Ford lays off 900 workers at Mustang/Mazda6 plant

[NLPRacing]

Link - The Globe and Mail

[ausrutherford]

Sad but wait for the market to recover and the new Mustang engines.

[rkisler]

Sad but wait for the market to recover and the new Mustang engines.

 

Well, as you know, reducing or adding a shift is not trivial and requires a lot of rebalancing.

 

But the real problem here is the fact that Mazda spend a lot of engineering effort and cost to develop a unique, larger Mazda 6 for North America but their volumes are not responding.....

[BlackHorse]

Sad but wait for the market to recover and the new Mustang engines.

 

I don't think it's going to matter. Mustang will get better engines but the price tag is going up as well which will only drive even more customers away from it.

[MY93SHO]

I don't think it's going to matter. Mustang will get better engines but the price tag is going up as well which will only drive even more customers away from it.

 

God your posts are worthless. :boring: Just work on your Wrangler and piss off.

[SVT_MAN]

God your posts are worthless. :boring: Just work on your Wrangler and piss off.

 

Sucks for those people, but these workers are hourly, are they not? Makes sense to get rid of variable costs when there's a downturn in this segment of the market. My heart goes out to the poor families that suffer from this, but Ford does say they are relocating many. And, there is always a chance that sales pick up again and more cars sell ... especially with the 2011 coming down the pipeline.

[BlackHorse]

Wait, this story can"t possibly be true because it was posted on Left Lane News and anything reported about the Mustang on Left Lane News is factually incorrect. Just ask Richard. LOL

 

MY93SHO, feel free to use your iggy button buddy. The Mustang has become a niche car. It's a nice car, really nice with the 2010 improvements to the interior, but it's too expensive to be a big seller now and it's getting more expensive. It costs about 1/3rd more to buy a base model mustang than it did 10 years ago. Unfortunately, American salaries have not increased by a 1/3rd in kind in the last 10 years. In point of fact your dollar is worth about 30% less than it was. Combine that with the fact that for most Americans on a monthly budget in these modern days the car payment has to compete a lot of things other that just mortgage / rent, utilities and food.

 

I really hope that Ford comes out with a performance model 2 door hatchback Focus with this new body style. That might be pretty fun and a good seller for them.

[Footballfan]

Sad but wait for the market to recover and the new Mustang engines.

 

Really. Doesn't show a whole lot of confidence in your product- especially with the new engines coming on board.

[RichardJensen]

Just ask Richard.

Unlike the article you linked to, his article does not offer questionable predictions based on anonymous sources.

Edited February 17, 2010 by RichardJensen

[Footballfan]

Ironically, Bill Ford Jr. was in Livonia today saying how this nation has to reindustrialize. Great way to start :rolleyes:

[jasonj80]

This has nothing to do with the Mustang and everything to do with the mazda6 flop Mazda once again forgot what it was, pissed off the loyal buyers and didn't get the camcord crowd as they don't drive Mazda's they did the exact same thing with the 626 in 1997. It should have been 1 world car and then they could offer the 5 door and wagon. See looking at the old 6 the wagon and 5 door didn't make up that much sales volume but the volume they had was retail sales not fleet like the sedan. Also it hurt Mazda alot when they moved from Ford Credit as their premier provider.

 

The plant is 50% Ford 50% Mazda I wonder if in 4 years when the Mustang moves to a new platform if it will still be built there.

[7Mary3]

I think it is mainly due to the Mazda not selling as well as planned. The Mustang will do better when the new engines are available. I suppose the Camaro might be a bit of a factor too. That thing is selling well, like it or not.

[jpd80]

This has nothing to do with the Mustang and everything to do with the mazda6 flop Mazda once again forgot what it was, pissed off the loyal buyers and didn't get the camcord crowd as they don't drive Mazda's they did the exact same thing with the 626 in 1997. It should have been 1 world car and then they could offer the 5 door and wagon. See looking at the old 6 the wagon and 5 door didn't make up that much sales volume but the volume they had was retail sales not fleet like the sedan. Also it hurt Mazda alot when they moved from Ford Credit as their premier provider.

 

The plant is 50% Ford 50% Mazda I wonder if in 4 years when the Mustang moves to a new platform if it will still be built there.

 

Can't for the life of me understand why the Mazda 6 wasn't built by Ford at Hermosillo,

that would then open up space for the Mustang at Flat Rock and another RWD vehicle....

 

So sad that 900 people are going and the plant is back to one shift.

