My blog about Ford Motor Corporation. News, products, engines, concepts and showcars, opinion, projects, owner experiences. Covers all corporate Ford brands: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo. Special emphasis on performance cars and international operations.
Note: Mazda is in it's own section, complete with it's own blogs and RSS feeds.
Here's one of the better-known YouTube videos going around this week, in which a kid trashes a customized new Mustang with a godawful aftermarket paint job. Stupid to buy it, stupid to let his kid trash it, and now he has to go to the dealer and explain what he did. And the entire country gets to see it.
But, no big loss (after all, it's just a Mustang).
I was in Atlanta on unrelated business last week and took an opportunity to drive past the idled Ford assembly plant. It's right next to the airport, so it's an easy drive.
The parking lots were entirely empty, except for one near the office building where a number of (ex?) employees were coming out with very sad looks on their faces. I assume they were getting the last word on relocation or lack of new positions available.
This was a sad visit for me too. And while I've already written about the end of the Taurus, I have to wonder again why this award-winning high-quality plant and skilled workforce wasn't used for new products - such as the Five Hundred or Fusion.
Several years ago I met an Ford Atlanta employee at the SCCA Runoffs. He and I talked about the Taurus and it's future. At the time I was nearly all the way thru a short 2-year lease on my V-8 SHO Taurus and he was very interested in my experiences with it. He even asked me specifics about the transmission, previewing the exact same issue I ended up having with mine a few months later. He felt pride in the accomplishments of the plant, and he also felt ownership in the quality of the work. Just the kind of employee you'd want. He may well be on the unemployment line now... although I hope for the sake of Ford that he is working somewhere.
============= Ford Press description of plant:
PLANT INFORMATION
Plant Name: City: State: Country:
Atlanta Assembly Plant (Idled 10/27/06) Hapeville GA - Georgia USA
