http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060203/AUTO01/602030367/1148
ord axes GT, two other cars
Moves to drop sports car, Sport Trac Adrenaline, Lincoln LS will hasten layoffs at Wixom plant.
Ford Motor Co. has scrapped plans to build a high-performance version of its Explorer Sport Trac pickup and will halt production of both the Lincoln LS sedan and Ford GT sports car this year.
After announcing last week that the Wixom Assembly Plant would be idled in the second quarter of 2007, workers were told Monday that production of the LS would stop in April and work on the Ford GT would end in September.
After that, Wixom Assembly will build only the Lincoln Town Car until the plant is idled next year. The moves mean about 300 workers at Wixom will be out of work sooner than expected.
"As part of our way forward, we are adjusting our product plan and decided not to produce the Sport Trac Adrenaline," said Ford spokesman Jon Harmon.
Unveiled last year, the Adrenaline was supposed to have been the world's first high-performance sport utility truck. It was to be built at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky.
Harmon would not discuss the specific reasons for the decision, but said Ford was focusing on giving its customers what they want.
Jim Hall, an analyst with AutoPacific in Southfield, said the Adrenaline made little sense in the first place. "It was a vehicle playing on the margins," Hall said.
The Ford GT was hardly a mainstream car, either, but Hall said it served its purpose admirably.
Without confirming a date, Ford spokesman Jim Cain said production of the Ford GT will end this year.
"We had always intended to do just two model years of the GT," Cain said.
The $150,000 sports car was inspired by the legendary Ford GT-40 race cars that swept Le Mans in 1966. Full-scale production began in 2004 and it appeared in showrooms as a 2005 and 2006 model.
"It was our plan all along to wind up production on the 40th anniversary of the 1-2-3 victory at Le Mans," Cain said. "It's not being canceled. It's just run its race."
Ford sold 1,302 GTs in 2005.
Ford said the upcoming Shelby GT500, an ultra-high-performance version of the Mustang, will fill the void left by the GT.
The $40,000 LS is being replaced by the $30,000 Lincoln Zephyr. The LS sold 19,109 units in 2005, a decline of 29.4 percent from the 27,066 sold in 2004.
The Zephyr is a sportier sedan that shares a common architecture with hot-selling Ford Fusion. The Zephyr has sold more than 7,600 units since its introduction last fall.
Ford spokesman Jon Harmon would only say the automaker plans to discontinue the LS in the spring.
Hall said the decision to kill the LS takes away little from Lincoln's lineup, though limits its V-8 offerings until its new MKS flagship sedan goes into production.
"There is a loss for dealers though," Hall said. "To be sure, Zephyr is making up a lot of that."
The decision to shut down Wixom surprised many workers, who had hoped their plant would be spared. "It shook up a lot of people," said George Walter, who works on the line at Wixom.
The LS and the Ford GT account for nearly a third of Wixom's annual production. There are about 1,500 workers at Wixom. Ford has said the end of the LS would eliminate up to 280 jobs. Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari said about 40 people make the Ford GT. So, their loss could idle more than 300 workers at the factory, even before it formally shuts down.
Idled workers represented by the United Auto Workers union are eligible for unemployment, and the company makes up most of their difference in lost wages. Once their unemployment runs out, workers are transferred to Ford's jobs bank program, where they receive almost full pay and benefits.
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