Category: Ford

Tata to announce Jaguar and Land Rover takeover next week
Tata will announce the takeover of the two British carmakers, Jaguar and Land Rover, next week during the Geneva Motor Show.
Ford and Tata came to an agreement after the positive talks Tata executives had with British unions. Last week Tata confirmed that it won’t sell Jaguar as soon as the takeover is done and promised not to have redundancy plans at first.
The announcement will end a tumultuous bidding between Ford and the three bidders, among them, Tata and Mahindra and Mahindra, It will also mark the end of long history and tumultuous history between Ford and Jaguar.
Future will say whether Tata has enough money in the bank to develop Land Rover and give Jaguar the status it deserves.
February 27, 2008
British union confident over Jaguar after Tata talks
Last week, Petrol-Head reported that British unions were meeting Tata executives while a rumour about the sale of Jaguar by the Indian group was spreading in the news. It appears that the meeting went rather well as union confirmed their support to Tata.
"We are confident our members’ long term future is best served by Tata," said Dave Osborne, national secretary for vehicle building at the Unite union. "They totally ruled out offloading Jaguar or building Land Rovers in India." "There’s a couple of clarifications we still need from Ford, but I don’t see any issues arising from that," he added.
He also said Tata had given assurances that engines would still be taken from Ford and that UK manufacturing would be maintained. Jaguar has about 10,000 employees at sites in Coventry, Birmingham, and Liverpool, while Land Rover employs about 9,000 in the West Midlands and Warwickshire. Unite is the main union representing workers at Land Rover and Jaguar, and has about 12,000 members there.
February 25, 2008
Ford, Mazda and ChangAn to invest £29 million

Ford has announced it will invest £29 million in China with the help of Mazda and ChangAn to boost sales on the Chinese domestic market.
The investment will boost the joint venture’s registered capital to more than £175 million. Ford will provide £10 million, ChangAn £14 million and Mazda £5 million. As usual in China, the Chinese partner holds 50 percent of the joint venture. Fold and Mazda holds 35 percent and 35 percent respectively.
Chang’an Ford Mazda’s sales rose by 60% to 271,100 vehicles last year. After opening a new factory in last September, the three-way joint venture production capacity jumped to 410,000 units. Despite the recorded growth in 2007, Ford is far behind other carmakers. The carmaker’s rivals broke into the market earlier and have already established their brands among China’s growing consumer class.
Ford’s Focus compact became one of the 10 best-selling cars in China last year, but the company’s profit margins were slimmer than some of its competitors’ because many of the parts used to build the Focus are still made outside China.
February 21, 2008
Tata and British union meet thsi week after rumours about a Jaguar sale emerges

Tata executives will meet with officials of the British union representing Ford to talk on the bid over Jaguar and Land Rover. The discussion might be hot as an insider told InsideLine the Indian carmaker plans to sell off the Jaguar brand as soon as it acquires it from Ford.
The British union had given its support to Tata in last November as the carmaker promised to keep all the jobs in the UK. But in three months a lot has changed. “We haven’t really met Tata yet since the presentation last year, so this will be a very important meeting,” Eddie Barrett of Unite told media. Barrett said there are 7,000 jobs at stake in the two companies and that “there is no reason to believe any of it is going to be affected.”
On the other hand, Land Rover has all support form Tata, but once again the future might shadowed for British workers. InsideLine reports that company head Ratan Tata has bought a 450-acre plot of land outside New Delhi where he plans to build a new Land Rover factory.
None of the rumors above have been confirmed by other sources, but in last November Petrol-Head wrote about the possible transfer of the production to India.
February 20, 2008
Ford annouces pricing in the UK for the new Kuga

Ford has announced the pricing for the new Kuga crossover that will go on sale from next June. The entry level starts at £20,495.
The company’s crossover will be available in two trim levels: Zetec and Titanium. Zetec costs £20,495 and comes with keyless start, 17-inch alloy wheels, air conditioning, ABS and ESP. For £2,000 more, Titanium adds rain sensing wipers, blue tinted glass, partial leather trim, cruise control, automatic headlights and dual electronic air temperature control. Buyers will be able to choose rear facing camera or panoramic roof among the options.
Initially, the two trim levels will be powered by the 135bhp 2.0-litre Duratorq TDCi diesel engine hooked up to a six-speed manual gearbox and will feature an all-wheel drive transmission.
February 20, 2008
Rendering of the five-door Fiesta

