jpd80

Well done Ford, keep up the good work by giving Taurus a powerful advertising budget - go for broke!!!

Especially if it's made to look nothing like the Mustang, I'm thinking a Falcon coupe on D2C built by FNA PS, my new baby came on Wednesday,

Then this thread does not belong in the Ford motor Discussion area.

Maybe Ford could expand the Lincon brand to the ROW by using up market variants of Mondeo and Falcon. That would provide products built in the regions without conflicting US plans. FoA has a V6 diesel Territory on the way and this would make an interesting addition to FoE for up market sales.

You have to pay for good talent, that's why Ford hired Mulally and made a lot of his salary bonus based. He and his team wrest near $5 billion in recurring savings, I'd like to see Merrill Lynch do that......

Should bonuses be based on how the company performs or how the individual performs?

SUVs and CUVs all come under the Truck CAFE list

Best guess is upper series Mustang or Luxury coupe for Mercury or Lincoln

and that's why Ford doesn't want the Falcon in that role - Making a Lincoln for Asia/ ROW is better idea.

Ford is deeply entrenched in D3 FWD/AWD products and have turned their backs on RWD. What would it hurt to let FoA do a nice up market Luxury MKR for Lincoln? A Luxury Falcon G6E with 3.7 EB / 5.0 V8 and new front an rear sheet metal consistent with Lincoln. That would sell like gang busters in the Middle East too!! Short and sweet, if FoA do a good job with the Falcon platform GRWD is not needed.

The early MOD idea was flat out Ford jumping the gun in believeing gas prices were going to soar in the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s. That's why the were fired up about FWD V8 applications with smaller than standard capacity. At the time, surface to volume ratio was considered important in controlling emissions, the smaller bore gives greater surface to volume ratio and allowed Ford to delete the air pump on V8s. Unfortunately, 90 cents/gallon made the decision look strange........

Wow, I know Ford would probably never do it but, a 60 degree V8 built in the Duratec V6 plant would surely fit into Taurus. Anyone who wanted a V8 sedan especially in the snow belt, would surely get on board with that. Who in their right mind would pass up a 5.0 V8 AWD Taurus for an Impala? Still, Ecoboost V6 is a powerfully compelling argument.................

Although the design is LHD preserved, meaning nothing will interfere with a LHD version, the design step was never done because FoA couldn't get an export contract. The Australian government offered FoA $300 million to develop an export market for its cars. Because Dearborn kept saying no to falcon exports to the middle East, FoA put the $300 million into local Australian production of C1 Focus and its variants. FoA's C1 exports are expected to include RHD and LHD vehicles to Asia and South Africa in greater numbers than any Falcon export contract would give.

Ford don't have to out run the bear, just GM and Chrysler...............

GM has only one plan, over produce and huge incentives - they have no plan B.

GM can't get their head around the game, it's like watching suicide in slow motion.

Producing more or less power has less to do with richer or leaner and more to do with droplet size, the smaller the better for combustion as it increases available surface area. We learned that one years ago when everyone switched fro Carbs to EFI and now DI takes it a step further by varying whether the charge is timed on intake or compression cycles and whether the charge is homogeneous or stratified.

I'd expect to see two versions, one with 360hp/360 lb ft for F Truck and base Mustang V8 and the other with 400 hp/400 lbft possibly DI for upper series Mustangs.

I think the thrust was for a different top hat to preserve the market desirability of the 2010 Taurus. an adaptation of the 2010 body might be much easier on tooling and parts count as recycling body panels for fleet vehicles only makes sense if it's cheaper to do. Ford would want to restrict changes to some external panels and interior trim.

I think that GM will try to dig itself out by flood the market with it products and adding huge incentives. You can see it already with GM pressing dealers to buy more stock even though sales are slow. Ford's newer products should come to the fore, more desirable with less incentives attached. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the Camaro when the 2010 Mustang offers a much better package.

Low fuel warning alarm, When the nearest gas station is 50 miles away, the chime/flashing light adds to the high drama.......

Cutting the F-150's tow capacity down to 5500-6000 lbs so you can design an almost entirely new lightweight truck (frame included) sounds like a big investment with a low sales return. And mid-size trucks don't provide enough real-world fuel savings to make the compromise worth while. The article is wrong, T6 is larger than the Thai Ranger it was benchmarked against the Nissan Navara/Frontier and will be a similar size with a cozy cabin. So the Global T6 will be approximately Sport Trac size. There was a suggestion for T6 use F100 for better world wide penetration.......

Hey I'm not whining, I actually thought is was 10% but didn't have a link to prove it, I'm glad you were able to supply one. So really wages, as a percentage of total car build costs is not the major factor it is made out to be.

I heard the T6 was almost the same size..................

IIRC labor accounts for approx 20-25% of toal costs of building a car contains - thanks mainly to automated processes and robot welders. I'll agree there's a difference but $5/hour is not huge, the costs are now becoming much closer and the UAW has been willing to accept quite a bit of change. It's a generational thing, this is a pretty big incremental step also breaking down barriers as well. Just because D3 and UAW are poised at this step doesn't mean no more changes the future, they don't have to happen right now.