DearbornDerek Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 You're right; trim and final was shared (but I still can't remember Mark/'bird which I think had a separate line?). The trim and final line can be very flexible; it has more labor and less automation, and driveline configuration and body construction isn't really relevant at that point. You just need to make sure that the parts are stacked up in sequence to the build. That's why Fusion and Mustang can share a trim and final at FRAP even thought they are quite different animals. You can, however, have "trapped labor" in situations where the vehicles coming down line have different levels of content and it's more difficult to keep the workload balanced from station to station. Let me jump in on this since I started at Wixom... Each car had its own body area in the body shop. They all went to paint on one line. After paint the line was split. LS, Towncar and Continental went down to trim and traveled all the way to final on the same line. The T-bird line stayed upstairs for its own trim and then came down to its own chassis/final line which was in the "room" next to the main final line (big room). The LS/Continental had its subframe/engine installed at the begining of chassis 3 and the Towncar body was decked with its frame between chassis 4 and final line. The frame line went between trim and chassis. That was one hell of a plant...still miss it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faultyscarab Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Every cop I've spoke to has complained about the tightness of the current Taurus' interior. This should definitely be great news for future cop car orders!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvrsvt Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Every cop I've spoke to has complained about the tightness of the current Taurus' interior. This should definitely be great news for future cop car orders!! Well the Fusion isn't all that much better...they are just used the bench seat on the CVPI. For every day driving its fine, but I could understand it getting tight with a utility belt etc on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
630land Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Someone upthread stated that current Explorer was released in CY 2010, for MY '11. However, while this was the plan, the truck was delayed to winter 2011. Also, I agree that the days of 4-5 year platform cycles went out with dollar a gallon gas and 'grunge'. Car & Driver used to call any design "Dated" in its 3rd year, but it is too expensive to do 'ground up' generations every 4 years as Honda used to. Some 'car guys' still cling to this dream, and overuse "dated". ANyway, the current Explorer is a hit, and is not 'dated'. And, Ford sure got the R&D paid off, after some claimed D4 was a flop a few years ago. Regarding Taurus interior room, I agree. There was such an outcry about how "bland" the original Five Hundred looked, that the later D4 was "overstyled" to stand out. Thus, it wasn't designed at first to be a police car. Hopefully, the next generation will have better interior space? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 (edited) In the last Taurus make over, much was made of the "cockpit" styling in the big car, I found it interesting that Ford chose to make the dash, center console and side trims wrap around the driver, almost cocooning the occupant - you'd normally expect a Large car to do the opposite and that's probably the intel gathered for.developing the next Taurus. No doubt, Ford will be bench marking interior dimensions of the new CD4 Taurus against Ford's other large car, Falcon which remains an enigma, a vehicle that had the potential to offer so much as a CV replacement yet sadly, surpassed by market preferences and lack of development funding. One can only hope that lessons learned in laking Falcon such a space efficient roomy car will be used in the next Taurus. Large cars no longer sell in the volumes they once did, but there's still a market for a large car with good design and character that could be sold globally, meeting the needs and expectations of buyers in other countries. The scales of economy that can be achieved by using a shared platform make this a completely viable proposition. Edited November 22, 2013 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.