jpd80

That's not the problem, currency shift and the weak US dollar really hurt Holden and evaporated any profit. Fortunately for GM NA, they were insulated from currency shift because they bought the units at a set price and no more have been delivered since December. My sources inside Holden tell me the break even on a Commodore/G8 is about US$20K delivered there. The fact that Ford never pursued the Falcon to North America sort of suggests that the G8 was done for reasons other than profit, maybe boosting a failing Pontiac? The most infuriating thing about GM is they bail part way through plans - that's what kills them. I could have understood them hanging tough with RWD and saying we're an American car company here's the new Impala, Park Avenue, G8 - all unashamedly RWD and the last bastions of old Detroit. But you know what? They dithered between under performing FWDs and on again/off again too big Zeta, had they left Holden alone keeping the Commodore smaller/ lighter, Zeta may have worked. You can thank Lutz anf GMNA for interfering and making neither plan work.

This is old news from April. Major Design Shakeup at Ford

Now that Ford's house in order, the product pipeline is the good bit at the end. Alan Mulally has to be Ford's best salesman, he's on the job 24/7 with reporters...

I think it's more a case of cherry picking figures Richard, I doubt there is any real parity between the two tests at all as they were separate tests and here's what each had to say:

On the contrary, Bill Ford did something about it - the right thing.

Hmm, I would expect the sale of Volvo to follow much the same pattern as was done with J/LR. Hopefully, Ford has secured long term power train and engineering support contracts with Volvo (Geely), you may even find there's a lot of new product in the pipeline that Geely has agreed to fund.

From the Ford website: Taurus AWD: EPA-estimated 17 city/25 highway and Taurus SHO: EPA-estimated 17 city/25 highway Not many vehicles can offer a 50% power increase and still keep the base engine's fuel economy figures.

Oh, it will do a lot better than that, our XR6 Turbo Falcon does a 13.2 1/4 and weighs 3900 lb. The XR6T with 360 hp and 391 lb ft compares favourably with the EB V6..... I think there will be some 425 Hp camaros looking to hide somewhere......

Bobcat has a lot of merit but remember it needs to be built on a converted diesel bottom end to handle the huge torque load. The thought of 750 lb ft on a 5.0 V8 bottom en at 1500 rpm should be a sobering reminder that Bobcat isn't just a simple evolution of Ecoboost. Just a thought, the 3.0 V6 diesel in th Jaguar XF gives 270 hp and 440 lb ft of torque, that kinda fares well against FNA's 5.4 and 6.8 liter engines....... So not all diesels are slow assed crap wagons to drive, some are actually fun.... .

As a Blue Oval supporter, I could think of nothing better.....:rolleyes:

During a recent interview on Autoline Detroit TV, Mark Fields mad an intersting comment on Ford not using diesels in its North American cars. He said something along the lines of now that Ford NA are moving to global platforms, IF ford saw the market was changing in the DIESEL direction, it wouldn't take years to impliment diesels into North America. I think Ford have every contingency covered, something a manufacturer must do when there are so many alternatives offered to buyers. Diesels will have their place but not at the expense of sensible long term planning. Ford NA is focused on Ecoboost and that is a darned good strategy that Ford Europe will also use along side of its diesels. One does not replace the other, they are complimentary .

I guess the rationale between the Ecoboost performance and Economy tags is how the engine is used. The problem is there is no V8 AWD Taurus to compare with the SHO Taurus and if there was, you'd probably see that the V6 Ecoboot does give better fuel economy. Maybe a clearer message on this will come when the EB V6 arrives in the F150 and Mustang One thing's for sure, when old mother (Fritz) Henderson went to the cupboard, the cupboard was bare (of turbo V6 engines to use).....

Perhaps quite a few of those lost Focus sales were people choosing the newer enlarged Fiesta instead.

Parity, how do you equalize different manufacturer's car engine combinations. The reason NASCAR and other racing bodies adopt generic racing models is to end the continual bickering between different production models when a competitor has a perceived advantage.

Couldn't hurt, especially if there's enough Springsteen fans who feel the same as you.

Pity you don't know someone who could remix the original for you....

Agreed but the D37 and 6 speed will put the V6 combination much closer to the 4.6 V8 and 5-speed auto. Sure the new 5.0 will increase the gap again but the whole Mustang range then moves up a cog. No wonder Camaro will find the going tough, they have nothing left to bring on the V6 side.

They're getting their own cold test lab as well, probably in by now. T6 has also been spotted in the European Alps, I think both FoA and Holden used that area in the past for cold weather testing. The guys also go across to the South Island of New Zealand, there's glaciers and cold stuff everywhere. A lot of people don't know the early 1990s Falcon were driven back and forth between LA and Alaska constantly for over 6 months.

Good to hear Ford has finally set US emissions at the beginning then Europe/ROW. It's much easier with the one stop approach is used with emission development, maybe the wheel doesn't have to be reinvented halfway through projects anymore? FoA now has a full emissions test lab and transmission specialist courtesy of Ford spending $1.6 billion on facilities. T6 contract brought a lot of good gear to Australia. Modelling software was used to confirm only cat converter and recalibration was needed to save the inline 6, not the massive cost FoA thought and that's why V6 imports were scrubbed Not sure how V8 calibrations will be handled, we only have to go to Euro IV at the moment but maybe Tier 2 is a good bet in case we need to import products to the USA......

How close will the D37 and 6-speed auto get to the performance of the current 4.6 V8 and 5-speed auto? Given the V6's lower price and superior fuel economy, maybe the trade off is small....

This has nothing to do with Ford Motor Company Discussion.

That gets my vote for post of the week. In an ever increasingly selfish world, it's important to remember what living in a society is all about. If everything was about our rights, we would never advance beyond jungle rule.

Why not just beef up Medicare for low income earners and the poor, make it a true safety net? That way people would have a real choice between a national system and private health cover.