2018 delayed?

Ford’s Mich. Assembly, Flat Rock face temporary idling

Ford Motor Co. is planning shutdowns of a week or more at multiple North American plants – including Flat Rock Assembly and Michigan Assembly – the automaker said Tuesday.

The shutdowns come as U.S. automobile sales have stagnated through most of 2017 following consecutive record sales years and increased production.

The shutdowns are as follows:

■Flat Rock Assembly will idle production for two weeks.

■Michigan Assembly in Wayne will idle for one week.

■Kansas City Assembly in Missouri will idle for two weeks.

■Cuautitlan Assembly in Mexico will idle for three weeks.

■Hermosillo Assembly in Mexico will idle for two weeks.

The company did not give dates for the shutdowns.

The shutdowns will affect plants that make the Ford Fiesta, Fusion, Mustang, Transit and Focus, as well as the the Lincoln MKZ, all of which have had sales declines through the first eight months of 2017. The Lincoln Continental, produced at Flat Rock, went on sale last fall.

“We are continuing to match production with customer demand, as we always do, and we are on track for our dealer inventories to remain at planned levels by year-end,” spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in an emailed statement.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/bu...09/19/ford-north-america-shutdowns/105795002/

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wireeater said:

2 weeks! Oh the humanity!

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EastTNMustang said:

Read an article saying 2018 Mustangs will be delayed at least 2 weeks. Anyone else have any info to share?

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NoVaGT said:

The article you copied and pasted (and linked to) did not say anything about 2018 Mustangs being delayed 2 weeks.

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TomcatDriver said:

That's what I was thinking. They are going to idle Flat Rock. That may have been planned for the full MY switchover. That being said, having greater than a 90 day stock of 2017s on the lots (I read an article that said 111 days) it would not surprise me if they did delay production of 18s. It also makes the 18 price more of a sticker shock, since the $2K sticker bump actually equals about an $8K or more drive off difference.

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ApollosWar89 said:

Demand for vehicles is low. They are doing what they can to cut fixed cost due to overestimating the sales volume on those product lines.

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TomcatDriver said:

Which makes the sticker jump in 18 more perplexing. Cars like the Mustang tend to have fairly elastic demand curves. People don't "have" to have them.

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