dunebuster

I haven't driven a european Fiesta so someone will have to do the competitive assessment, BUT If Consumers Distorts er, Toyota Reports, doesn't see it as an equal to it's competitors and even then CU will pan it due to unknown warrenty THEN it might have a chance styling may get customers in the door but it's got to hit a double (package and performance (go and stop (Ford always forgets brake performance)) or it will die on the vine.. SO it's got to be really good, think Civic good even though the two are not in the same class.. This goes true for the rest of the euro transplants. As the Germans say Ford out: walk back (it's a double entendre: Ford sounds like Fart or go)

Since Cerebrus bought APG, I'm sure Dodge has ran Silver Creek(s) and learned from that for the 2010 re-launch... The1500's interior is very nice and it handles the rough stuff quite well and still has nice manners on the highway (Hemi with MDS @ 70MPH = 24.2MPG for about 100 miles down I-75 last week in a test vehicle) And wait until the Hybrid Hemi comes out with better highway and city milage than that!!! (the Durango Hybrid can get 26+ MPG highway...

For Volvo, 2 simple fixes: 1: Lincoln-Volvo Dealerships, Sorry Mercury.. 2: EcoBoost powertrains at higher boost for more performance and let warranty be covered by higher ASP.

About time GwB43 and the government help us...

Solar roof panels produce Watts, charging hybrid or Electric Vehicle batteries requires Kilo-Watts. (that's a thousandfold increase in power requirement for the financial or personnel types or reporters) The only use for a solar roof panel is to run a fan to suck the heat from the passenger cabin. The only other beneficiary of a roof panel is the insurance repair techs after a hailstorm...

So Mazda gets cut out of the design pie, and I hope customization means the local market maintains interior trim/feature cues like wiper and headlight controls. I mean, do you want some cars with a left side stalk for headlamps while others have the traditional knob set on the dash, or different functioning wiper stalks, some you swing the stalk up or down to active wiper speeds while others have the rotating knob... The different design language imports used was part of the reason that they didn't sell well. They were just different vehicles plugged into the NA sales outlets..

So Mustang design will be wholely Roush? Lincoln and Exploder will be completely handled by Volvo?? Just a lonely F-Series platform group huddled around Fairlane Town Center... Bldg's 1-5 can be rented out to whomever... Maybe Roush and Saleen??

Ford hybrid batteries comes from Sanyo, not PEVE-Panasonic The volume problem is not batteries, but transaxle capacity from Aisin, as Toyota and Nissan get first dibs. Ford was going to try and inhouse transaxles but, well, go figure..

Getting back to Fusion Hybrid launch and batteries....... Ford has tough road to hoe. There is good news and not so good news in hybrid plans. Volume = better price, volume means you need good cost control and a supplier who can deliver. Part 1 of the volume issue is transaxle availability. Ford has been using Aisin whos primary customer is Toyota so they get first drink at the trough. Nissan being a company who has apparently paid Toyota for hybrid technology access likely gets 2nd position, that leaves Ford getting what capacity is is left. Ford had a plan to in-source the transaxle but the traditional stupidity of engineering wound up not being able to save anything by insourcing hence a volume shortfall from Aisin. Part II of the volume conundrum is volume impact on battery and other parts. Toyota and Panasonic formed a joint venture called PEVE to buile Electric Vehicle and hybrid batteries originally in NIMH, eventually in LiIon. Ford was the first hybrid customer for Sanyo who is the biggest supplier of NIMH batteries in the world. That means that Sanyo has both a cost and technology advantage over PEVE, and eventaually can result in cheaper hybrid batteries. Sanyo also sells to Honda, so there is some volume but not enough to help drive costs (investment recovery) down fast enough. If Ford solves the Hybrid Transaxle capacity/cost knot, the rest of the hybrid components will also resolve themselves. As Yoda said, Do or Do Not, there is no try. On the other hand, Ford could have joined the GM/DCX/BMW RWD Hybrid partnership where they all use a common (higher volume/lower cost PEVE battery) and other shared components to help drive hybrid components costs down eventually. This is a great example of how NIH (Not Invented Here) impacts decisions. One thing you need to remember is to not think short term here, Hybrids cost a lot initially, but longer term you get a lower cost system than diesel and maybe turbo-GDI (ecoboost) systems. You just need to create and manage supply chains that work. If you execute a path, you can beat on the engineering/supply chain to drive costs down over time, but if you stand still, the costs will never drop and you will never build product. Ford is deeply paralyzed by fear of having to keep putting that $8K+ subsidy on an Escape hood. Until some mid-upper level manager has the cahones to drive drive forward and execute a volume plan, well, doing the same thing and expecting different results truly is idiocy. The battery is the secret sauce that makes everything work. NIMH is a proven robust technology and Lithium batteries have had a history of stumbles and is not quite ready for prime time. If hybrids wil become a real solution to the gas crisis you need volume to help drive costs down. Toyota has done that by creating multiple product lines that use a lot of commong hardware or common manufacturing capability. Ford took one step in that direction wiht the concept of the 2.5L hybrid powerpack that can be used across multiple platforms. Now they have to solve the volume/investment issues.