Too Little Too Late...? Re: Ford ( from Automotive Digest.)just seeing if anybody's home..
Ford Positioned to Quickly Convert from Trucks to Cars Situation Ford to invest $75M to retool Michigan Truck plant; produce new small cars from Europe One of 3 N American truck and SUV factories to convert to car production Ford will convert truck and SUV plants in Mexico and Kentucky to car production Decade ago, Michigan Truck was a money machine; today it's in middle of 11-week shutdown Next spring, Ford will move production of Expedition and Navigator to Kentucky Truck Plant Employees to be transferred next door to Wayne Assembly; add 3rd shift to produce Focus
Significance Part of Ford's effort to respond to one of most dramatic shifts in consumer demand Moves part of radical retooling strategy Ford announced in July If successful, make Ford one of most versatile car manufacturers on continent Ford invested some $300M at Michigan Truck 3-years ago to build tooling system Allows plant to produce several different models on same assembly line Most of same tools, 80%, can be used to produce more fuel-efficient cars/crossovers Read Quotes