Bob Rosadini
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Posts posted by Bob Rosadini
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Both the International CF and Ford LCF use a Mazda cab?
10-4, Its the same truck. Just like if you check out the part no. on the spring hangers on a 750 and then go check the same part on a 4400 International- same chassis.
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No, I beleive they are both Mazdas.
You are both right. Its another Bluediamond product. the cab is a Mazda cab, it comes with only the Ford Torqueshift trans, and it has the International V-6 version ofthe Power Stroke.
One thing I don't know is the origin of the chasssis. Anyone have a clue?
Bob
PS Like I said a couple of months ago- Any one at KTP see any signs of work activity that could mean a new production line for 650/750??
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With GM's success with the Kodiak C4500/C5500, will Ford ever bring back the E-550? Will they ever put the E-450 on the same/similar chassis to the F-450?
They should- acording to a dealer friend of mine they were really starting to take off when they killed it. But they won't as it will clash with the LCF. Now if Bluediamond blows up, then it just might. but as long as Bluediamond survives I would bet no.
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Is this the right time for it ?...
"Have you driven a Ford, lately..."....
You bet- along with the same upbeat music instead of the lame version they are using now.
Remember the music with alternating racing scenes, Lynn
St. James etc? Well I'm sure ynn doesn't cut it any more but some good Mustang racing scenes would work. (we just won't ention Nascar this year-unless they show Carl Edwards doing his back flip last
sat night!
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no the Ford Navi bickering .. Ford cannot for the 6.4l in there, but the bickering caused stoppage of the 6.0l line ..
Now it is back on track to have the 6.0l there in the fall.
Igor
Thx- too bad- a lot of sales will be lost in the meantime. With fuel at 3 bucks, its a lot easier to justify the diesel premium.
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E-series will have a diesel later this year.
What is the issue? Fitting the twin turbos in the doghouse?
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Its not a 10,000lb. payload but a GVW of 10,000. In any case, it belongs here- as others have pointed out, with E-series not offering a diesel, there is a big void. E series will outsell Sprinter but for how long can Ford ignore this segment. In particular when they have such a great vehicle that can compete. As I have postrd before, Ford has had Transits running here in test fleets for some time now. Should be time to pull the trigger.
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There is not a single Focus Wagon left in central Ohio, so we are now looking at the Chevrolet HHR. It is kind of ugly, but very practical.
The Focus Wagon was allowed to stagnate, but I think Ford has misread the market for small wagons.
They sure have- totally stupid move- small cars are riding a wave and what do the idiot planners do? Abandone a hot segment. The wagon was a great car.- decent looks and functional. They seem to go out of their way to shoot themselves in the foot.
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Has anyone heard of a new truck project, possibly a commercial truck to replace the 'Blue-Diamond' models when Ford breaks away from Navistar?
Check my post on the employee forum- maybe someone at KTP has some insight.
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The KISS rule applies! (keep it simple stupid). Like a lot of people have said, Stick to the original size, add a diesel- the Euro Fords are home runs right?-and play to the market that calls for a rugged basic vehicle that can serve as an inexpensive second vehicle or commercially can serve as an inexpensive fleet truck. For example, I would say current Rangers are the vehicle of choice for most auto parts outfits around here- no need to carry a lot but something that is nimble and an 18 yr. old or a retired blue head can feel comfortable in.
The market is there. Ford owned it once, they can do it again.
PS My first Ranger, an 89 3.0 5 spd 4 x 4 supercab taught my two sons how to drive a stick and with almost 200,000 on it, is now serving a farmer friend of mine well -on its second transmission. I now have an 04 FX 4 Level II that one of my kids bought new and then "handed down" to me -at a high price-when he bought a new Freestyle. Great little truck. Only thing that would make me get rid of it would be the thought of a diesel Ranger. Do I need it? No. Would I buy it- yes!
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How about it KTP. There is a lot of discussion about the Bluediamond jv collapsing and if it did, what would become of 650/750 production. Any thoughts on building these at KTP? Any signs of plant mods going on?
