Next Mustang going global?

[ausrutherford]

"2014 is weighing pretty heavily on us right now," said one highly-placed Ford Motor Company source at the Detroit Show. The date is significant because it will mark the 50th anniversary of the Mustang, and Ford aims to have an all-new ponycar on the market to celebrate.

But with Ford's global rear-drive platform program apparently dead, Dearborn product planners are trying to figure out exactly how they're going to build it, especially as CEO Alan Mulally re-iterated at Detroit his view that automakers could no longer afford to build vehicles unique to one country.

Under the global rear-drive platform plan, the 2014 Mustang was to have shared its basic architecture with the next generation Australian Ford Falcon, and possibly a new flagship sedan for Lincoln. The Mustang would have been on the short wheelbase version of the platform, the Falcon on the mid-wheelbase, and the Lincoln on the long wheelbase. But that strategy has changed, for three key reasons:

1) A large rear drive sedan for the U.S. would require a lightweight platform architecture to help it meet forthcoming fuel economy and emissions standards.
2) Sales of the Australian Falcon slumped last year to just over 30,000 units, the lowest level in the nameplate's 49 year history in Australia.
3) Although it avoided bankruptcy, Ford burned through a lot of cash last year, and may not have the resource to devote to developing what would be a complex but relatively niche architecture.

http://www.motortrend.com/future/fut...#ixzz0d00RsL1O

[2b2]

WTF

have the guys at MT not been reading the news?
"Mustang will be twinned with Australia's own Ford Falcon" - CarsGuide.com.au
which inspired me to post a *new* POLL


imho, not even Lincoln needs a flagship as big as the Towncar any more
+
the Falcon & Mustang could well be a bit downsized -or at least leaner'N'meaner- for their nextgen
&
I still believe a LOT of vehicles could support a three-sizes-GRwdP ! ! !



...oooooooooooorrrr
does MT know something we don't?

[2b2]

a post a BON it made me wonder

...The decision on the next Falcon won't be made until this time next year, this has been said over and over......

imho people have been assuming they knew WHAT that decision is about...
before this last week it might have been
- whether Rwd would survive besides the Mustang (or even that)
now I get the feeling it's more like
- whether to go whole hog for the GRwdP or just the minimum, Falcon & Mustang
but
WHAT IF it's along the lines of prioritizing, sequencing, or even just finalizing the PRODUCTION
& ALL the planning-engineering for the actual vehicles is as good as done Now?

Afaik from reading the forums, it doesn't take more than a year to re-do an assembly facility for new product, perhaps a bit less
so
signing on the dotted line sometime during 2011 means the first model's Job1 could happen almost in any part of 2012 or even a bit earlier...

...just something to ponder



&
after posting ^that^, a vague bell went off in my memory
= Project Gemini**

wish I could remember where I heard that or something like it -- don't have time to try to run it down just now
but here's a Link to an old FmcNews thread in which I mentioned it back in May '08


** as in "Mustang will be twinned with Australia's own Ford Falcon"

[ausrutherford]

a post a BON it made me wonder

imho people have been assuming they knew WHAT that decision is about...
before this last week it might have been
- whether Rwd would survive besides the Mustang (or even that)
now I get the feeling it's more like
- whether to go whole hog for the GRwdP or just the minimum, Falcon & Mustang
but
WHAT IF it's along the lines of prioritizing, sequencing, or even just finalizing the PRODUCTION
& ALL the planning-engineering for the actual vehicles is as good as done Now?

Afaik from reading the forums, it doesn't take more than a year to re-do an assembly facility for new product, perhaps a bit less
so
signing on the dotted line sometime during 2011 means the first model's Job1 could happen almost in any part of 2012 or even a bit earlier...

...just something to ponder



&
after posting ^that^, a vague bell went off in my memory
= Project Gemini**

wish I could remember where I heard that or something like it -- don't have time to try to run it down just now
but here's a Link to an old FmcNews thread in which I mentioned it back in May '08


** as in "Mustang will be twinned with Australia's own Ford Falcon"

I bet how much the profit is for Q4 could decide.

[2b2]

^ well, Q4 profit is just one signpost on the road
might cause an adjustment in the timetable but that's it imho

I saw a post elsewhere that the copcar and a future Taurus will also go on the GRwdP but I'll need a Lot more than an unsupported post to believe that -- like the announcement when Ford shows the copcar

[mark492]

It'll be great if it go through global!