Finding The Way Forward: Ford shuffles the product deck
By Mike Connor
Now that Jaguar and Land Rover are gone, Ford Motor Company is down to just four-and-a-half brands -- Ford, Lincoln-Mercury (with the Mercury bit slowly fading into obscurity), Volvo, and Mazda. For Ford's North American nameplates, product shifts beyond those that chief Alan Mulally has been spilling are coming into, uh, focus.
1. A Mustang with an EcoBoost V-6 engine has been approved, although it might not be the first Ford (after the Lincoln MKS) in line. The direct-injection, turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 in the Mustang will make more than the 4.6-liter V-8's 300 horsepower and probably get 2-mpg better EPA results. Expect the EcoBoost to follow the facelift on the '10 Mustang.
2. The 2010 Ford Fusion will probably beat Mustang to the EcoBoost party. This means an all-wheel-drive, performance-oriented Fusion, and we all know what the SVT Contour did for the Contour. The '10 Fusion will be all-new, with the '07 Mondeo's EUCD underpinnings replacing the current model's Mazda-based CD3 platform.
3. The '09 Ford Flex and the Lincoln version, based on the Detroit show MKT concept, also are in line to get EcoBoost V-6s. Our guess is a 3.5-liter turbo for the Ford and a 3.7-liter turbo for the Lincoln, like the MKS sedan. The Flex will need it to compete with the '09 Chevy Traverse's 286-horsepower direct-injection 3.6-liter V-6.
4. Question: does Mercury get a second-generation Milan? Answer: not if the next-generation Lincoln MKZ, also on the EUCD platform, starts where well-equipped Fusions finish.
5. Ford has an all-new Escape launching in 2009. A Lincoln version will be ready for 2010, while there is no Mercury Mariner replacement in the works. So if the Milan gets cut, Mercury is left only with the Sable, perhaps. This is the discussion rumored to be leading to Mercury's eventual demise.
6. The all-new Ford Taurus' design should be locked in to place soon, but its platform may take longer to sort out. It could return on the D3 architecture or switch to the CD3 platform. If the Taurus abandons D3, however, that would leave only the Taurus X and Lincoln MKS on it, which is probably not enough volume to make it cost-effective. Mulally promised it as a 2010 model, which implies late-'09 release, but the project is said to be slipping to early '10.