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Given the decline in Taurus sales, Ford will reportedly be building two new vehicles - a sedan and related Outback-like tall wagon - at its Chicago plant. Both vehicles would be based on Volvos, not surprising given that Ford bought Volvo recently for practically nothing (roughly the cost of creating one new carline - and they received several carlines, loads of goodwill, and a few factories, in what would have been the bargain of the decade had Mercedes not picked up Chrysler and $12 billion in cash for a few empty promises).
Chrysler is offering rebates of up to $2,500 on all cars except the Jeep Liberty and PT Cruiser. This may indicate sluggish demand for the brand-new Dodge Ram - possibly a bad sign, but possibly the result of delays in getting new engines for the pickup.
Though the Pacifica was originally targeted for production before now, it will not appear for about a year. In that time, the Honda Pilot will hit the market, and Ford will have finished designing a similar crossover vehicle which looks remarkably like the Pacifica (except for the nose). This is in addition to the BMW X5, Mercedes ML, and other crossovers.
It now seems that, while Daimler-Benz will be building new factories in the US, it will also move some Mitsubishi production (the next generation Lancer series) to Belvedere to achieve economies of scale. This is better in our opinion than closing down Belvedere and creating a new plant for the Mitsubishi/Dodge vehicles.
According to Automotive News, the new Lancer, which was to be adapted by Chrysler to replace the Neon, is going to be discontinued in the US, even though it was just introduced. The reason - increased safety standards. Instead, Chrysler has been given the lead on developing a new small car platform, which will form the basis of the next-generation Neon, Lancer/Mirage, and, now, the Eclipse as well (which will move from the Galant platform, which also is being led by Chrysler). Great news for Chrysler fans - not so good for Mitsubishi fans, who at least can keep the Pajero, Challenger, and Montero (since Jeep will not share with anyone except Mercedes).
Toyota, seeing its demographics grow older and older despite increases in market share and vehicle comfort, is going to target young buyers - from 16 to 30 0 - with a new car line by 2005 or 2006. Not based on existing models, according to Toyota, the most likely form this line will take is a PT Cruiser function-alike (though probably very differently styled).
Blue Oval News posted: "the SN95 Ford Mustang convertible's doors jamb shut after a 35 mph rear collision and … the Mustang cannot pass Ford's safety segment guideline for fuel system integrity after a 50 mph rear collision." A lawyer arguing a civil lawsuit against Ford also said that the Mustang repeatedly failed internal fuel-tank crash tests in its early-1990s redesign. The production version did pass government tests, but the Mustang still had the gas tank near the back bumper - a place avoided since the exploding Ford Pinto debacle.
With Mercedes and Hyundai both building new plants in the United States, far away from existing factories and autoworkers, it seems that a major part of DCX's plan is to cut as many union plants and employees as possible. Though the company claimed to regret the "need" to lay off thousands of workers and close (and sell) plants, it has made no effort to re-use those facilities and people in new construction. (To be fair, most foreign-owned companies have few or no plants using union labor - Toyota builds most Corollas and Tacomas in union plants, Mazda makes 626s and Ford-shared trucks, Nissan makes the Ford-shared Quest, Mitsubishi the Eclipse and Galant, and Isuzu the Hombre, but that's it as far as we know.) /rant/ We do miss the days when automakers would re-use factories - VW setting up shop in Pittsburgh's old Ford plant, Toyota in GM's old California plant, etc. /rant off/
Mercedes is raising the prices on its cars by an average of 1.7%, saying it needs to do it because of losses at Chrysler. By that logic, when Chrysler contributed more than half of the profits at DCX - not to mention $12 billion worth of cash - Mercedes would have cut prices by about 25%.
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