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As Farley's tenure begins, Ford focuses on growth, improved execution, faster transformations


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1 minute ago, Flying68 said:

Guess it depends on if the recall is related to a manufacturing issue or if it was a design flaw.  If the camera was built to Ford's specs, then Ford pays, if it was a manufacturing process issue that Ford required (e.g. Ford required ABC and it was done correctly and the fix is to do XYZ instead), Ford pays, but if the supplier just messed up, they pay.

 

 

Yes

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Just read in Auto News article that Canadian supplier Magna International is the backup camera supplier! Magna Electronics, a unit of Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc., is the parts manufacturer listed on the NHTSA document.

They average 12 million cameras annually and recently built a $50 million dollar plant near Flint, Mixhigan!

Edited by bdegrand
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1 minute ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


In Michigan a Flex is a Van, legally speaking 

 

No sliders, it's crossover/wagon no matter how MI classifies it and definitely the replacement for the Freestyle/Taurus X, which it shared almost everything with mechanically.  

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34 minutes ago, ESP08 said:

 

 

Freestar was a minivan, the Flex definitely replaced the D3 Freestyle/Taurus X. 

 

There was talk of it getting sliders, but obviously that didn't happen, and you're correct, it was essentially a rebodied Freestyle/Taurus X.

 

7 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

I do too, but people keep quoting him so I see it anyway ?

 

Yeah, same - sometimes I start to go reply and then realize who's talking and just forget about it lol.

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7 hours ago, PREMiERdrum said:

 

The statuses of Bronco, F-Series, and CD6 specifically were an absolutely mess in May of 2017. 

Fields gets no credit for the ideas he started and then paused or canceled. Hackett saved them. 

The Intel you've been told is not accurate.

Bronco never deviated from its original timetable until Covid, that was set back in 2016.

Fields tenure included the peak and decline of cars in 2015 to 2016, he was also given

Intel by Ford that a recession would hit in 2017. The indecision with CD6 was caused

by that changing scenario, CD6 was proving to be an expensive platform to develop

and the viability of Mustang and RWD cars  was upper most after Continental's modest

sales. 

 

Hackett had the good sense to trust and empower  the people around him and allowing  them

to take charge of their projects an tell him where the problems were and what needed to change.

By the end, Fields was a "control freak" and his departure was inevitable, very few CEOs get fired

by Ford so you can bet whatever precipitated that was a non-negotiable to Bill Ford. My guess

would be Fields dismissive attitude towards BEVs as nothing more than compliance vehicles,

his refusal to entertain larger BEVs like F150 was the last straw.

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The focus on BEVs is definitely a Bill Ford directive, not as much Jim Hackett or Jim Farley. You’re probably right about what happened with Mark Fields. He seemed to want to take a business as usual, but with a more conservative approach which has never worked well at all in this industry. 

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10 hours ago, rmc523 said:

 

There was talk of it getting sliders, but obviously that didn't happen, and you're correct, it was essentially a rebodied Freestyle/Taurus X.

 

 

Yeah, same - sometimes I start to go reply and then realize who's talking and just forget about it lol.


WOW, talk about a missed opportunity. Sliders on the Flex would have been fantastic. I can imagine families would have really loved and appreciated that feature.

 

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On 10/1/2020 at 7:58 AM, twintornados said:

Trucks! Bring on the heavy trucks!!

 

Completely unnecessary!  With that suite of software services creating brand loyalty and recurring streams of substantial revenue fleets will be so mesmerized Ford won't have to spend a dime on actual commercial product.  At least that's what they think right now...... 

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4 hours ago, probowler said:


WOW, talk about a missed opportunity. Sliders on the Flex would have been fantastic. I can imagine families would have really loved and appreciated that feature.

 

My recollection from that time is that the 'behind the scenes' explanation for no sliders was that Ford decided to take the budget for sliders and apply it to the interior (with an inference that they didn't want sliders on the product for fear of association with the dreaded minivan).

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8 hours ago, probowler said:


WOW, talk about a missed opportunity. Sliders on the Flex would have been fantastic. I can imagine families would have really loved and appreciated that feature.

 

 

At the time, the minivan market was still substantially led by Mopar. Competitors had never taken a big share from them, and Ford's examples always were lacking. Aerostar was plagued by trans issues, and helpless in inclement weather in the cheaper RWD versions. Service ability was poor due to the super tight engine bay. Early Windstar had headgasket, front cover and trans issues. Later Windstar kept the trans and front cover issues and still lacked the dual sliders found in competitors. Freestar was pricy, bland, tinny, felt cheap and didn't offer any real reason over the competition. So, like Harley Lover said, best to not associate with those.  

Flex is fairly upscale and sliders present *huge* issues with NVH, not to mention power sliders are problematic in all makes.  

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9 hours ago, probowler said:


WOW, talk about a missed opportunity. Sliders on the Flex would have been fantastic. I can imagine families would have really loved and appreciated that feature.

 

 

I thought I had remembered the Fairlane concept that gave us Flex had sliders....a quick search jogged my memory....and how!

image.thumb.png.8b566131c97bfab19ef662d86d2ce15b.png

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On 10/2/2020 at 10:48 AM, Flying68 said:

Guess it depends on if the recall is related to a manufacturing issue or if it was a design flaw.  If the camera was built to Ford's specs, then Ford pays, if it was a manufacturing process issue that Ford required (e.g. Ford required ABC and it was done correctly and the fix is to do XYZ instead), Ford pays, but if the supplier just messed up, they pay.

How about that-a logical explanation.?.  If Ford truly pays for ALL supplier screw ups what is the incentive for a supplier to deliver a good product????

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12 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

 

Completely unnecessary!  With that suite of software services creating brand loyalty and recurring streams of substantial revenue fleets will be so mesmerized Ford won't have to spend a dime on actual commercial product.  At least that's what they think right now...... 

Sarcasm intended right?? If so well said....I think to TT's point, as I've said before, what is Farley's definition of "commercial vehicles".  My fear is a "5 tonne" is the max of that definition.

 

I'm not suggesting Ford should be going after all facets of class 8, but for sure commercial should include class 6,7 and areas within 8. It doesn't take too much to cover uses in class 8 with a lot of components that are suited for 6 and 7.  And increased rail utilization will increase as bridge constraints prohibiting double stack containers get reduced making shorter hauls from the intermodal yards a higher percentage of class 8 traffic- and you don't need a 600 HP double bunk "Hi Rise"  to do that.

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9 hours ago, Harley Lover said:

 

My recollection from that time is that the 'behind the scenes' explanation for no sliders was that Ford decided to take the budget for sliders and apply it to the interior (with an inference that they didn't want sliders on the product for fear of association with the dreaded minivan).

 

Well, the interior was easily hands down the best interior Ford had at the time, so that swap paid off.  I also doubt I'd have gotten one with sliders lol.

 

3 hours ago, twintornados said:

 

I thought I had remembered the Fairlane concept that gave us Flex had sliders....a quick search jogged my memory....and how!

image.thumb.png.8b566131c97bfab19ef662d86d2ce15b.png

 

"coach" doors like that would've been cool.

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6 hours ago, ice-capades said:

GM, Ford need electric-car batteries, but take different paths to get them

 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/gm-ford-need-electric-car-batteries-but-take-different-paths-to-get-them

 

This.  Ford is going to rely on vendors to supply batteries, VW is doing it in-house with partners.  Most significant thing I have heard in months.  

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