Ford F150 Plant Rehires, Gambling on Our Short Term Memory
While much of the global auto industry continues to shed employees, Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it would call back 1,000 workers to a truck plant in Dearborn, Mich., saying it expected growing consumer demand for its new F-150 pickup truck.
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Well, that’s what Ford is saying anyway. Is Ford repeating the mistakes of its past?
UPI Asia says that “Oil prices have increased by 1,400 percent in the last decade and have now reached a level that is threatening to drag the global economy to a grinding halt. This is the third oil shock the world has seen since 1970. During the first oil shock, oil prices almost quadrupled, from $3.50 to $13.50 per barrel between 1973 and 1975. During the second oil shock, the price jumped by more than 100 percent from $15 to $39 per barrel. In the current phase, oil prices have increased from $55 a barrel since early 2007 to current levels of $130 per barrel.”
Jim Farley, Ford’s sales chief, says that the company believes there is pent-up demand in the marketplace, especially among truck customers who need a pickup for their job.”
Pent up demand? Are there really people out there who cant wait to get their fingers wrapped around the wheel of a gas guzzling truck? Unfortunately, the answer to this is yes.
The 2009 SFE F-150, (Super Fuel Economy) which is scheduled to get a whopping 15/21 mpg, was unveiled at an event Thursday afternoon. Ford’s board chairman, Bill Ford Jr., joined Chief Executive Alan Mulally to speak to hundreds of plant employees as they showed TV commercials for the F-150, which start running on the Fox network Sunday. The fast-talking ads with flashing words promote the F-150’s capabilities, saying its customers believe a truck “ain’t a luxury. It’s a way of life.” The tagline of the campaign is “it’s not a new truck; it’s a new F-150.”
This may be the problem. Ford isn’t just selling a truck, its selling a consumer, oil dependent lifestyle.
Ford’s move to bolster production of its best-selling pickup comes as several auto industry analysts question the strength of the market segment. Late last month, CSM Worldwide said it expected the U.S. pickup market to continue to shrink in 2009 and 2010 to about half of the segment’s 2001 sales peak of 3.3 million units, despite launches of an all-new F-150 and its competitor, Dodge Ram.
So what is Ford doing? It’s putting 1000 previous employees back to work, just so that they can get laid off again, the next time gas prices go up. At the same time, it’s advocating using more of something that we are running out of. I guess I just don’t get there business model. The Big Three are getting their lunches handed to them by foreign car company’s. Looks to me like they have their heads so far in the sand, they will be able to strike oil just by opening their mouths.
As always, keep up the good fight and alter the eco!
Source: Wall Street Journaland Twilight Earth
Photo: courtesy Ford Motor Company via Creative Commons license
The answer isn’t to stop making trucks but rather to start making trucks that run on something other than dinosaur bones.
The desire to drive a truck is infused in American culture. That isn’t to say the culture can’t change, but the fact that the drive to change is coming from people in California, D.C. and New York who have never owned a truck makes people nervous.
If pro-environment folks want to really make a change they should find a way to make a truck run on something other than petro.
Actually of the big 3, Fords get the best mileage but that’s another issue. My beef is with Ford’s heater cores going out at 36,000 miles and engines going at 120,000 miles.
Ford is toast
>If pro-environment folks want to really make
>a change they should find a way to make a
>truck run on something other than petro.
My Ford F250 runs on diesel/biodiesel/waste veggie oil. I thought I read that the F150 would have diesel engine soon. Was it 2010?
Chevy/GMC are currently offering the XFE (eXtra Fuel Economy) 1/2-ton 2WD truck that is rated the same as the Ford’s 15/21
Both have V8 engines (4.6L for Ford, 5.3L for Chevy/GMC).
The 15/21 mileage is pretty good considering it’s under the new standards (that would be 17/24 under pre-2008 EPA standards…compare that to 14/18 for both a Ford or Chevy V8 1/2-ton in 1998). Since there are people who NEED trucks, it’s a good thing that they’re focusing on truck fuel economy. Both Nissan and Toyota’s trucks get poorer fuel economy (in the V8 1/2-ton sector anyway) so Ford and GM are the green way to go in trucks.
OK, Ford, Where is the diesel that is certified for up to 100% biodiesel, with the fuel tank and fuel line heaters for cooler climates?
If the USAF can run B-52s, F-22s, C135’s and other aircraft on a synthetic fuel mixture without loss of performance, why can’t you?
> If the USAF can run B-52s, F-22s, C135’s and other
> aircraft on a synthetic fuel mixture without loss
> of performance, why can’t you?
That’s not actually a good example. Those aircraft cost millions of dollars each and there are only a handful of them in existence relative to the number of F150s, F250’s, etc.
Nevertheless, I agree with your point about the biodiesel, and would love to see a 1/2-ton truck with 3-3.5L turbo diesel that gets close to 30 mpg.
@ kevin and chuckL, the diesel version was shelved a few weeks ago. Remember, american car makers must be stupid at all times. Thats why ford had difficulty with importing the diesel ‘Ka’ from europe. If they didn’t cancel the diesel then how would they still remain stupid? They would have to find something else, and it wouldn’t be easy.
Well, considering that Chevy gets the best gas mileage (18-24mpg with a 5.7L V8), that’s actually decent gas mileage for a truck. Stop rapping on trucks. People WILL buy trucks, because they don’t wanna drive a little death trap with a teeny-weenie little engine. They want to drive a real vehicle that will last forever and protect them.
The problem with Diesel is that the enviro-nuts in California make it very hard for car manufacturers to make a vehicle stick to their strict standards. This killed the Ka in the US. Diesel gets great gas mileage, better power, and arguably pollutes less than gasoline. Why do the eco-nuts not see this? Because it doesn’t fit their agenda.
As for running on anything other than “fossil fuels…” gasoline and diesel have the highest energy potential of any known fuel besides nuclear power. That makes them more efficient and more powerful. We are in no way running out of fuel, and most American trucks are in no way “gas guzzlers.”
Also, one of the reasons cars get “bad gas mileage” is because of the strict EPA standards. All that smog crap that gets added to the engines saps power and gas mileage. Ask any mechanic.
It sucks. It should have 4 cylinder diesel and a 6 speed. People mostly buy trucks because they NEED a truck. Try getting a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood in your hatch back.
I agree with Anon.
FYI: I’m a ASE Certified MASTER TECH.
There are a lot of people who need a pickup truck for their jobs. To my mind, what Ford ought to be offering as a standard package would be a Flex-Fuel engine with a conversion switch to run off Compressed Natural Gas.
Sell it as part of a package which includes installation of a home compressor unit so that when you get home, you plug your truck CNG tank into the compressor which fills the tank from the gas main that supplies your house. If you are driving beyond the range of the CNG tank, switch over to run on gasoline (or E85 if available).