Ford is now a actual global car company. Ford North America and the rest of the Ford organization has been streamlined into a single planning and development organization, effectively eliminating Ford North America and the need for redundant white collar workers (which Ford recently let go).

From a product development standpoint, Ford of North America is no longer in existance.

As part of that reorganization, Ford will have single car models avalable around the world. In short, it takes Ford's plans to convert factories here to produce Fords engineered in Europe as well as ford's RWD program which will spawn not only the next Mustang, but Ford Australia's large cars as well as panther's replacements and make it a permanent single organization at Ford that will develop cars for global use.

This will allow Ford to respond rapidly to any future changes in the automotive market by simply expanding production of a model made in one part of the world to another, and greatly saves on resources.

Jim Farley (who came from Toyota and is credited with creating their Scion brand) holds the title of sales and marketing chief at Ford. He brought in another former Toyota person to take over his position in sales and marketing, Ken Czubay (who came from Lexus!). Jim Farley will now be working with Derrick Kuzak Ford's Global Product Development VP on Ford new vehicle assult. Farley's job will essentially be making Ford's new global products fit with US buyers. Czubay's job will essentially be making sure they're marketed successfully.

Doug Szopo is executive director of global product planning and strategy. His job is pretty much how it sounds.

J Mays, formerly VP of design, now has the addional title of "Chief Creative Officer". He's responsible for directing the creation of Ford's design language. Though the Ford Five Hundred was his first design creation at Ford, he's also responsible for the new Ford Mondeo and it's new "Kinetic" design language. J Mays has worked out of London for some time (and if you saw him today, you wouldn't recognize him), and still visits Ford NA roughly 5 days per month.


The first of these Euro Fords will be the Fiesta which will begin production in about a year.

Ford will have what will amount to a new product onslaught starting within the next 6 months.

Mustang and a revised Fusion will lead the way. A redesigned Taurus will quickly follow, including a modern version of the Taurus SVO (with a different designation) will appear by the 2010 model year with a 340 horse twin turbo, direct injection engine. This engine will also appear on the MKS and the MKX. A new Mustang V8 is also on the books in short order. The forementioned Ford Fiesta, and at least 3 other Ford of Europe based vehicles will be in showrooms around the same time, or shortly afterwards.

Lincoln is scheduled to recieve a all new crossover based on the Ford Flex architecture, but with an entirely different body and interior. Ford is reportedly halfway done with the Crown Vic replacement, due in 2011. Ford is also fast-tracking a lighter version of the Ford F series and is finalizing plans to replace the Ranger, which till recently Ford had no plans to replace.

Ford insiders say that Ford is skipping an entire cycle on product development where possible, and moving ahead plans everywhere else. The upcoming redesigned Ford Mustang was originally planned for 2011, but was moved ahead to coincide with the introduction of the new Camaro.

Those I've talked to say that Ford's lineup in 24 months will look nothing like the current lineup you see today.

Ford seemingly has turned the corner.

 

Thank god!

 

The twin turbo AWD cars they are coming out with could potentially be the first ford car I'd consider in decades.
They sound better then the current mustang actually.
Future one who knows.

 

Sounds like GM could take some pointers from Ford with the current situation and economy.

 

Great news. Ford is going to have a very competitive line up of cars in the next 2 years.

 

Been in meetings all day... a bit late to this thread.

I know a company that is bidding on $30-million/year worth of new parts for one single Ford "compact" vehicle on an accelerated development schedule.
"And that's all I got to say 'bout that."

Good thing Guy is posting "known" information above. It's true, and it's good IMO.
There is indeed a lot coming, and I am thinking most all of it looks real good for the timing.

 

Hmmmmm..... guess '09 will be the last of the SRA Mustangs, think I'll hold onto my S-197 rather than trade it in when its time to get a new one for the sentimental value.

 

There's quite a few tidbits I'm holding back out of respect, but I'd say unless the economy absolutely collaspes, Ford is pretty much out of the woods.

Keep in mind, I was writing Ford's obituary earlier this year, and for many years I've been blasting Ford for some of the most assinine moves in automotive history.

That should put my positive news on Ford into perspective.

 

I am interested to see how this will work out in the long term.

Different markets require different cars. I am not sure in how many markets you can find a Camry and Avalon. I know that the Accord made in the US is for the US, Euro gets a different smaller model (old TSX was a Euro Accord).

I see US tastes in vehicles shifting and it will be interesting to see what is going to happen. US may only want Euro cars in a few years.

 

I think the thing that Ford is hedging it's bets on is that it may sell fewer cars total but the development savings will be huge. Instead of developing 3-4 different cars and/or platforms they will develop 1.

 

I know this is a GM site but damn..these are our domestic brothers!

GO FORD!!!

 

We'll see if Ford manages to turn this into meaningful change. GM's shift to a worldwide engineering structure seems to be paying some dividends in product development, but in the grand scheme of things, it's just a bit like reshuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Don't get me wrong - this is all good news, but it's not what will ultimately decide whether Ford lives or dies in the next two years. Ford management will still act like it'll yield immediate results, though.

Considering the Flex's stunning sales (~2,000 units last month) and the woeful sales of crossovers in general, this does not strike me as the best use of development dollars.

 

A few things on the Flex. It is a brand new nameplate and vehicle that came out at the absolute worst time imaginable. Fords marketing onslaught for the Flex starts in Sept, as there has been very poor product mix........... if any at all............ on many lots (my local dealership got their first Flex in last week).

Look at Ford other recent releases of new nameplates. They start out slow, and build momentum. This should be no different. When people actually start spending again, this will be a good alternative to SUV's, and gets much better mileage than they do. Plus, they look cool (and cool sells). There is alot of traffic with people looking at what is out there.............. so sales should follow.

The MKT looks nothing like the Flex, inside or out. Short of those of us on enthusiast sites, nobody will ever know that they are platform mates.

 

You would think this would already be happening. GM does this a lot. Why do you think we have the G6/Malibu/Aura/Opel versions/Holden versions etc etc?

They do it with the delta platform as well (cobalt, astra, hhr, and some other euro cars). Pretty sure they do this with the Aveo and other cars we don't know about. Sounds like there are going to be fewer differences in these cars from Europe to the US to Asia to Canada etc. I am sure Lincolns will be different, but I guess the Focus will be the same everywhere. I am just not sure how people will accept it in different markets.

 

I think the premise is to sell it as a executive car, aka a replacement for the Town Car.