Ford selling off Jaguar and Land Rover

According to news reports, Ford has decided to get rid of it's two UK luxury brands -Jaguar and Land Rover. This is probably part of it's restructuring programme. This news comes as a surprise because Ford had invested heavily on these two marques and they are doing OK. Jaguar was bought in 1980 for £1.6 billion.

Read the CNN report here.

According to the Economist, this is the latest sign that

the turnaround at the world's third-biggest carmaker is not going well.

Workers at the Jaguar's Whitley plant (their HQ) here in Coventry are quite worried about their job security. As much as I hate to say it, the fact is that making cars here in the UK is no longer cost effective. This news follows Peugeot's decision to close their Ryton plant.

Latest news indicates that Cerberus, the private equity group that just bought Chrysler, has indicated interest in the companies. However, Cerberus has declined to comment. Read the report here.

Tags: binley car industry coventry ford jaguar land rover

Ford overtakes Toyota in quality rankings

Ford Motor Co. has overtaken Toyota in J.D. Power and Associates' annual quality rankings which was released yesterday. Ford won model segment awards for the Ford Mustang, Lincoln Mark LT, Lincoln MKZ, Mazda MX-5 Miata and Mercury Milan. This is the first time since 1998, it has won more individual awards than any other automaker. Read the full report here.

Mercedes-Benz and Toyota models won top spots for three segment each. Toyota received awards for the 4Runner, Sequoia and Tacoma. It had grabbed awards in 11 segments last year. Mercedes-Benz won for the E-Class, SL-Class, and the S-Class.

Awesome customized firetruck

If you like customizing vehicles or simply a fan of customized vehicles then you will love this Custom Ford Firetruck. Called Project Responder, a former volunteer firefighter starts off with an old Ford F-250 truck. He then restores and converts it into a customized "ultimate fire fighting emergency vehicle".

The site has some great articles about the project including detailed technical information. It also has news, photographs and much more about the project. It was quite engrossing to read the history of the project - right from the "Genesis" of the project to the rebuilding process and the ongoing improvements.

Today the truck is a fully equipped and fully functional fire/ rescue vehicle. However, the modification continues and in fact it is a work in progress. As noted by the owner,

"Even though the truck is "finished", it will never be complete."

Right now they are busy attending shows and events around the country - the last one being the St. Louis Auto Show. I was laughing when I read about their encounter with a "Walt Winters" at the show.

Check out the site to find out what I am talking about.

Aston Martin back in the hands of Britishers

A lot of Britishers will be happy today.

Ford Motor has agreed to sell controlling stake in Aston Martin, the luxury marque made famous by James Bond, to a U.K. led consortium headed by Dave Richards for £479 million (US$924 million). Read the official press release here. This is part of Ford's restructuring plan.

It's not totally in British hands, as the Consortium is backed by Kuwaiti investors, namely Investment Dar and Adeem Investment. Also Ford still retains a £40 million (US$77 million) stake (approx. 13% of its value) in the Warwickshire based company.

Related link:
- Aston Martin 'has great future'
- British Reclaim Aston Martin

Cool Mustang ads

Ian Hart has come up with an amazing and creative way to convey a sense of speed on static billboards. The Mustang ads are on billboards are made from semi-transparent Lexan, which blur the background scenery. Proves that you don't need bright colours or images to be eye catching.

Got this from Cars - Blog.ca

View the images here.

An American Legend

The familiar horse symbol on the Mustang GT grill.

The Ford Mustang is one of America's favorite cars with a long history over 40 years. Since it's debut in 1964, it has become Ford's best selling model and still remains in production till today.

The Mustang has been such a popular car to modify over the years, many companies have based their business around it, the models that they produced have become legends themselves. These include the Roush and Shelby Mustangs.

Ford faced a crisis in the mid 1980s. Mustang sales were slumping and the company assumed that the Mustang had lost its place in the market. They responded by announcing that they would replace the rear-wheel drive Mustang with a Japanese derived front-wheel drive version. It was a big mistake. Mustang fans quickly responded and sent Ford hundreds of thousands of angry letters, asking them to save the rear-wheel drive Mustang. Ford relented and kept the rear drive car alive. The front-wheel drive version was called the Probe.

1995 Mustang discarded the boxy lines of the previous generation and adopted a more curvy aerodynamic shape. This year saw the introduction of the Mustang GTS and the limited-edition Cobra R. The Mustang GTS was designed to be a lightweight, "barebones" car with the power of a GT. On the other hand, the later followed the success of the 1993 Cobra R but included a much larger 5.8 liters engine, which produced an amazing 300 horsepower. Only 250 Cobra Rs were made and you can understand why they are such great demand today. Would definitely love to get my hands on a Cobra R.

The latest generation of the Mustang was unveiled at the 2004 North American International Auto Show. With a completely redesigned exterior by Sid Ramnarace, the new Mustang (code named "S-197") drew inspiration from the 1960s Mustangs and had an brand new D2C platform.

The evolution continues and one of the latest revisions, the Shelby GT500 is the most powerful factory-built Mustang ever. It was designed by the Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT) in collaboration with legendary performance guru Carroll Shelby. This car has a supercharged and intercooled 32-valve 5.4L V-8 engine pumping out 500 horsepower.

Whew!Would love to see what Ford has in store for us in the future.

Kermit locked out of the NAIAS

100_1329,
originally uploaded by losinghand.

Famous Muppet Kermit the Frog, regretted his role as a "spokesfrog" for Ford Motor Company in Ford's Escape Hybrid commercials last year.

On Sunday, the frog teamed up with RAN, Global Exchange, and The Ruckus Society to kick off the New Year in fuel-efficient style at the North American International Auto Show in downtown Detroit (NAIAS).

During the first press day, Kermit and five other Freedom From Oil supporters attempted to enter the main entrance of the auto show but were immediately stopped by security.

He said, "it's easy pretending to be green, but Ford needs to commit to leading the industry in fuel economy."

Read more here.