karlhenk

Ford dealers are racing to stockpile 2014 F-150 pickups ahead of the launch of the next-generation model. Some dealers have requested as many as 20 percent more F-150s than usual, fearful that a shutdown of Ford Motor Co.’s Dearborn Truck Plant for retooling next summer could strain the supply of the best-selling vehicle in the country. Ford’s other truck plant, in Kansas City, Mo., will be retooled later next year. Production of the current-model F-150 could drop as much as 10 percent next year because of the planned stoppages. For buyers, that could mean a shortage of trucks and the sweet deals that normally accompany model-year changeovers. From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131213/AUTO0102/312130038#ixzz2nN7iGyHq

This has been updated now. My apologies. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131105/AUTO0102/311050067/1361/Three-longtime-execs-to-leave-Ford

Ford supplier thinks this could one day be reality: --- The steering wheel could one day become history as self-driving vehicles progress, at least according to one executive at a global automotive supplier. Han Hendriks, vice president of advanced product development for Johnson Controls’ automotive electronics and interiors business, said futuristic designs of self-driving vehicles include extra space because there is no need for a steering wheel or column. And that’s because the self-driving vehicle would receive almost no input from the driver. That idea, however, is still decades from becoming reality. “After 2025, the steering wheel will play a less dominant role in the interior,” Hendriks said from the company’s Plymouth campus on Tuesday. “With fully autonomous vehicles, you don’t have to be forward looking as a driver, you don’t need to have an instrument panel. Then you can really just think of a car as a box that you enter.” From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131016/AUTO01/310150124#ixzz2htt9xnIc

One year ago, Ford Motor Co. officially staked its flag in the U.S. electric vehicle circle when it began to launch three new hybrids and two plug-in hybrids. And a year later, despite backlash over inflated fuel efficiency claims for the Ford C-Max Hybrid and a delayed launch of the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, the Dearborn automaker has managed to lift its share of the electric and hybrid market from 3 percent to 15 percent. Ford also has been able to steal customers from its chief competitor, Toyota Motor Corp., which it has brazenly viewed as an equal competitor since before any of Ford’s new hybrid vehicles hit dealer lots. From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131002/AUTO0102/310020032#ixzz2gZzFpHXZ

Interesting stuff from Joe Hinrichs: -- The prospect of Alan Mulally's departure raises two important questions for the rehabilitated Dearborn automaker: Is the Mulally Way now sufficiently embedded in Ford’s operations and culture to endure after he’s gone? And can its leaders, executive and union alike, manage prosperity? “It’s one of the most important challenges we face,” Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford-Americas, said in an interview. “You can look back about every decade and find a book about Ford’s turnaround.” From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131001/AUTO0102/310010024#ixzz2gU3Vtk00

Might be one of the better recent updates. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130806/AUTO0102/308060029/Ford-update-its-Sync-software?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Dearborn — Good news keeps coming for Bill Ford Jr. and Ford Motor Co., with 16 straight quarters of profitability and recent positive momentum in global markets. But the Ford executive chairman has seen enough ups and downs in his two-and-a-half decades with the automaker, that he’s unwilling to call Ford’s long-term growth plans a success — yet. “We’re on a growth plan that is not something you’ve seen from us in many years,” he told The Detroit News following an event marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of his great-grandfather and company founder, Henry Ford. “One thing I’ve learned through many years and many cycles is you set a plan and then you continually adjust. So for me to say, ‘Oh yes, we’ve made it’ and ‘We’re off and sailing,’ that’s not my inclination. “My inclination is to fight every day and then see where that takes us.” From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130731/AUTO0102/307310018#ixzz2adg9A1nj Do you agree? Too soon to declare victory?

Ford Motor Co. is planning to bring back buttons and knobs to help complement — but not replace — its MyFord Touch infotainment system. From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130617/AUTO0102/306170086#ixzz2WUYgM74n

Don't quote me on this, but I believe MKS is going on a different platform, but Taurus (for now) will remain on modified version of current platform.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130617/AUTO0102/306170018/Ford-applies-lessons-U-S-crisis-Europe-upswing?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Pick one or the other on the Focus. There is something different, unlike Focus EV.

Taurus won't be going to Flat Rock.

Remember, Ford is pushing out Explorer to many different regions. Right now 25 percent of Explorer production goes to someplace other than the U.S.

Ford Motor Co. says it will sell its subcompact EcoSport SUV in 62 countries by 2017, but the U.S. will not be one of them. Jim Farley, Ford’s executive vice president of global marketing, sales, service and Lincoln, said Wednesday at Ford’s World Headquarters that the automaker is studying “very closely” the possibility of selling the recently revamped small SUV here in the U.S. But he said that the immediate market does not warrant selling the car here. From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130529/AUTO0102/305290039#ixzz2UigWOF3F

"I think it's maybe a stretch. But I don't find it implausible," said Bill Visnic, senior editor at the car research site Edmunds.com, in a telephone interview. "If you look at where things have been going segment by segment, except pickups, you could say that's been the trend." In 2008, new vehicles with four-cylinders made up 40 percent of the market, according to market researcher R.L. Polk & Co.; today, they are 53 percent of the new-vehicle market. And Ford anticipates that by 2020, 66 percent of all new vehicles will come equipped with four-cylinders. From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130520/AUTO0102/305200334#ixzz2TqFMD8jF