Edited February 17, 2010 by jpd80

[BuckARoo]

Can't for the life of me understand why the Mazda 6 wasn't built by Ford at Hermosillo,

that would then open up space for the Mustang at Flat Rock and another RWD vehicle....

 

So sad that 900 people are going and the plant is back to one shift.

 

I disagree Blackhorse. My girl best friend, Dave actually, is a garbage man and make about $40k a year. He has 1 kid and is a single dad. After saving for 2 years he made a $9000 down payment and he bought a Mustang. It is not out of reach for most people, just people who are really bad with money. LOL. Don't forget, this is Canada too where he paid $37k for the car.

 

Buck

[lfeg]

The world is not ending, the Mustang is not threatened. It is just a matter of adjusting production capacity and strategy to current and expected sales of all product made there.

 

And the Mustang has always been a niche vehicle, just a very big niche at times. Sort of the niche for the masses who like some excitement in their cars. Back in the day you could get a similarly equipped Falcon for less, but if you wanted the excitement of the Mustang, there was no substitute.

[rkisler]

Can't for the life of me understand why the Mazda 6 wasn't built by Ford at Hermosillo,

that would then open up space for the Mustang at Flat Rock and another RWD vehicle....

 

So sad that 900 people are going and the plant is back to one shift.

 

Well there are a lot of things that are hard to understand with Mazda.

 

Mazda was at one time offered a swap to move out of Flat Rock to Hermosillo and carry their equity in AAI with them. But even with higher Ford ownership at that point, they resisted strongly (for good reason I think). But my response would be "Thank goodness they did". Because Ford's idiotic plan at that point was to have a midsize Mustang-based 4-door built in AAI, but no mainstream midsize front driver (i.e., no Fusion and friends). The VP in charge believed that Ford had already lost the battle in the c/d segment to Toyota and Honda so it was best for Ford to give up and do something different. So in the end, Mazda helped Ford make what I believe is the right decision.

 

I also don't fully understand why Mazda didn't join with Ford in Cuatitlan to co-produce the Mazda 2, but I don't know what's going on with Ujina these days...

 

As I mentioned earlier and several other posters have mentioned, Mazda's strategy to go against the Camcord and get bigger with the Mazda 6 has evidently backfired. This car has lost its personality. I personally liked the prior Mazda 6 which was actually a bit smaller than the Fusion -- I had two of them, and they were just right in size for me and could be tossed around easily.

 

I also think the timing of this move is to make better use of personnel. This way, they can be moved to MAP for the Focus. If Ford didn't do this now, then they would have to hire and then potenially lay off if AAI went down to one shift later. I think I'm correct that MAP and AAI are in the same UAW local (Local 600), so if I'm right, that makes moves easier.

 

Long-term plans at AAI are probably causing a lot of hand-wringing right now. Mazda seems to want to go off on their own. The plant has to be losing money at this point (not the vehicles necessarily, but the plant which is a separate financial entity with 50/50 ownership). Mazda's plans for the next-gen Mazda 6 are TBD (independent from Ford I guess). Ford's plans for RWD are TBD. Yikes. Lots of headaches.

[MTPwife]

AAI & MAP are not the same UAW local but there are some people at AAI who were originally from MTP/MAP who will have call back rights to their home plant. Also there might be a need for more workers if they run 3 shifts at MAP. There's been rumors since the retool of MAP began that the Mustang may end up at Wayne after the move of the Focus to MAP but that's just one of the many rumors floating around. lol Alot of the workers will be placed but some with low seniority may not make it.

Edited February 17, 2010 by MTPwife

[rkisler]

AAI & MAP are not the same UAW local but there are some people at AAI who were originally from MTP/MAP who will have call back rights to their home plant. Also there might be a need for more workers if they run 3 shifts at MAP. There's been rumors since the retool of MAP began that the Mustang may end up at Wayne after the move of the Focus to MAP but that's just one of the many rumors floating around. lol Alot of the workers will be placed but some with low seniority may not make it.

 

Thanks for clarifying.

 

As for the rumors of anything in Wayne, I wouldn't count on it, particularly Mustang. I don't know for sure, but when I took Ford's announcements about MAP and layed out the flow, it looks to me like WAP is completely cut off. Personally I think it will probably be used for subassembly production and maybe stuff like electric drive build-up that would be transferred over to MAP for final assembly. But I'm not in the know, only guessing.

 

Let's keep our fingers crossed that the new Focus and friends will be so successful that MAP will be running 3-crew. I think there is a chance.

[Pioneer]

Looks like I was right months ago. Not to gloat, but I predicted this and was told by many people I was wrong.