With everything going down the tubes over the engine suits, I can't believe the JV can survive. Of course they could pull production back to Cautillan where it started in 2000 but who knows???????? It seems like 650/750 sales are holding their own so hopefully they won't wuss out on this market tlike they did 10 years ago with the Louisvilles.
Do you guys build the cabs that end up going to Blue diamond now?
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Mike- I'm sure you are correct when it comes to the high end- Fusion vs. Taurus. Either way its a Ford sale. Big issue will be the Camry converts- let's keep our finger's crossed.Now that the Taurus is fully competitive, I look for Taurus to take some sales away from Fusion. Not looking forward to it as Fusion is nice, important vehicle to Ford, but nonetheless Taurus offers excellent value. Compare the two....with the Taurus for a few thousand more, you get Ford's best V6, more room everywhere, nicer interior, more features, same gas mileage, more safety, better residual value, and it's built in U.S.A. The new Taurus should get its fair share of Taurus owners like myself selling their older Taurus. Fusion I'm sure gets some of those buyers, but I'm sorry the new Taurus trumps the Fusion for me, and I'm sure some others. Looks to me like I4 Fusion should do ok going forward, but the v6 Fusion will have tough comparison up against the new Taurus. Just my opinion, and I will be noticing sales comparisons as new Taurus ramps up. Ditto for Sable/Milan.Currently drive 2002 Taurus SES Sport,
Mike
By the way, Taurus was always my company's car for marketing reps. Of late we have been buying Fusions. We will go back to Taurus.
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I forgot one important detail to bolster my opinion: In the old days the parking lot at the MDC(Hartford county Water Dept.) used to be full of Fords (especially pickups) in the EMPLOYEE parking area when almost ALL of the company trucks and cars were Fords. Now there are Chevy and Dodge pickups in the lot. I rest my case!
No doubt Joe, the "culture" that makes a Ford guy a "Ford guy", is diminished today for example by the fact that how many young kids today are learning how to drive on a Ford tractor- be it an 8N, a 7600 or a Ford garden tractor. You can call it "prejudice" or whatever, but loyalties are developed at an early age. Unfortunately today, more and more kids will be growing up with no allegiance to the blue oval or the bow tie for that matter. "Daddy just bought his first new truck- a Ridgeline."
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I don't know, PACCAR (Kenworth and Peterbilt) did very well not manufacturing their own engines. Ford didn't make enough money with heavy trucks because their heavy trucks were not good enough to sell for the kind of money a Peterbilt did.
True, have to agree that others have made money without a proprietary engine. Look at Mack today. Twenty five years ago the majority of Macks were 100% Mack in terms of drivetrain. Today, a fraction.
As for Ford not making money because they couldn't command the same price as a Pete, you have to remember the bulk of Ford's business was not in 'fully dressed" Owner Operator trucks. It was a plain jane fleet producer. Good bang for the buck. As I've said before, might a door arm rest crap out? Yes. Did their frames fail? Never, and I speak from experience.
Plain and simple, the volume of 250/350/450 etc that KTP could crank out was too much for Jac to resist. It was higher return vs. lesser return. Some of us believe it all adds to the bottom line. Others believe you only chase the max return- to hell with cycles, corporate culture, heritage whatever.
Daimler obviously believes you chase all the markets- and take whatever varied return each brings.
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I caught the presenter saying the Tundra frame was from a double cab. If it is longer than the F-150 frame, a greater amount of flex would be expected correct?
I don't doubt the F-150's frame superiority, but was this an "apples-to-apples" comparison?
Ranger, I'm with you- I caught that as well. It has to be longer. If for no other reason then to not give 'Yoda" fans a reason to cry"foul", the frames should have been fron the same whellbase vehicles, regular cab with either a 6' or 8' box.
I'm sure the 150 wouldstill win but this test gives them the opportunity to say not a fair comparison.
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It was never a question of if Ford could make money selling large commercial trucks, but how much more money could be made if the resources used to make low volume low profit large trucks could be spent on high volume high profit light trucks and SUV's. The 'nail in the coffin' was the over budget behind schedule HM80 program. Getting out of the class 7 and 8 market was one thing Jac Nassar did right. Also remember that nearly all of Ford's heavy truck sales were low-bid fleet sales.
