All those of you who are wishing Ford to FOAD, thanks loads! Ford is the only reason that Dearborn is not ruled by Sharia.
Posted on 01/07/2007 7:50:16 AM PST by Flavius
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- The challenge from Ford Motor Co.'s top brass was daunting: Take an old car and a bland one and make them better. Don't change their basic frames and footprints, but make them look and feel new. And by the way, the future of the company is at stake, because if they don't sell, the automaker could run out of money.
hat's what Ford designers and engineers faced when they set out to update the aging Focus small car and the slow-selling Five Hundred full-sized sedan.
The company will unveil new versions of both models this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. A lot is riding on them when they hit the showrooms later this year as 2008 models, especially if consumers continue to shift from trucks and sport utility vehicles to cars.
"Certainly there's pressure," Lon Zaback, chief designer of the Focus, said recently as he walked around the car explaining its new features. "I don't feel any anxiety about it at all because I think we've done a terrific job."
Ford has mortgaged its assets to borrow up to $23.4 billion to fund a massive restructuring plan and cover billions in losses expected until 2009. The company, which lost $7 billion in the first nine months of last year, expects to burn up $17 billion in cash during the next two years.
Analysts say the company desperately needs sales to raise cash if it hopes to survive.
The compact Focus, first introduced in 1999, now looks old and clunky. The Five Hundred generally is perceived as good but underpowered and pedestrian.
First the company did market research to figure out what needed to change.
With the Focus, Zaback and the redesign team knew they would be limited by the car's current architecture in their efforts to modernize the company's entry in the small car market.
They raised the sheet metal on the sides, shrinking the window size to give it a sloping, sportier look, with horizontal creases in the sheet metal. There's more chrome on the grille, mimicking Ford's successful Fusion mid-sized car, and the hood became more rounded.
"The car appears to be a little bit shorter and have shorter overhangs. It has a much more sporty appearance because of some of the proportional things we did with it," Zaback said.
The interior is simple but modern with nicer seats, lighted cupholders and more expensive materials including a brushed aluminum look for the dashboard and blue instrument lighting.
The new Focus also is among the models to get the optional Ford-Microsoft "Sync" system that integrates cell phones and personal music players into the car's electronics, something Ford hopes will appeal to younger buyers.
"There's a night-and-day difference between today's Focus and the new one. We really improved it," said Greg Burgess, the vehicle development manager.
While the designers were at work, engineers were busy going over all the existing car's parts, refining the two-liter four-cylinder engine, steering and suspension. Although horsepower figures weren't released, Ford said they made the car more powerful while reducing its weight by about 100 pounds. It will be at least as fuel efficient as the current model, which gets 37 miles per gallon on the highway, said Marcio Alfonso, the chief engineer.
The Five Hundred got a less-radical redesign with changes in the front grille and rear lights and fenders to make it look more sporty and more like the Fusion.
The body didn't change much, but the car gets a modernized interior and a new 3.5-liter V6 engine with 60 more horsepower and a six-speed automatic transmission. It should be as fuel efficient and much quieter than the old one even though its zero-to-60 acceleration time is 1.5 seconds faster, Ford said. Market research showed that buyers thought the old versions were underpowered, Ford said.
It also will get optional electronic stability control, something that should get it back on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's list of safest cars, said Killol Bhuta, the car's marketing manager.
"It was always good. We just made it better," Bhuta said.
The Five Hundred, built on Volvo architecture, sold moderately well in 2005, its first full year on the market, but sales nose-dived last year from almost 108,000 to about 84,000, something Ford hopes the redesign will reverse. Focus also saw its sales drop last year to just over 177,000, down more than 100,000 from a peak of around 286,000 in 2000.
Ford said it hasn't set prices on either the Five Hundred, which hits showrooms in the summer, or the Focus, which comes in the fall.
Several analysts who have seen the new Fords say the changes are good steps but may not be enough to fend off sharper, newer designs from the competition.
Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for the auto consulting company IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, said the new Focus, for instance, still doesn't look as modern as Honda's Civic, which he considers to be the gold standard for small cars.
"It's a step forward, but it's not a dramatic leap," he said. "Unfortunately the competition is really moving forward in that segment."
He and Rebecca Lindland, an auto analyst at Global Insight, an economic research and consulting company, said Ford may not have had the cash to redo the Focus completely, a charge that Ford denies.
