Filed under: Manufacturing/Plants, MPG, Ford
Big shift: Ford plant produced last truck today, will start making small cars in 2010
It's no secret that Ford is shifting production capability of its plants from large vehicles to smaller, more sensible rides. Workers at the Michigan Truck Plant, long the birthplace of the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs, produced their last vehicle of the behemoth variety today at 1:30 in the afternoon. The plant will now be shut down and retooled - at a cost of $75 million - to build small, fuel-efficient C-Cars (think Ford Focus) starting in 2010.Pardon the possible pun, but this is a big shift. Since opening over 50 years ago, the plant has built the iconic F-Series trucks and the Ford Bronco. The smaller cars coming in two years aren't as obviously iconic, but could be a strong rebranding contender if Ford wants to turn the oval green. Ford will still make large vehicles at its Kentucky plant.
Gallery: Detroit 2008: Ford F-150 reveal
[Source: Ford]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rob 6:17PM (11/26/2008)
It's the end of the world as we know it...
...and I feel fine.
Arguably this does more for the long-term job security of the plant's workers than any government bailout will. Well, provided Ford commits to producing class-leading vehicles and refreshing them often. And it sounds like that is exactly their plan. I wish them well.
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noz 7:16PM (11/26/2008)
It only too $75 Mill to do this and they've been waiting this long to do it?
What does that tell people here who actually care to use their brains? It was greed and profit that has stopped these aholes from doing what they should have done years ago.
F em....if they go out of business...all the better. They don't deserve it. And THANK GOD finally these POS trucks are not being made anymore.
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summazooma 9:53PM (11/26/2008)
noz,
I'm pretty sure that you're the guy that my republican friends in the industry think of when they look at my Obama sticker on my Civic... and, I'm less inclined to agree with you than I am to think that I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving hunting deer (and, no, I'm not hunting...)
Do you feel the same way about Citi Financial or AIG or Delta Airlines? Because if you have this much venom for a company like Ford that has actually done something to address environmental issues while operating at a financial disadvantage, then I shudder what you think of REAL profiteers over conscience.
It's true that Ford has built a lot of trucks but, frankly, they have been building trucks for decades longer than Toyota was even in the U.S. market and, for most of that history, they were work trucks; If you have venom, save it for the companies that use their credits in importing vehicles to this market to only recently develop and build the kinds of big trucks that only add to the problem. You know, the real "johnny come lately" profiteers... Then, take a look at the investments that Ford (and GM, for that matter) have made in green manufacturing (the Rouge Plant is an ideal place to start, in fact) and hybrid technologies. I'll put the latest Ford hybrid up against the current Toyota or Nissan or Honda mid size hybrids any day.
Look,... I'm not a truck enthusiast; I really do drive a small car. However, I also totally understand why, when the market came to them, companies like Toyota decide that they'll build more trucks (which is exactly where the net gain in truck volumes, by the way, came from over the past 5 years, not from the Fords & GMs of the world)... It's not fair to chastise Toyota for doing what it felt it had to do, especially since that's where the profit was to continue to add to it's crazy-big bank account... which is where the comparison to Ford & GM ends. See, Toyota doesn't need their Texas truck plant building Tundras to make ends meet, whereas the only way Ford can do anything like a Fusion Hybrid is if they sell a truck. The truck is their cash machine... In a strange way, if you ever find yourself thinking you'd like a Vue or Escape Hybrid... or a Fusion Hybrid (which sounds like it may actually be a very good alternative to a Camry or Altima HEV), you might want to thank the F-series owners for overpaying as much as they did for such a large number of V8-powered Ox-carts over the years. Without that, I don't think Ford would exist...
And, while you're at it, take another aim with your venom at the idiots who both decided that the financial markets were a Vegas roulette table (and probably thought it'd be a grand idea to dump the Social Security treasure chest into the game, as well, since, well,... it would have made them more money in the short term, since,... well,... the long term is the long term because it's after they cash out of the market, anyway...) and that they "deserve" 700 billion because they're "indispensible" to the economy. While you're at it, aim your green stream at Cerberus, since it's pretty clear that, not only are they just the latest to try to take advantage of the poor old girl, Chrysler, while she still has something to put out, but have taken steps to force GM to take Chrysler off their hands for them, through their control of GMAC. Just another brand of the slimeball Geckos in American business (because "Greed is good...").
I'm not sure I'd ever have thought I'd say this but, if this is what capitalism has really turned into, then we should all be extremely ashamed of the role any of us have played in turning Marx into a prophet. I'm not Communist but, hell, we're allowing Capitalism to turn into the kind of bourgeois hell for the common man that drove early 20th century Russians to serve up their Czar.... And, yes, I've voted Republican before because I did so during double digit inflation, deficit spending and just crap national ju-ju; Like anything else, I figure that moderation is hard to maintain but, in moderation, either side can work.
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the vegas style guy 12:56AM (11/27/2008)
OH MY.
WHO'S "MAD AS HELL AND NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!"?
ANASTASIA HIDE THE JEWELS I FEEL A REVOLUTION ACOMIN'!
MAN, THAT WAS A TOUCH SCARY, BUT, EXACTLY.
WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES, JUST REMEMBER I WAS ON YOUR SIDE!
summazooma 12:11PM (11/27/2008)
I like the response, Vegas Guy... I'm not really generally as "Mad as hell" as I sounded, but, gotta say, that previous post "opened the floodgates", as it were.
I'm hoping for some turn of direction with the new year... and I hope we get to see the products that Ford & GM have planned, sooner rather than later. I know too many good people at both and, the idea that the companies need to be punished, as a general rule, is wrong, if only because the conditions aren't entirely of their own doing (check the total drop in volumes for the industry as exhibit 1).
Even those conditions that are of their own doing, don't merit punitive sentiments, since those that made the decisions (management) are least likely to feel the pain, whereas the workers (white collar as well as blue collar, including the Joe the Plumbers of the industry) will be the ones to really feel the pain... Does anybody, either side of the aisle, really want that?
Anyway... I do think our system needs checks to keep from imploding (as any system does)... but I'll take it over any other.
Happy Thanksgiving, dudes!
texmln 8:32PM (11/27/2008)
Noz,
Next time you need something delivered, moved, etc. that won't fit in your Smart Car please give me a call. I'll be happy to come over in my TOYOTA Tundra and haul each load for only $1,000 each. Luckily, my Toyota is bigger, taller, wider, and faster than Ford, GM, and Dodge trucks. Plus, it has the added advantage of getting worse mileage than my Chevy Suburban. Don't worry though, Toyota is a 'green' company so it's OK.
I think you'll find that price to be a real bargain since there won't be any more "POS trucks" being made to help bring you all the things you need to live a comfortable life.
My guess is that you produce nothing for living. You sell something somebody else made, you push paper - or perhaps even the mother of all dead weight losses - you work for the federal, state, or local government in some fasion.
Come on down to the farm and see how far you get in your 'lectric car or your hybrid Prius. Your type starves and dies when forced to provide the basics of life for yourself. Those people who currently provide them for you overwhelmingly use "POS trucks" to get the job done.
The day will come, sooner than you think, when the people who provide the basics have you buy the nuts. I hope they charge you double just for being a dickhead. Don't stop by my place, we don't serve nancy-boys.
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