jpd80

Nope, the market is still there and when oil prices stabilise a bit the market will recover. Irrespective of the vehicle size, consumers will demand much more fuel economy so maybe by 2011, large Ford vehicles will go to 2.5 EB, V6 EB, hybrids and diesel - V8s will be very rare indeed. The funny thing is perception of size in North America. Traditionally the US has sized it vehicles on how the look on the outside yet, the current trends are to maximise internal dimensions. What was once believed to be a small car now has quite a lot of internal space, so maybe large cars like the Taurus ultimately are replaced by vehicles offereing the same internal dimensions and capacity but present externally as a much smaller vehicle. This then sets Ford the perplexing task of offering more efficiently packed cars and charging more for them while trying to convince the buying public that they aren't being ripped off.

A better site for you is Ford Australia - ford.com.au The pommy website is terrible to navigate around. On the Aussie website point at showroom and vehicle sub menus will come up, it's easy to trace through to Transit specs here's the direct link : Transit Specifications (weights are in Kilograms so multiply by 2.2 for lbs.) Transit RWD LWB Jumbo Van High Roof : Kerb Weight: 2176 Kg = 4,787 lb Gross vehicle mass: 3550 =7,810 lb Payload: 1374 Kg = 3,022 lb Gross combination mass : 6300 Kg = 13,866 lb

At least when you by a Kia, you don't expect VW quality - if you get my drift.

The best cure for 'stagflation' is an easing of oil prices which will help the economy at all levels. The sooner oil speculation collapses in on itself the better, recovery will bring a stronger dollar too.

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good on several levels.

I wonder if lower oil prices is also interconnected to an earlier upswing in the US Dollar. I agree with Ford NA changes regardless of where fuel sits, even a retreat to $3.00/gallon wil relieve the new car market but buyers will be wary and fuel conscious from now on. I think buyers will demand better fuel economy in all vehicle sizes without any loss of performance. Ecoboost, hybrid and diesel must surely all play their part in a diversified market. To ignore one over the other is to miss an opportunity.

There's a lot of efficient packaging tricks that were done in the later cars like Falcon, G8 and the 300C. Look at the Falcon, 195" long, 74" wide, same internal dimensions as a Panther and a 19 cuft trunk. If Ford really see the need to retain BOF then maybe they can do the same to the panthers

Thankyou suv_guy_19 and to continue that article:

Maybe that was GM's plan with the heavy Zetas. :shades:

There is the opportunity for Ford to replace the Grand Maquis with the Falcon, a smaller looking car with the same internal room,a neat trick that could possibly win over (back) fans looking for efficient design. Off course, you could engineer a BOF car to look like the Falcon, keeping internal size yet creating a smaller look, no doubt that would also drop a sizeable chunk of weight and allow the use of corporate V6 engines further changing the image. I see a lot of opportunity for Mercury to step outside the Ford box and do things a little differently.

Interesting to note that nearly all assembly plants will have flexible body shops. Is this one step before divesting a couple of plants - will Volvo and Mazda get their own plants?

Never say never, U.S. oil futures slid $2.23 to settle at $123.26 a barrel on Friday.

Ford may look at the TDCI V6 diesel for the Transit, that would packages much better than any Gas V8 or 4.4 TDCI and deliver torque similar to the 6.8 V10 dinosaur. Falcon and Territory get the V6 diesel versions in CY2010, surely this will come from more vehicles in Ford using the engine.

You can see that Ford has a future Ecoboost or diesel replacemet in store for every NA engine. Something like this: - 2.0 and 2.5 EB engines will replace all NA V6s - 3.0 and 3.5 EB V6 will replace the 5.0 and 5.4 V8s. - 4.6 EB V8 replaces 6.2 V8 Not to mention the diesel engines with huge torque that arrive in the near future. The Mondeo is about to receive the PSA 2.2 litre I-4 Turbo Diesel with 300 lbft of torque. The new F150 4.4 V8 diesel with over 450 lb of torque will make the 6.8 V10 just look stupid.

Question: What happens to the Oil price when the US dollar strengthens? Answer: The price of oil in US dollars goes down - cheaper in the US but on the cross rates we all still pay the same. The US Dollar is at its weakest and is expected to strengthen considerably this time next year. A world wide slowdown is starting, Europe is feeling it and Asia is next, you can't have a subdued the US economy and not have ripple effect across the globe. I know you think oil will keep on rising even higher but it won't. There's a big rumor that China will bite the bullet after the Olympics and major infrastructure starts to wind back. Like all good bubbles, it's about to go bust - probably this time next year.

This one would be apt as well: Lou Rawls Colonoscopy Exam in English

By this time next year, US gas price could be down around $3.00/gallon. On top of that, if the US dollar starts recovering - look out Europe and ROW.

Whatever happens, Ford must produce well styled, light weight, class leading, fuel efficient RWD cars. If they do that, the vehicles will sell themselves - good design always shines through

If a 2.5 I-4 will get 34 mpg, imagine what a baby 1.6 Ecoboost will get and with 3.0 V6 power to boot!

It's amazing Ford turns itself upside down, inside out for survival and now people are saying they're doing too much? F*****g unbelivable!!! Edit, why don't the critics get off Ford's back!!

C1 Focus hatch is a C car. C1 Focus sedan is a large C car - the trunk size puts it at the border. 2003-7 Mazda 6 is a small D car. Camry, Mondeo, Fusion are all examples of large D cars Taurus is most definitely an E car - the cabin space and trunk put it in that category. Falcon is a small E car - mainly because of its internal width and engine sizes.

Good post Austin, Yes, I think GRWD was only begun early in February, Worthington the CME down here was invited to discuss the framing of future vehicle, who needs what and how many vehicles are needed /meet and greet. Det news jumped over some BS waffle from Detroit locals hoping to pick up the contract. Kuzak came back down to Aust about 6 weeks ago and by all reports from FoA staff , was absolutely blown away by the Falcon - he want it big time but no LHD readily available!!! Osbourne is reportedly pressing for RHD exports and LHD versions of 2010 CY V6 Falcon/Territory, he wants to get into Middle East and Asia - particularly China. We now have V6 diesel coming as well in Falcon and Territory next models. Falcon sales are a little slow but mainly reduced fleet sales, there's more higher end models being sold now, luxury G series and sporty XRs are selling well, base & XR6 are mainly company novated leases. Euro Fords are in extremely restricted supply and looks like FoA have used up their allocations!!!! Factory allocations by FoE are too small and local Focus production can't come soon enough!! Mondeo diesel is outselling petrol versions 2:1, Ford got the product mix wrong on that one. One thing, with the quibbling about V6 in Falcon, I hope they just go straight to 2.5 EB I-4, that way we keep the 4.0's great torque and spank Toyota's V6 Aurion economy credentials.

Precisely, GM developed zeta 2002 to 2006 and now admits it's too heavy for widespread use in the USA. Strangely, the previous V-Car platform was 220 lb lighter, progress took a wrong turn.

Sorry about that , try ths one : LINK I'll admit none of the RWDs are ideal at the morment for extracting demanding goals like weight savings and adaptability across all needed vehicles so perhaps we may see a D2C/Falcon Hybrid, much like GM is now planning for Zeta/Sigma in 2011.

rather than the V6, a better alternative is I-4 Ecoboost engines. and possibly a smallish emission compliant diesel.