The Blue Oval

The Fiesta

FORD SAYS IT CAN MAKE IT ON ITS OWN, according to Bill Vlasic's article in the International Herald Tribune. Dearborn is launching a new F-150, and hiring 1,000 new workers.

If you don't follow the automotive world, the perpetual bad news from Detroit might give one the idea that the North American domestic manufacturers are toast. That may or may not be the case with GM and Chrysler, but Ford intends to be a survivor, thanks to some brave decisions made five years ago by Bill Ford, and some good luck.

Ford is unusual, because it's big, world-wide, over a hundred years old, and has family-controlled voting shares that make the company impervious to outsider takeovers, unlike, say, VW, which got swallowed by Porsche (another family-held outfit). Anyway, back in 2003 or so Bill Ford saw that the current CEO, Jacques Nasser, wasn't working out, and fired him, taking the reins of power.

Job 1 for Bill was to stabilize supplier relations, as the first step to quality, following the disastrous launch of the Focus, in 2000. Job 2 was to develop product for the sedan market, which Ford had neglected. For mid-size, the Mazda 6 platform was chosen as the starting point for the Fusion, and for full-size, the Volvo 80 platform was the starting point.

Job 3 is an on-going process, the co-ordination of Ford product world-wide. Divesting Jaguar/Land Rover and Aston Martin was an essential part of this. Rumors abound, but Volvo is not for sale, as it is tightly integrated into the Ford platform/powertrain mix.

Anyway, Bill Ford started these changes, including massive buy-outs of union retirement packages and massive write-offs as assembly plants were closed, then, in a moment of brilliance, resigned, and appointed Alan Mulally, formerly VP of commercial aircraft at Boeing (and Lexus 470 owner), to run the company. An outsider was crucial to the re-birth of Ford, as a century of corporate culture had to be overhauled. To his credit, the Mull has acquired a kernel of effective senior managers like Mark Fields and Jim Farley (from Toyota marketing), and the products of this new structure are starting to appear over the next 12 months.

Why should you care? Well, Peter de Lorenzo, over at AutoExtremist, thinks you should. AE is a great site for following what's happening in the car world. Pete's fifty-something, been in the automotive advertising world for a long time, seen 'em come, seen 'em go. While you're there, check out Dr. Bud's column, "Road Kill", a long-running saga of a man coming to terms with life its own self, with the help of an occasional margarita, or two.

Free-market theorizing aside, we have long since passed the point of no return in this matter. If this country allows one of its key manufacturing pillars to slip into insolvency, it would set-off a dark chain of events that would reach into every sector of the economy and would not only devastate the states where Detroit has its manufacturing and parts facilities, but it would affect every state of the union too.

There are still some out there who don't believe this "Detroit thing" will have anything to do with their lives or livelihoods, of course. It's hard for some people to understand that because Detroit and Michigan ("The Flyover State") are viewed as relics from an ancient country no one remembers anymore, even though 1 in 14 jobs in the U.S. are still either directly or indirectly dependent on the domestic automobile industry. I really don't know how else I could possibly present those figures in order to get through to people out there that they should care deeply about what's going on in Detroit and Washington right now, because it's real and it will affect you, no matter where you are, or how flush your circumstances are.

So, what's up? For Ford North America, the next 12 months brings the re-done Fusion/Milan/MKZ, re-done Mustang, Fiesta B-size mini, the Transit Connect mini-van, re-done Taurus, along with turbo-charging and Getrag twin-clutch transmissions. Farther out in the product cycle, MY (model year) 2K11 brings a new Focus, plus other product like a new small pickup and a smaller-than-Escape 4x4, a smaller, lighter replacement for the Explorer SUV and a GRWD platform (Global Rear Wheel Drive) that may be the common platform for the next Oz Falcon, the NA Mustang and perhaps a Lincoln, for around 2K13-14. It ain't over til it's over.

Transit Connect — 4 cylinders