Ford has closed down the F-150 pickup truck plants in Dearborn, Michigan and Louisville, Kentucky due to ‘tepid demand’. Both plants will remain closed the rest of the year. The moves are part of Ford’s efforts to “align capacity with demand,” Ms. Gattari said.
The Dearborn plant will resume production at the start of the New Year, Ms. Gattari said. Workers are also scheduled to return to the Louisville factory just after New Year’s, a person familiar with the matter said. Ford, along with Detroit competitors General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, has suffered sharp sales declines among its pickups and SUVs. F-Series pickups are off 12.4% through November, while Explorer sales have plunged 23.5%, according to Autodata Corp. Overall, Ford-brand light-duty truck sales, which include pickups and SUVs, have dropped 6.1%.
The United Auto Workers(UAW)have come to terms with GM’s President, Ron Gettelfinger, and are now ready to get on the same page with Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler. They believe that they have the ability to reach a suitable agreement all at once.
The Wall Street Journal interviewed Mark “the Mullet” Fields and was able to get information on sales. They stated that if the slow U.S. economy puts the automaker at risk of not meeting its financial goals for the next two years, it may increase the rate at which it will cut costs.
When picking out a car most people look at what model they want and they won’t often want to buy it if it doesn’t come in the color that they like. White, black, red, and silver are usually the only colors that are offered for any vehicle. Ford Motor Co. Nearly 40% of consumers will walk out of a dealership if it doesn’t have a vehicle they want in the precise color they want, according to research by Ford Motor Co.
Ford is finding out the hard way that they are having a hard time keeping up with their sales percentage the way they should be. In trying to fix that they have been reducing sales and will be doing it once more next year.