iluvnascar

But is there anything CURRENTLY being produced for Canada that includes "Ready-for-Satellite" (Sirius)??

According to sales brochures, it appears that the upgraded sound systme available on the "LIMITED" in the US is satellite-ready. But it also appears that it is NOT satellite-ready in Canada... True or false?? Bottom line.........is there any way to purchase a Canadian-sold 500 that is satellite ready? (XM or Sirius)

It is my understanding that no Canadian-sold Ford vehicles are equipped to receive XM Satellite Radio (Canada). Can anyone verify this? And how about Sirius Canada? Are any CANADIAN-SOLD vehicles equipped from the factory to receive Sirius Satellite Radio (CANADA). Canada is usually a couple of years behind the times.......so perhaps it's not available yet.

Does the Limited FWD have a computerized I/P cluster with Miles 'til empty, fuel mileage, miles to go, and so on?? And if anyone has driven a Fusion and a 500....how would you compare performance? The 500 has a lot less horsepower (203 to 221?) but I'm led to believe that the 500 has a torque curve that makes a pretty decent performer for highway driving, passing, and 0 to 60 acceleration. I was about to commit to a Fusion SEL until I went and looked closely at one. I thought it felt quite cheap.....the door handles were tinny; the interior door panels looked like Rubbermaid; my head was touching the roof panel (yes, it had a sunroof....but I'm only 5' 9 1/2"); and it just seemed more like a Focus than the Taurus it supposedly replaced. Comments appreciated.......

Retiree.............. Had a Taurus SHO.....a GREAT car which the wise guys in Dearborn decided to scrap......just when the Taurus was redhot in Nascar. And I have an LS............which is being discontinued. I was going to get a Zephyr...........until I heard that the Zephyr nameplate is being scrapped next year; and until I compared the Milan and the Zephyr and found them to be indistinguishable from a distance - of course the grille, taillights, badging, and interior are different. I'd like to buy something that has some chance of achieving brand recognition and some chance of being around for more than a year or two. Undoubtedly the R&D and Sales guys have oodles of MBA and Engineering degrees with little or no practical experience and common sense.

This is a very interesting read re the apparent anomaly in the job market. It has certainly been my perception for some time that an increasing number of good ol' manufacturing "plant" jobs were disappearing; and that the eventual outcome of such a trend would be very unpleasant for the country. And so this article would seem to confirm the declining manufacturing base: By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS 02/13/06 "Counterpunch" -- -- Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics re-benchmarked the payroll jobs data back to 2000. Thanks to Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services, I have the adjusted data from January 2001 through January 2006. If you are worried about terrorists, you don’t know what worry is. Job growth over the last five years is the weakest on record. The US economy came up more than 7 million jobs short of keeping up with population growth. That’s one good reason for controlling immigration. An economy that cannot keep up with population growth should not be boosting population with heavy rates of legal and illegal immigration. Over the past five years the US economy experienced a net job loss in goods producing activities. The entire job growth was in service-providing activities--primarily credit intermediation, health care and social assistance, waiters, waitresses and bartenders, and state and local government. US manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs, almost 17% of the manufacturing work force. The wipeout is across the board. Not a single manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job. The declines in some manufacturing sectors have more in common with a country undergoing saturation bombing during war than with a super-economy that is “the envy of the world.†Communications equipment lost 43% of its workforce. Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37% of its workforce. The workforce in computers and electronic products declined 30%. Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25% of its employees. The workforce in motor vehicles and parts declined 12%. Furniture and related products lost 17% of its jobs. Apparel manufacturers lost almost half of the work force. Employment in textile mills declined 43%. Paper and paper products lost one-fifth of its jobs. The work force in plastics and rubber products declined by 15%. Even manufacturers of beverages and tobacco products experienced a 7% shrinkage in jobs. The knowledge jobs that were supposed to take the place of lost manufacturing jobs in the globalized “new economy†never appeared. The information sector lost 17% of its jobs, with the telecommunications work force declining by 25%. Even wholesale and retail trade lost jobs. Despite massive new accounting burdens imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley, accounting and bookkeeping employment shrank by 4%. Computer systems design and related lost 9% of its jobs. Today there are 209,000 fewer managerial and supervisory jobs than 5 years ago. In five years the US economy only created 70,000 jobs in architecture and engineering, many of which are clerical. Little wonder engineering enrollments are shrinking. There are no jobs for graduates. The talk about engineering shortages is absolute ignorance. There are several hundred thousand American engineers who are unemployed and have been for years. No student wants a degree that is nothing but a ticket to a soup line. Many engineers have written to me that they cannot even get Wal-Mart jobs because their education makes them over-qualified. Offshore outsourcing and offshore production have left the US awash with unemployment among the highly educated. The low measured rate of unemployment does not include discouraged workers. Labor arbitrage has made the unemployment rate less and less a meaningful indicator. In the past unemployment resulted mainly from turnover in the labor force and recession. Recoveries pulled people back into jobs. Unemployment benefits were intended to help people over the down time in the cycle when workers were laid off. Today the unemployment is permanent as entire occupations and industries are wiped out by labor arbitrage as corporations replace their American employees with foreign ones. Economists who look beyond political press releases estimate the US unemployment rate to be between 7% and 8.5%. There are now hundreds of thousands of Americans who will never recover their investment in their university education. Unless the BLS is falsifying the data or businesses are reporting the opposite of the facts, the US is experiencing a job depression. Most economists refuse to acknowledge the facts, because they endorsed globalization. It was a win-win situation, they said. They were wrong. At a time when America desperately needs the voices of educated people as a counterweight to the disinformation that emanates from the Bush administration and its supporters, economists have discredited themselves. This is especially true for “free market economists†who foolishly assumed that international labor arbitrage was an example of free trade that was benefitting Americans. Where is the benefit when employment in US export industries and import-competitive industries is shrinking? After decades of struggle to regain credibility, free market economics is on the verge of another wipeout. No sane economist can possibly maintain that a deplorable record of merely 1,054,000 net new private sector jobs over five years is an indication of a healthy economy. The total number of private sector jobs created over the five year period is 500,000 jobs less than one year’s legal and illegal immigration! (In a December 2005 Center for Immigration Studies report based on the Census Bureau’s March 2005 Current Population Survey, Steven Camarota writes that there were 7,9 million new immigrants between January 2000 and March 2005.) The economics profession has failed America. It touts a meaningless number while joblessness soars. Lazy journalists at the New York Times simply rewrite the Bush administration’s press releases. On February 10 the Commerce Department released a record US trade deficit in goods and services for 2005--$726 billion. The US deficit in Advanced Technology Products reached a new high. Offshore production for home markets and jobs outsourcing has made the US highly dependent on foreign provided goods and services, while simultaneously reducing the export capability of the US economy. It is possible that there might be no exchange rate at which the US can balance its trade. Polls indicate that the Bush administration is succeeding in whipping up fear and hysteria about Iran. The secretary of defense is promising Americans decades-long war. Is death in battle Bush’s solution to the job depression? Will Asians finance a decades-long war for a bankrupt country? Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