Merkle said Ford could have brought the superior European Focus to America instead of remaking the U.S. version.
"Ford does a lot of things that sometimes I just scratch my head over," he said.
Lindland likes the new Focus but said the Five Hundred still is too conservative to set it apart from competitors.
"In order to attract people into a showroom, you need to have something that's going to turn people's heads," she said. "It's not cutting edge at all."
The people working on the new cars, though, think otherwise.
"Our mind-set hasn't changed regardless of what our financial position is," said Beth Donovan, Ford's small car marketing manager. "We want to win."
On the Net: http://www.ford.com
Ford better get busy and radically redesign it's F150. It took them till 2004 to update their truck that was still stuck in the early 90's. If they don't do it soon they will lose even more market share to GM and Toyota.
I'd be a lot more interested in buying American if the UAW was less interested in being un-American.
(Non-Jerry) Ford bump.
Buying them second hand doesn't put money in the union's hands (as long as the seller has paid it off).
I work on a lot of cars, trucks, tractors, motorcycles, etc., and I'm not union!
Also, outside of warranty work, NONE of my vehicles have EVER been to a dealer for service.
Unfortunately for dealers, my sons and stepsons have followed in daddy's footsteps, and one works at a NAPA store. All 5 of them do their own oil changes and tuneups, all but one has changed an engine/transmission, or helped me do the same.
The BIGGEST problem with that is usually the EPA or the NHTSA, citing some obscure rule or law that because such and such a test wasn't done, the car can't be sold here (Never mind the fact it is probably a safer and cleaner running design that what is sold domestically)
That is also another reason for higher cost for vehicles, because manufacturers have to make several different versions of a car for several different markets, each subject to whatever "ruling authority's" whims concerning emissions and safety...
Very true!
My Ford truck has a Japanese diesel engine (with an American fuel injection pump and German injectors), a German transmission, both Japanese and German electronics, and American axles, all put together on a Virginian assembly line....
My son has a Chevy Cavalier with a Canadian engine, and more Japanese electronics than Panasonic!
I would "Buy American", but HOW?
(Answer: Honda or Toyota...)
The main problem here is that Ford has not had "a better idea" in 40 years.
-----
All that's needed is much more chrome and I think some dramatic fins and a continental kit and an opera window would really improve their sales. List as standard equipment, hi fi radio, curb feelers and mud flaps.
Hey. Everybody's entitled to a bad day. Ford had one, and you were the recipient of it. Cheer up, you aren't dead.... yet. Give Ford another crack at it.
The same thing that the unions are doing or have done to the public schools!
I applaud your mechanical abilities. I was not blessed with these but my brother in law is probably the best mechanic this side of the state so I don't have to learn.
Loved your Bio page! I believe we are much alike other than mechanical ability.
I almost died thanks to the poor quality and mechanics of Ford. I lost thousands of dollars due to the depreciation of the Ford I bought. Ford never even apologized and never made things right.
My grandparents and parents had always bought Ford. I will never purchase another Ford. I will discourage anyone I know from purchasing a Ford.
Perhaps you might give a corporation who almost killed you due their calculated negligence a second chance, I will not. My life is too valuable.
Ford screwed me for thousands of dollars, time in a hospital, and the pain of enduring 18 months of physical therapy that I will never be able to recover.
SCREW FORD! I did not own a Pinto – but you can ask those families that had loved ones die because of Ford. Why don’t you ask them how they feel about their loved one’s they killed in a Pinto thanks to Ford?
I sincerely hope Ford goes bankrupt and out of business.
Perhaps one day you will enjoy the same type of accident I endured thanks to Ford.
Your tagline reminds me of a line in a song: "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans."
What Ford truck do you have that has a Japanese diesel engine?
All those of you who are wishing Ford to FOAD, thanks loads! Ford is the only reason that Dearborn is not ruled by Sharia.
You have an '83-86 Ford Ranger with either the 2.2 l Mazda or 2.3 l Mitsubishi diesel.
Am I right? There can't be a lot of those around.
The Navistar/International diesel was made in Japan
That was another one, I had forgot about the Mitsu turbodiesel
The Duramax, on the other hand, does have some connection to Japan, despite being manufactured in Ohio, since DMAX was originally a joint venture between GM and Isuzu (GM is now the controlling partner).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.