theoldwizard

Amen Brother !

Now you are talking ! Forget V8. Not going to happen. Bigger is not better ! The rest of you guys must own oil wells (or more oil company stock than I do :shades: ) One big problem with the current Ranger 4x4 is the "ship anchor" (too big to be a boat anchor) front drive axle. Need a 4 cyl gas with some low end grunt. Also forget the SOHC. It's a pig on fuel. The new 3.5L (or 3.7) needs to be tweaked for better low end torque. And maybe Management will pull their head out of their butt and put in a 4 cyl turbo-diesel !

2 of these (Escape and Edge) are already unibody The other 2 "will be soon"

Correct ! IIRC, the 4.4L, which is a direct decedent of the European Lion, is going by the code name Griffin. Where it will be built was still up in the air last month (May '07), but Mexico and Brazil are the front runners. It could be ready for production as early as 2010CY, but Navistar is doing everything they legally can to stop this. The Scorpion is a totally different engine. Ford designed from the ground up. I have heard nothing about where this one will be built. Target date is probably 2012MY. That's when the current Navistar "volumed guaranteed" contract expires.

To steal a line from Paul Harvey, "And now, the rest of the story ... " Or to say it another way, "where there is smoke ..." Before I left the company in Feb, the Ranger was a "write off". When St. Paul closed that was to be the end of it. Another Ford vehicle bites the dust. Discussion about bringing in the Bangkok Thailand Ranger died in early/mid 2006 (no details, but my guess is, it was too difficult to build it in Bangkok along side the existing product and meet US Safety and Emission standards) I had lunch with someone who is still working in engineering. As part of a Q&A session during an recent internal video broadcast Kuzak of Fields (can't remember which) said, "We haven't decided what to do with the Ranger !" In other words, it's not dead yet ! As a matter of fact, the Motor Trend discussion (and this blog) may have been carefully started by the marketing folks to find out what the American buying public is willing to pay for.

Actually the way I see it, Management will go to meetings, someone will read an engineers report, and when there are questions, no engineers will be there to answer. Either no decisions will be made or they will be made in a (partial) vacuum ! Sounds like business as usual !! One of the big reasons I retired ! True Story. Dec 2006, just days before the management buy outs had to be turned in (LL5 and above; that's sort of like Salary Grade 12 and above; most "white shirts" on the factory floor are SG 8 or 9) I was in a "skip level" meeting with an Assistant Chief Engineer (LL3; sort of like a SG16 or 18?) with about 5 others. This is a type of meeting where engineering management is supposed to listen to any "issues" that the engineers have. Listen, yes; Act ? Ha-Ha-Ha I pointed out that decisions made in the previous 6 - 12 months had added a great deal of complexity to the engineering process in his area and there were many issues that had still not been resolved and that would likely cause delays in key engineering deliverables in 2007. (Internally this is called The Tsunami.) After listen to me for about 10-15 minutes (boy, was I on a tear :happy feet: ) he finally said, "Well we reviewed these decisions with the Department Managers !" My response was, "But you did not review them with the Technical Experts and Engineers who have to do the work !" As I said before, management makes decisions with incomplete data ! As for The Tsunami, folks in the office some folks are saying "Where has all the water gone down at the beach !" The smart ones are running for the hills !

'09 in Europe, '10 in the US !

That WAS exactly the plan ! Soccer moms don't know the difference between BOF and unibody. Funny, by accident, Ford now has the compact truck market segment entirely to themselves ! With gas still above $3 in MI (any possibly going to stay there the rest of the summer) management is going to flush it down the toilet ! Keep it small, keep it simple, keep it cheap and please God, please, give it a diesel !

Should be. The basic structure was designed by Volvo. The management was smart enough to even carry over the Volvo designed seats ! I prefer the IIHS testing, where Taurus and Sable were top picks for large cars !

The engineers who worked on the 6.4L program would agree with you ! :D Keep us posted on the fuel economy. I have heard "real world" number are down significantly from the 6.0L (trucks over 8,000 GVW use a different test for fuel economy than do cars and 1/2 ton trucks).