Ford has unveiled the pictures of the new Fiesta under its three-door body, but the five-door is yet to be revealed. MotorAuthority has released a rendering of what the five-door Fiesta would look like.
It is not a secret that the five-door will keep the exterior styling of the three-door; however one question remains answered. How will the designers integrate the two rear doors. The interpretation realized by Schulte Design looks convincing and the Fiesta five-door would be appealing enough to take on the French stars of the segment in Europe, Peugeot 207 and Renault Clio.
Will Ford expand its lineup like French carmakers did. Indeed, the Peugeot 207 comes with several variants: three-door and five-door hatchbacks, folding roof CC, estate SW and a crossover. There was the Fusion model, but it was rather a failure in Europe. The car suffered from a tame design and unconvincing off-road manners. Mazda plans to release other variants in the future and as the 2 and the Fiesta models share the same platform, the Blue Oval brand might make the jump.
Click here to see all the pictures
February 19, 2008
First video of the Fiesta

Here is the first video of the all-new Fiesta that Ford will unveil at the Geneva Motor Show. The new Fiesta offers an appealing design, outside and inside, and will go on sale from next autumn under a three-door and five-door variants.
The Fiesta will offer a wide range of petrol engines from a 60bhp 1.25-litre to 115bhp 1.6-litre and two diesel units, a 68bhp 1.4-litre and a 90bhp 1.6-litre.
February 18, 2008
Ford reveals the Kuga

Ford will finally unveil the Kuga crossover at the Geneva Motor Show set to compete with the successful Nissan Qashqai and the new Renault Koleos.

As expected, the production version is very close to the Iosis X concept car shown at Frankfurt last year. The Kuga follows the new corporate design theme with an appealing styling although a bit more conventional than the new Ford Fiesta the company will also reveal at Geneva. On the inside, Ford cut cost by featuring the dashboard from the C-Max minivan and miss an opportunity to keep out of the fray. The production version will pay tribute to the concept car by offering an exclusive Electric White colour. The Kuga will offer trim levels: Trend and Titanium.

The Kuga is based on the C platform shared with almost all Ford vehicles sold on the C segment. It will be available either as a front-wheel drive or a four-wheel drive. The four-wheel drive will feature a full-time Haldex system. However, one does not expect the Kuga to be a serious off-roader as it is road-biased.
At launch, the new crossover will only be available with a diesel engine, the 136bhp 2.0-litre TDCi hooked up to a six-speed manual gearbox.
The Kuga will be built on the same assembly lines as the Focus three-door, five-door and wagon variants and C- MAX at the Saarlouis plant in Germany. It will hit our showrooms in summer of this year.
February 18, 2008
Rendering of the next Ford Ka

Motor Authority has published a rendering of the eagerly-awaited next-generation Ford Ka which will likely go o sale next year.
The future Ford Ka will share its underpinnings with the iconic Fiat 500 and the small car will be built in the Fiat plant located in Poland where the 500 is currently built. Few details emerge about the small Ford.
Secrecy surrounds the exac spec of the future Ka and its design hasn’t been really revealed by the few spyshots available on Internet.
On the market, Ford won’t follow Fiat to move the car upmarket. The Ka will remain an affordable car with an estimated entry price of about £6,000. The company expect to sell between 100,000 and 120,000 units per year.

Click here to see the whole picture
February 17, 2008
Ford unveils the new Ford Fiesta

Ford has unveiled the new Fiesta and it is certain that the new small Ford will send the outgoing model to the forgotten pages in the automotive history books.

As expected, the new Fiesta’s exterior design is taking its styling dues from the Verve Concept unveiled last year at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The new Fiesta features the trapezoidal grille, angular headlights, raked windshield and fastback profile.

The Fiesta will be available in three and five-foor forms in Western Europe and as a saloon in China. With the new Fiesta, Ford will go global as the car is intended to be sold in Europe first at the next autumn and across the rest of the world by 2010.

The Fiesta shares its inner structure, platform and powertrains, with the Mazda 2, so it means that the new car will be lighter than the outgoing model. The Fiesta will offer a wide range of petrol and diesel engines. There will be a 60bhp 1.4-litre petrol unit for the entry level, followed by a 91bhp 1.4-litre engine. Teh topping engine will be a 115bhp 1.6-litre unit.. Along the petrol engines, there will also be diesel units both with a displacement of 1.25-litre with either 60bhp or 80bhp. Engines will be hooked up to a five-speed manual gearbox or a the four-speed automatic Durashift.
February 17, 2008