 

 

Now, back to topic. The latest rumors point to Mazda wanting the whole plant all to themselves. This is good news for both Ford and Mazda. Mazda gets to expand production in the US and Ford gets to better utilise it's existing capacity.

 

See, all is not peachy between Ford and Mazda. Since Ford sold some of it's shares for a paltry sum, and Ford is developing small vehicles and engines on it's own around the world, Mazda feels slighted.

 

Latest Rumor point to either the Mustang going to a retooled Wayne plant after the Focus is moved to MAP, or to Dearborn to be built along side the F-150 (yes, it can be done.) The Wayne rumor is good for that plant and for all of Ford's outlying stamping plants because they would have to pick up the work that was done at the AAI stamping plant. The Rouge rumor is good for the same reasons, but also because it would mean another assembly shift for Kansas City, and some significant investment in Dearborn Stamping.

 

Now, those are just the rumors. It doesn't matter if it goes to one of the two plants mentioned above, but the Mustang will be moved out of AAI if the Mazda rumor is true. If not, there will have to be a new vehicle moved into AAI to bolster production numbers. Ford is not going to keep an assembly plant on one shift for an extended period of time. It's too expensive to run a plant that way.

[NickF1011]

I suppose the Camaro might be a bit of a factor too. That thing is selling well, like it or not.

 

The Camaro is barely outselling the Mustang during the worst sales of the Mustang ever, so I wouldn't say it is selling well. They are both struggling in a struggling overall market.

[RichardJensen]

Looks like I was right months ago. Not to gloat, but I predicted this and was told by many people I was wrong.

 

 

Now, back to topic. The latest rumors point to Mazda wanting the whole plant all to themselves. This is good news for both Ford and Mazda. Mazda gets to expand production in the US and Ford gets to better utilise it's existing capacity.

 

See, all is not peachy between Ford and Mazda. Since Ford sold some of it's shares for a paltry sum, and Ford is developing small vehicles and engines on it's own around the world, Mazda feels slighted.

 

Latest Rumor point to either the Mustang going to a retooled Wayne plant after the Focus is moved to MAP, or to Dearborn to be built along side the F-150 (yes, it can be done.) The Wayne rumor is good for that plant and for all of Ford's outlying stamping plants because they would have to pick up the work that was done at the AAI stamping plant. The Rouge rumor is good for the same reasons, but also because it would mean another assembly shift for Kansas City, and some significant investment in Dearborn Stamping.

 

Now, those are just the rumors. It doesn't matter if it goes to one of the two plants mentioned above, but the Mustang will be moved out of AAI if the Mazda rumor is true. If not, there will have to be a new vehicle moved into AAI to bolster production numbers. Ford is not going to keep an assembly plant on one shift for an extended period of time. It's too expensive to run a plant that way.

1: Let's not cast this as "Ford screwing Mazda over"

 

-- for starters, Ford didn't sell its Mazda shares on the open market; they could've gotten a higher price if they weren't essentially selling the shares back to the banking consortium they bought them from, probably with repurchase rights.

 

-- secondly, Mazda has not been excluded from ongoing projects as such, but participating in new projects means allowing Ford to have the final say: Under C1 & B2(?), product development was a collaborative affair with no unified chain of authority extending up to the CEO's office. The process used for C1 & B2 is not efficient.

 

2: Agree with Austin on Wayne. I don't think that plant is going to do anything except support MAP. Rouge makes more sense.

 

---

 

Also, I'm pretty sure Mazda wants to keep at least one United States based assembly facility for political reasons. Hence their unwillingness to swap out their stake in AAI for something outside the US.

Edited February 17, 2010 by RichardJensen

[blksn8k2]

I could see the arrangement at AAI staying the same (one shift) until the next gen Mustang goes into production at which time the Mustang moves to a different plant and Mazda takes complete control of AAI.

 

Just curious but would it make any sense for Ford to start building Fusions and/or Milans and MKZs at AAI? With sales increasing will the plant in Mexico be able to keep up with demand?

[Tico]

I am sure this is partly due to the 2011 new engines bumping the HP by almost 100 HP. Should make for some great deals on 2010s this spring if you can live with "only" 315 HP on the GT.

[Deanh]

I don't think it's going to matter. Mustang will get better engines but the price tag is going up as well which will only drive even more customers away from it.

dont agree, a 305 hp 6 cylinder is a hell of a lot cheaper than the outgoing V8 ( heavier and only a few horse more ) which was WAY more expensive...I actually see sales INCREASING....

[ausrutherford]

Mazda should move CX-9 production there.