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Ford to shift Focus production to China in 2019


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Just go ahead and buy an Edge. You'll get there sooner or later. Too much kid crap to haul around in a sedan or even a small hatchback.

MKC. If we're spending fuzzy's money, let's do it right. ;)

 

Years ago, I had my brother's three eldest girls in the back seat of my LS. They were, IIRC, 5, 3, and 1, with two forward-facing seats in the outer positions and one rearward-facing seat in the middle. It worked for running around Denton, but I wouldn't want to do much more (or go very far) like that.

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Agree. If we didn't have 3, we'd probably have an Edge. It's the perfect size, but sitting 3 across is a bit small for kiddos and car seats. We may explore (no pun intended) an Edge next since the kids are all out of boosters.

 

 

Yeah, figured as much based on your earlier comments. It is pretty big, but it's super for kids and a great highway cruiser.

 

 

We love ours. Nearly 9 years and 111k in.

 

I'm winning! I'll have had mine 9 years in November, and have 114K on it. :P

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A lot of what's been learned with escort and competitors like Corrola and Cruze is being baked into the next gen Focus.

That the car comes from an extremely low cost production centre is an added bonus to the mix and will give Ford more

room to price accordingly.without fear of insufficient profit.

 

I would sooner see $1 Billion in up fromt production savings being spent on more US product and

being lost in the clatter of keeping Focus American made to a buying segment that's price.sensitive.

That's still a problem. In the 70s-00s the US car makers couldn't make little to no money on efficient cars. Now Detroit have their books cleaned in one way or another Ford IMO still have no real reason to go to China for a mainstream model especially with black-ink books and efficient, profitable truck/suv/cuvs

 

Someone mentioned in here M. Feilds coulda got fired because he felt the same way but greedy boardmembers felt they needed top dollar for everything made without considering long term reputation damage.

Edited by Fgts
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That's still a problem. In the 70s-00s the US car makers couldn't make little to no money on efficient cars. Now Detroit have their books cleaned in one way or another Ford IMO still have no real reason to go to China for a mainstream model especially with black-ink books and efficient, profitable truck/suv/cuvs

 

Someone mentioned in here M. Feilds coulda got fired because he felt the same way but greedy boardmembers felt they needed top dollar for everything made without considering long term reputation damage.

 

They already said it actually costs more to import them from China, so it's not so much about profitability as it is about factory capacity.

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They already said it actually costs more to import them from China, so it's not so much about profitability as it is about factory capacity.

 

On a whole, I think the picture that emerges out of this is that Fields was fired basically because he wanted to invest $1 billion in Saint Luis Potosi to build Focus.

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On a whole, I think the picture that emerges out of this is that Fields was fired basically because he wanted to invest $1 billion in Saint Luis Potosi to build Focus.

 

Or was it because he cancelled the plans to build that plant?

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On a whole, I think the picture that emerges out of this is that Fields was fired basically because he wanted to invest $1 billion in Saint Luis Potosi to build Focus.

Pretty much..the capacity issue as reason for china builds is pure bs...there is no dime to be made building that car at map and i still think mexico is retooled for small suv production...the entire capacity issue is ford does not want to expand production at uaw plants..ford can now shut down lousville and move it to map...

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MKC. If we're spending fuzzy's money, let's do it right. ;)

 

Years ago, I had my brother's three eldest girls in the back seat of my LS. They were, IIRC, 5, 3, and 1, with two forward-facing seats in the outer positions and one rearward-facing seat in the middle. It worked for running around Denton, but I wouldn't want to do much more (or go very far) like that.

No

Neither of us are luxury car types.

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Or was it because he cancelled the plans to build that plant?

 

Fields committed to the plant in Sep 2016.

 

Ford reversed the decision in Jan 2017.

 

When something like that happens this fast, it usually means the original decision wasn't fully supported and large enough faction of people got to enough board members to force a new evaluation.

 

And we have in hindsight a 3rd data point: Fields was fired in May 2017.

 

So in retrospect, his job was probably already lost in Jan 2017. Remember the word of the street was that Fields didn't move fast enough on the EV front and let other company stole the lead. Investing in a small car assembly plant instead of fast tracking the EV development was probably seen as a bad decision. And so it was reversed almost immediately. If he was fired for cancelling the plant, then the correction would be to expand capacity again in Mexico. But Ford didn't do that.

 

This is my opinion. I'm not stating it as fact.

Edited by bzcat
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Pretty much..the capacity issue as reason for china builds is pure bs...there is no dime to be made building that car at map and i still think mexico is retooled for small suv production...the entire capacity issue is ford does not want to expand production at uaw plants..ford can now shut down lousville and move it to map...

 

How/why would they shut down Louisville......the only plant making Escape/MKC??

 

To move them to a plant that already has other products slated for it?

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the correction would be to expand capacity again in Mexico. But Ford didn't do that.

 

They didn't do it yet. I have a feeling they might resurrect it. But you're right, we're both just guessing. I don't think that was the biggest factor in Field's firing for sure.

Edited by akirby
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.the capacity issue as reason for china builds is pure bs

 

No, it's not given where they are at currently. Map is promised to Ranger/Bronco. Hermosillo still needs to build Fusions and MKZs and with some updates they'll still sell enough to keep the plant occupied.

 

They need overflow for Escape. FRAP is already being expanded. Truck and van plants are full. So are Chicago and Oakville and you have new CD6 vehicles coming.

 

WHERE WOULD YOU PUT FOCUS IN MID TO LATE 2018????

 

That's not enough time to build a new factory.

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Well..anything unprofitable is going out of the country to be built..its obvious to me you cannot build a small car in this country using uaw labor...you need to have $48k F150's to do it and you have to hope like hell the bottom dont fall out of the market...

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Well..anything unprofitable is going out of the country to be built..its obvious to me you cannot build a small car in this country using uaw labor...you need to have $48k F150's to do it and you have to hope like hell the bottom dont fall out of the market...

While F Series is critical to Ford achieving those high profits, there is room below that to value add

with lots of products that reside in the space between Focus and F150.

 

And really, with Focus out of the equation, there's Louisville (Escape / MKC), Flat Rock (Mustang / Continental)

and Avon Lake (SD and MD). So throw MAP in there with (Ranger / Bronco) and Flat Rock II with future EV SUV

and I think that US product is both balanced and profitable.

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While F Series is critical to Ford achieving those high profits, there is room below that to value add

with lots of products that reside in the space between Focus and F150.

 

And really, with Focus out of the equation, there's Louisville (Escape / MKC), Flat Rock (Mustang / Continental)

and Avon Lake (SD and MD). So throw MAP in there with (Ranger / Bronco) and Flat Rock II with future EV SUV

and I think that US product is both balanced and profitable.

except it will never be profitable because UAW #troll logic #stupid opinion
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except it will never be profitable because UAW #troll logic #stupid opinion

Yeah and fortunately, most here understand that while US production is more expensive,

the reality that "made in America" is a key expectation with strategically important products.

 

Wen I mused about moving Fusion / MKZ production to FRAP, that's probably not possible

but thinking of a way to have three full shifts at a plant right near where you live...;)

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On a whole, I think the picture that emerges out of this is that Fields was fired basically because he wanted to invest $1 billion in Saint Luis Potosi to build Focus.

 

He lost the trust of the board and especially Bill Ford. According to “Autoline,” things were so strained between Bill Ford and Mark Fields, they hadn’t talked directly in weeks.

Edited by mackinaw
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