Now if they could only get the powertrain right...

I've never understood why a company like Ford had so many different engines: a turbo 4 and a turbo 6 could satisfy just about every damn vehicle category. Add a turbo 4 diesel for the Euro market.

Why so many I4 variations? Why so many V6 variations? Why so many V8 variations? Why the random I5/I6 (cough...volvo..)? I certainly don't look to a company like Ford for performance. If I'm looking at a Ford, I want a car that is inexpensive, safe, dependable, gets good fuel economy, and is reasonably styled. Is that so much to ask?

Don't say it. I know. I know. If I'm looking for those attributes I should look at Honda, etc. but not Ford.

Good Job Ford on biting the bullet and getting on with it. It may be fun to snipe from the sidelines - but making the multi-million (billion) dollar/decade-scale decisions that will effect millions of lives (workers, stakeholders, customers, retirees, etc) is one I'm glad I don't have to do.

Shane

There is only 3 I4 options through the car and truck range at this time, and they are built on the same platform. The 2.0l, 2.3l, and the new 2.5l. For V6 engines there are currently 2 engine families for the car line, the 3.0l that is outdated and will be retired soon, and the new 3.5l and 3.7l on the same platform. There are 2 other very outdated engines used in the truck platforms the 3.0 is from the middle 80's and will die with the ranger, and the 4.0 is from the middle 90's and will likely be replaced soon with the 3.5L family. The new ecoboost line will be built on the on these engine platforms. As for the volvo line, its the odd duck of the family. I would guess there will be a movement to globalize it as well. As for being inexpensive and safe you are a fool to not consider ford and its family of vehicles. They have more 5 star rated vehicles then almost any other maker. Take off the land of the rising sun glasses and look into and maybe even drive a ford family rig before you bash.

"The plant will begin converting its body shop in November when the tooling and equipment specific to the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator will be disassembled and transferred to Kentucky Truck Plant, which begins producing the large SUVs in the second quarter of 2009."

I read that the Navigator was being discontinued. I hope both models go the way of the dinosaur, because wasting resources continuing to produce those two very large SUVs would be a big mistake, in view of Ford's financial picture.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am getting the impression that this is a VERY serious crunch time for the U.S. automakers. They talked to Bush more than a year ago and he told them to take a hike. Now they are in deeper than I have ever seen them and we have all seen them in a bind before. If they can not pull it out of the nose dive, we could see some huge structural shifts in our overall long term economy that we will definitely regret.