Make that WAY WAY more expensive ! When the name of the game is "make a buck", you are not going to see it happen !

No Kidding ! I know several folks on various diesel programs who have been asking for several where a diesel car is in the future of Ford NA. Last I heard, still no plans for diesel cars (of any size) in the US. I think this is an issue of Ford no longer has the engineering resources or finances to do it at least not until after 2012, if they live that long.

The company is Azure Dynamics. The deal is definitely on with FedEx taking delivery on 20 pre-production vehicles in May 2008 IIRC, Azure was going to buy finished chassis cabs, remove some parts of the powertrain that Ford would buy back and install their hybrid system. Almost zero Ford engineering or manufacturing was involved. Azure just put Jim Padilla on their board, so I think thing are still in good shape !

Confirmed ! Definitely "Post Job #1" There maybe some issues with credit from ITEC being transfered to Ford to make this happen, but both companies realize it is in their own best interest.

There was discussion last year in Dearborn R&E about possibly importing these SE Asia "Rangers" to the US. I don't know what happened. Things just went "quiet"

I have one word for you BENEFITS ! Go look at what salaried has for benefits, right now ! Drastic cuts in medical. New hires have "no choices", they get the Ford Medical plan. Prescription co-pays can be over $20. No Viagra !! No optical No hearing. Salaried retirees over $65 have no medical or dental. Just a Healtch Care Allowance program. The list goes on and on ! I'll bet $100 that this is Ford's going position !

It's way, WAY bigger than the back seat of my old Contour ! I had 2 teenagers at the time and even they did not fit comfortably. No leg room and the ingress/egress was terrible ! I don't know why people love the Mondeo so much, the Fusion/Milan has a much bigger interior !

I agree with that statement 100% ! Its not that Toyota is unstoppable, it about the future existence of Ford Motor Company. It is actually in Toyota's best interest (politically) to not let Ford go out of business ! No I just think they have better management ! I took the salaried buy out in Feb 2007, with 30+ years of service, 10 on my last job assignment. In the prior 16 months, I had 5 department managers. At the time I left, my Department Manager, Chief Engineer, Director and Vice President had a combined "time on current assignment" of about 6 years ! Only the Director had been "on the current job" for more than 3 months ! My signature line was "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." George Bernard Shaw

Its an SUV, not a car Its a car, not an SUV Someday they will decide !

In a "secret" meeting between top Ford Management and some top auto journalist, Mulally was told the same thing. He is listening. How quickly the other models can be added, who knows.

or emissions related ! For a recall, the government mandates that all owners be notified (typically by certified mail). The unofficial word "inside" the company was that the mailing cost over $1M, before a dime was spent on the actual replacement parts or labor !

Your comments have been made by several auto journalists ! Are you a pro skulking here ? IIRC, those are the same engine. The EFI system is different. The Fusion weights more, so I wonder what the final drive ratio are for the Fusion versus the Mazda 3. That engine is a Mazda design that is truly a global engine (Wikipedia list it as Ford/Mazda global straight-4). It is built in many sizes from 1.4L to 2.3L and in may different factories. Rumor was there is a 5 cylinder, 2.5L version of that engine that was never built. Volvo designs/manufacturers all of its inline gasoline engines. It will be interesting if Volvo will be able to continue to do so in the new "global Ford".

Don't wait too long. SportTrac will have a short life span !

Despite the bashing Ford got about rear 60+ MPH impact fires, the guys driving the cars like the Crown Vic. (First hand from my son-in-law) As for how do you make a car sustain a 60+ MPH rear impact, its not hard. You wind up with about a 10 gallon tank. That amount of fuel would not get most cars through an entire shift. Do you want to pay your police to take another 30 minute break (got to drive back to the pumps) in the middle of their shift ? Also at that speed for rear impact, you need to do some serious redesign of the seat/headrest ! Chrysler has been selling a few 300 Hemis as highway pursuit vehicles !

Last year, the Big Boys thought the answer for all future vehicles (except maybe trucks) was AWD !