No doubt Jac the Knife saw a gold mine in KTP in its ability to crank out F-250's,350's and yes Excursions. What bugs me though is the HN-80 was out like a year when they pulled the plug. Where was all the analysis that justified the expenditure in the first place? Such an investment had to have been under a microsope. The difference was Jac played to the galleries and instant success. Many have pointed out the point that do you invest in the item with the bigger return or do you spend the same money on something that will give a lesser return? Obvious answer right? In particular if you just care about the quarterly numbers that the Wall St Journal publishes. Jac liked those numbers.
In my mind, this is a good example of a decision that was motivated by the short term gain. If big trucks were such a loser, what was Daimler thinking of? What was Volvo thinking of when they bought the Mack operation from Renault? KTP was the biggewst heavy truck plant in the world. Ford was a player when you put class 6,7 and 8 together. Had there been someone in power who appreciated the value of Ford's legacy as a commercial truck builder (someone used the term "cachet"- I guess that works too) perhaps some other plant would have added a Super Duty line and big trucks would have been spared.
But admittedly, in my mind Ford's marketers were stupid. They tried to appeal to all the segments including owner operators. And that is a market they would NEVER penetrate as "large cars" (Petes, KWs and ugh, even Freightliners ) rule. But Ford owned the vocational market. And 7 Mary, they weren't sold on price only. they were sold as good value for the buck. My company split orders between Ford Mack and Freightliner on a regular basis and the spread was always close. Back to the vocational issue, when freightliner stole the business Jim Hebe, Freighliners pres. called the Louisville the best vocational truck built. Again that was Ford's niche and they should have stuck with it.
As for Jac, he didn't do a f-ing thing right. As someone else pointed out- look at his legacy, Kwick-fit, Jag, Junk yards, internet bullshit, canning knowledgeable people so he could bring in his flunkies. If you want to blame the Ford family for something, blame them for not recognizing what a bullshit artist this guy was. Had he not been at the helm, I would bet KTP wouldstill be cranking out big jobs and Ford would still own the vocational truck business. And if big trucks can only make 5% then so be it. Its oe more segment that has to be served.
Anyway, this is a better thread then some of the SOS!
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I still think Ford should have held onto the class 8 business though. The Aeromax was a beautiful truck and the whole line lent a bit of cachet to Ford's status as a FULL-LINE truck maker. $300M was a pittance, but then it doesn't seem that DCX (Freightliner / Sterling) did much with it.
You are right- they didn't do much with it. Look at the historical sales figures before 97 and Ford's numbers (class 7 and 8) far surpass anything Sterling is doing today. Plus what did Freightliner do? They gave the Sterling franchise to quite a few Freightliner dealers. Bottom line, fewer sales spread out over more dealers. I can't believe that the average Sterling dealer thinks he is better off today then he was before the sale.
Also as someone else said, there had to be some value in being a fullline company. There are I'm sure plenty of guys who frequent this site who grew up driving Ford tractors, loader backhoes, big trucks etc. It formed a mindset. I'm one of those guys and its rubbed off on my kids and their purchasing habits. But, those of us who know what an "8N" or the first "Super Duty" was, are a vanishing breed.
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Does anyone else think the 427 was a LOT cooler.
Merkur, I'm with you.
And SilverSVT, I don't think Armada's points are all that crazy. I think what Ford has to do isget the most bang for the buck in everything it does. I don't think anyone is talking about a radical new platform-that is an entirely different issue. What we are talkig about is getting some good sales numbers for not a lot of bucks. My 07 CV sport is averaging close to 23 mpg with that lousy 4 speed and 3.27 gears. Just think what even a five speed would do for it never mind a 6.
To repeat myself. Is it a geezer mobile? No- black on black, Hela fogs in the fascia and a set of fFlowmaster 40's for a nice bark. When some 23 year old in a parking goes to move it, hits the key and says..."I can see myself driving this!" Its not just for the blueheads in Florida.
