On December 19th, Ford closed the doors of their
St Paul auto plant, ending 800 jobs and 86 years of history. The plant was closed as part of Ford's move to end the Ford Ranger in North America, a truck that will still be available
overseas. Born of the 80s gas crisis, the Ranger has been Ford's compact truck for almost forty
years.
Ford blames demand for large trucks and the shrinking gap in price between the compact and full-sized truck markets, spurring
concern about the future of the compact truck market in North America.
posted by Stagger Lee
on Dec 23, 2011 -
93 comments
Broken Embargoes. Given the long amount of preparation required to print an automotive "buff book" (US examples include
Car&Driver,
Road&Track,
Automobile, and
MotorTrend), automobile manufacturers customarily provide them with access to concepts and new production vehicles months prior to the "official" public unveiling, requiring them to
abide by an embargo on the images and data until a certain date has passed, usually to accomodate a carshow or other media event. In these cases, it was to coincide with the
North American International Autoshow (NAIAS, aka Detroit Autoshow, 1/13-1/21), with the embargo lifted with either 1/7/2007 online publication or February print issues, which the buff books dropped the last week of a December. As soons as that happened, web outlets like
blogs and
various forums released their embargoed materials for each model. As a result, many manufacturers have had their marketing plans torn assunder (list and more background inside)...
posted by rzklkng
on Jan 4, 2007 -
12 comments
Meet the CXT. "We can see it a as a vehicle for business people who want to make distinct impression. For personal use, it's for people who want to make a statement." I think it will leave a little more than an impression.
posted by gazingus
on Sep 13, 2004 -
92 comments
Truck-nutz? Can it get any more crude, I mean 'red', than this? (here, another
brand and lots of pics - click on mugshots). Who in their right mind would hang these under thier bumper?
posted by tomplus2
on Aug 11, 2002 -
33 comments
As the biggest, burliest SUV sold in the United States -- nearly 19 feet long and weighing about 7,200 pounds -- the
Excursion was attacked by social critics who accused Ford of environmental irresponsibility. I for one,
will not miss it.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow
on Jul 31, 2002 -
77 comments