Ford SUV assembly plant workers get 9-week unplanned vacation
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Ford has seen the writing on the wall for sales of the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator full-size SUVs. Both vehicles are built at the Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, MI and sales of both have tanked this year. With gas at $4/gallon 37 percent fewer buyers have decided that a Navigator is a must have this year and 43 percent have opted for something other than the Expedition. Rather than stockpiling more SUVs that they have no realistic expectation of selling anytime soon, Ford will be sending workers home next week and asking them to stay away until the end of August.
At some point it seems likely that Ford will either shift pickup truck production to SUV plants or shift the SUVs to one of the pickup plants. Some of the plants that loose truck production will be shifting over to building cars, particularly the Focus and perhaps the updated Fusion coming later this year.
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
stevejust 10:23PM (6/17/2008)
Too bad they won't shift those factories to making the Reflex concept (Refl3x? R3fl3x?). It'd be great if they actually made that car. I was as excited about it as people are about the Volt... but... nothing.
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John 5:55PM (6/18/2008)
How about that hybrid Expedition they talked about a couple years back... oh wait, Ford is content only having 1 hybrid model on the lot and talking about the 2nd one they have coming in a couple years.
Shocking how it's all right there and they just don't get it.
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