I don't think there is any plan to transfer the Town Car to St. Thomas. Although it makes sense presently (Panther platform), I think the present Town Car will be discontinued next Spring. It will reappear based upon another Ford platform....perhaps the 500?

Sounds interesting...........I suppose that means 3 or 4 day weeks rather than being down one or two full weeks per month? It would seem to be a good move in all respects......... Yes, please post some details if/when they are available!

Thank You youngSTAP.........a retiree. I appreciate the response.

Where is the Town Car going? They've announced a one-shift for St. Thomas......and if the Town Car was going there in order to consolidate the Panther cars, the one-shift line rate is inadequate to support the sales requirements. So where is it going? Or is it being discontinued?

Can anyone give me the planned (always subject to change) production schedule for St.Thomas??

What is the current line speed........what will it change to.........and can the required volume actually be produced on one shift with mass relief WITHOUT overtime?

Recognizing that everything is subject to change - and maybe BIG change after tomorrow's announcements - what is the likely St. Thomas schedule for downweeks over the next couple of months???

Why is a vote even needed?? The choice is clear.....and getting clearer by the day. Give back some of the benefits and save the Company money wherever possible...........in order to let Ford (and GM) have a CHANCE at being competitive with the likes of Toyota and Honda. Neither Ford nor GM has a long-term future at the moment....why don't the present-day workers (and retirees) understand that fact and do something about it?

There are certainly a lot of people here in denial. And somehow it seems that the closer an individual gets to retirement......or the more years of seniority an emplyee has.....the more they tend to ignore reality. The UAW (AND the CAW) need understand that there is a crisis in the companies that they represent. They need to understand that HUGE sacrifices will be necessary to restore the competitive balance between the "Big 3" and the companies that are taking over the industry (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and many other smaller importers such as Hyundai). They need to start working in concert with Company management - and they need to start working together as an industry - Ford is not competing with GM. And GM is not competing with Ford. Rather, both are competing against a group of companies who have the support of mainstream media; who have a far lower cost structure due primarily to the fact that they are latecomers to the industry and make common sense decisions unburdened by the mantra "but will the Union support the decision?"; versus companies that have been around for many years, that have an increasingly older and increasingly costly retiree base to support, that have lived with the burden of contractual niceties for many many years, and that have limited options in ensuring their survival. If I was in management today, I would be establishing a joint "War Room" with the UAW and CAW; and with high-ranking management (VP's and above) from Ford, GM and Chrysler. And I would be negotiating agreement on a wide range of cost reduction actions; while undertaking a thorough and public analysis of the comparative cost structure between the "Big 3" and the "Toyota-Honda-Nissan" triumvirate. There MUST be some level of comparable cost structure established if the Big 3 are to survive long-term. It can be done.....but no more bandaids. Cut....and cut deep......and sacrifice.....and sacrifice deep.....in the hourly ranks....AND the salaried ranks.....AND the top management ranks......AND the retiree ranks. Things are not going to change unless there is some forceful, courageous, and demanding leadership exhibited....on all sides. I am not real hopeful that it will happen.....but all it takes is a couple of true leaders to emerge from the morass and miracles can happen. Above all.......all Big 3 employees must remember that they need to accept and even promote difficult change. Because "If you always do what you've always done; you'll always get what you've always got; and that's a prescription for eventual unemplyment and bankruptcy!"

I think the answer is that there is no future.... But since I have an '04 LS, what is on the horizon that I ought to look at over the enxt 12-18 months? I know about the Zephyr......although I'm not sure if it appeals to me. And with a name like Zephyr, I somehow think that its future is limited. But when does the LS go out of production; and what Lincoln vehicles are on the way and when - I read about some D3 sedans? And a Fairlane? What are those vehicles??

Just wondering - but with sales on the Fusion supposedly above expectations, is it available with A-Plan in Canada???