What will it take to get the dummy product types to recognize this. Good basic car, great assembly plant, what else do ypou need? Yes, some MARKETING!
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I wonder how the DCX breakup will affect the Sterling Class 3 thru 5 program since it used the Dodge cab/chassis. And will there still be Dodge Sprinters?
Joe, I would bet nothing changes- just another business deal- more volume for Dodge, something else for the Sterlig dealers to sell
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Can anyone tell me the last year the C-6 was used in the 350? I thinking of buying a 350 dump and given the choice, I'd rather have a bullet proof C-6 then the four speed.
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Doesn't Blue Diamond build the F-650/F-750 in Mexico? I'm curious how this will work out along with the Power Stroke fiasco. Isn't Navistar still the Medium Duty truck leader?
Yes- Escobedo Mexico. And correct Navistar is the leader class 6 and 7. If you count class 4- 7, its Ford by a big margin
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Bob, we can only dream! I saw a headline, but didn't get to read the article. Will the GM brand still exist? How does this affect the Isuzu tie-up? I think Ford should team up with Volvo TRUCK and kick Daimler's butt! My guess is that Ford will follow GM like they do in almost every instance and sell off the truck unit. It's dumb, but that's what Ford's been lately.......dumb! I'm not sure if these are revenue or profit figures, but in the first quarter an article stated Daimler had $715 million in trucks and $2.5 billion in vans and buses. Not shabby. I still want to see an updated enclosed 4-door C-series fire apparatus cab/chassis! By the way, I'm seeing a lot of heavy uses in truck magazines showing 18-ton cranes and 2000 gal fire tankers on F750 chassis.
Joe- 10-4 on the cranes- also mechanic service trucks. Where are you seeing the fire service trucks? On a mfg website?
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Well with all the hype about GM selling the medium truck business to Navistar, what does this mean to the Power Stroke fiasco and the Bluediamond JV? Once again deals like this only make sense if a lot of the cost gets taken out of the picture. That means you get rid of GM's manufacturing plant (Flint?) and run the volume through Navistars structure (Springfield?) and/or you also get rid of a lot of the marketing expense.
When you start screwing around with marketing expense, then you are messing with dealer organizations and isn't that what led to the bastardized "WhiteGMC" when Gm sold out the class 8's?
Ford is the commercial truck sales leader- (class4-7). I would think this forces the issue and they really get serious and remain a player- Bluediamond or not- or they fold their tent like they did with the class 8 business. It's so easy to say...."It's not our core business".
As 650/750 sales seem to be holding their own in a lousy market and as I think a lot of customers prefer to have one brand in their fleet, I hope the feeling is that Ford will be a survivor in class4-7 market--bring the 650/750 back to KTP! With the GM dealer organization out of the picture,this should present a good opportunity for Ford to boost market share.
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Should Ford invest the billions of dollars it would truly take to bring the Panthers into the 21st century? No way.
Nick- No argument- I agree. I'm not suggesting they spend "billions" . But what I and others have said- for a relatively small amount of money you could tweak this car and continue to generate sales that add to the bottom line. It is ludicrous that you would keep the GM and trash retail sales of the CV. I and many others prefer the look ofthe CV and on dealer presence alone it wins!
As to your comment on the RWD market, Ford should OWN all the niche numbers that DCX is picking up. We soon will have the new Pontiac G-8 on the scene as well as Hyundai etc. Again, we are not talking about 300,000 cars a year- but we are talking about some decent numbers out of a plant that has to be fully depreciated and has a rep for turning out good products.
New Truck Project?
in Rumor Mill
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You bring up an interesting point. I knew about the big Fords in Brazil. Its the old Cargo that Ford sold -make that gave away- to Daimler- who has since dropped both the Sterling and freightliner badged versions.
BUT, I never checked out Turkey. Go to the Ford World web site and click on Turkey- wish I read the language! The Cargo they build there is a totally different animal and it looks like it has a Ford engine- not an 8.3 Cummins as does the Caro in Brazil
Anyone have any info on these trucks? Ar they built by Ford or are they a rebadged Iveco or something else.
These things look like they are for real.