lyric by Lennie Gallant about the cod fishery. "How could they have let this happen, we saw it coming years ago."
  20. BC Refugee in AB from Canada writes: Ford's biggest issue is they have spent the last few years preping the new F150, which will be rolled out this fall. They have probably spend $B in design and re-tooling to make it, and now that market is sinking and they are at risk of not recoverying that investment.
  21. On Edge from Canada writes: I wish they'd give the details on what Euro Fords will be sold here - earlier in the week I thought there was talk of 6 such models?
  22. s like from Canada writes: There's certain amount of irony in the fact that people like SUVs and are only buying small cars because they have to. If someone came up with a 40 or 50 mpg SUV, people would beat a path to their door.
  23. Roger Gagne from Calgary, Canada writes: It's ironic that less than a year ago the Big Three automakers were fighting against significant improvements in the CAFE standards regulating fuel efficiency in the U.S. Wanting to do them a favor, Bush went ahead with relaxed standards that Detroit could manage while still doing business as usual.
    Wow. What leadership.
  24. Pan Demonium from Montreal, Canada writes: I have no sympathy for Ford. They'll probably be bailed out by the American taxpayer though, who I do have sympathy for, not for paying taxes, but for where their tax money goes. It's harder to file for bankruptcy if you're an individual down there but if you're a huge corporation and you stand to lose billions of dollars then the good old taxpayer will bail you out. What ever happened to the free market economy?

    State interventionism? Sounds more like Communism to me.
  25. Ed Wiens from Canada writes: In the past, the NA manufacturers always ruined a good thing when bringing the European models here (eg. remember 1970' s Capri - great European car, average US engine; Merkur? - popular in Europe, ruined by a US sourced engine and softer driving manners, Contour/Mystique - Ford Mondeo ruined by rebranding.) And who can remember the horrible replacement of the European Capri by a US made Mustang /Capri.

    Whether European or North American, Ford needs major work on quality control, or they will never survive against the Japanese.

    I wonder what GM will do next week to counter this?
  26. Get 2 Work from Canada writes: Ed Wiens from Canada you wrote "Whether European or North American, Ford needs major work on quality control, or they will never survive against the Japanese."

    Mr.Wiens, did you just wake up from a long coma?

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