Hints and tips:
...“Ford’s announcement that it plans to wind down sales of its core cars lines — Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus — is a bold and risky move. It’s an indication tough decisions are being made.”...
...Last month the Detroit carmaker said it would not develop the next generation of nameplates including Taurus, Fiesta and Fusion for North America, leaving only two saloons in the critical home market: Mustang...
...Vehicle sales at Ford fell 2 per cent from a year earlier to 180,383 units, shy of projections for a 5.8 per cent gain, with double-digit percentage declines by its Taurus, Focus and Fiesta cars....
...Ford said it was recalling around 915,200 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs built between 2008 and 2011 because a software fault could cause the steering to default to manual rather than power steering...
...Samsung SDI supplies batteries to Chrysler and BMW, and has teamed up with Ford to develop new electric vehicle battery technologies....
...Under Ford, the US carmaker that owned it from 1999 to 2010, Volvo shared platforms, engines and components with cars such as the Taurus and Focus....
...Sales of Ford branded cars, SUVs and light trucks all declined in the month, with deliveries of the Taurus, Focus and Explorer all falling more than 15 per cent....
...In many parts of the country, we have already caught up with, and in some cases surpassed, the market leader, Barack Obama, who is looking increasingly like an outdated Ford Taurus....
...Ford premiered the technology in the US, when it replaced the 5.5 litre V8 engine used in its larger cars such as the Flex and Taurus and F-series trucks with a smaller 3.5 litre V6....
...Ford Motor followed in 1986 with its Taurus sedan, giving it a more rounded look than most other cars of its day....
...If a Ford Taurus drove past you four years ago in the US it would have been a safe bet that it was a hire car....
...But the back seats were too small for US tastes, and some wondered why the cars were so close in price to larger models such as Ford’s Taurus....
...The company also increased its market share, boasting strong sales of its Taurus brand and its hybrid vehicles, which were up by 73 per cent from a year ago....
...Ford will be aiming to reinvigorate a neglected brand with a version of its Taurus sedan – the best-selling US car in the early 1990s, which has languished....
...Two-thirds of the decline in Ford’s sales last year was due to the elimination of the Taurus sedan, sold almost entirely to car rental operators, and to withdrawal from the minivan market....
...A redesign in the mid-1990s was a flop, and the Taurus was all but forgotten as Ford funnelled resources into trucks and SUVs....
...Ford acquired Volvo in 1999 for $6.45bn. The company has relied heavily on Volvo as it seeks to globalise its design and production systems. Ford’s redesigned 2008 Taurus is built on a Volvo platform....
...For instance, the new North American Taurus saloon and Taurus X crossover vehicle, previously named the Five Hundred and Freestyle, are built on a Volvo platform....
...Meanwhile, Ford’s generous incentives were taking their toll on the value and prestige of its products: some of its best-known models, such as the Taurus, Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car, became synonymous...
...Ford’s sales rose by 8.1 per cent, boosted by its Fusion and Focus saloons, aswell as the Taurus, which went out of production last week. Toyota gained 9.2 per cent....
...Ford sales were also pushed down by its decision to stop producing the Taurus, once the US’s best-selling car, and the Freestar minivan....
...Its US sales surged by a quarter last month, compared with a 3.1 per cent drop at GM and an anaemic advance at Ford, driven partly by strong sales of its dying Taurus saloon brand....
...The Atlanta plant, which builds Taurus saloons, took an average of 15.37 work hours to build each car....
...THE LAY OF THE LAND by Richard Ford Bloomsbury ₤17.99, 352 pages The travails of bemused family man and sportswriter-turned-realtor Frank Bascombe are examined in this acutely lucid conclusion to Ford’...
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