plus 4, 2011Ford - autoblog

2011Ford - autoblog
9:45am: Ethanol being tested in snowmobiles - Traverse City Record-Eagle
Ford’s Bet: It’s a Small World After All - Dispatch
Double The Destruction: Tom Meents Sweeps Monster Jam In Atlanta - Bleacherreport.com
Detroit auto show may answer big issues - Detroit Free Press

2011Ford - autoblog

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 08:14 AM PST

Aol Autos.

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9:45am: Ethanol being tested in snowmobiles - Traverse City Record-Eagle

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 06:41 AM PST

Published: January 10, 2010 09:45 am

9:45am: Ethanol being tested in snowmobiles

HOUGHTON (AP) -- Snowmobiles that don't start when it's cold aren't good for much.

That's why researchers at Michigan Technological University are trying to see how well snowmobiles can perform using fuel with higher levels of ethanol than those in today's gasoline.

Federal regulations require that renewable fuel use increase from 9 billion gallons to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

"Cars and trucks are being designed to run on these ethanol-rich fuels. But can a snowmobile?" Michigan Tech writer Marcia Goodrich asked in a story posted on the Houghton school's Web site.

This winter, engineering assistant professor Scott Miers is conducting a study to see how snowmobiles can function with ethanol levels of 15 percent, compared to the current 10 percent, known as E10.

Americans own about 1.7 million snow machines.

Miers is testing snowmobile emissions and fuel economy in the lab and on the trail. He's also looking at how they start at low temperatures.

"If you can't start in the cold, you can't snowmobile," Miers said in a statement.

The research is taking place in cooperation with the Society of Automotive Engineers' Clean Snowmobile Challenge. Michigan Tech hosts the event each year. It's set for March 15-20.

In the event, engineering students take reengineer a snowmobile to reduce emissions and noise while maintaining or boosting performance.

"This study is a great fit for the Challenge," said challenge organizer Jay Meldrum, executive director of the Keweenaw Research Center. "The snowmobiling community is wondering what will happen if ethanol increases to E15 or E20."

The $69,000 project received $25,000 from the state Department of Energy Labor and Economic Growth.

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Ford’s Bet: It’s a Small World After All - Dispatch

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 07:17 AM PST

HE blew into the Ford Motor Company in 2006 as an outsider from a different industry, and he was hailed as the latest in a long line of purported saviors of a faltering, century-old automotive icon.

At the time, skeptics in the clubby world of auto executives whispered that the newcomer, Alan R. Mulally, would be swallowed up by the complexities of the car business, his ebullient personality smothered by the feudal infighting for which Ford had long been famous.

Yet three years into his tenure as chief executive — and with a host of still nettlesome challenges awaiting him — Mr. Mulally has thus far proved to be the unifying figure that Ford has needed for decades.

His vision is distilled in the laminated, wallet-size cards carried by tens of thousands of Ford employees that spell out his management principles beneath a simple heading: "One Ford ... One Team ... One Plan ... One Goal." And on Monday, at the opening press conference of the 2010 Detroit auto show, Mr. Mulally will unveil the car that embodies his strategy for returning Ford to its status as a leader in the global auto industry.

That car, the new Ford Focus, is arguably as important to Mr. Mulally as the Model T was to Henry Ford, the founder. Despite some previous efforts, the Focus is Ford's first truly global car — a single vehicle designed and engineered for customers in every region of the world and sold under one name. It is small, fuel-efficient and packed with technology and safety features that, Mr. Mulally believes, will appeal to consumers in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

The car also represents what Mr. Mulally calls the "proof point" of everything he has done since joining Ford after a 37-year career with Boeing: he hopes that the vehicle will provide a rolling blueprint for generations of Ford cars to come.

"If we were going to be world-class, we needed to pull together and leverage and use our global assets around the world to create a powerhouse 'One Ford,' " he said in an interview in his office at Ford's headquarters. "It's exactly why we are here."

In an industry populated by naysayers and familiar with wrenching disappointment, Mr. Mulally's doubters have largely disappeared because he has already delivered more than what was expected of him when he replaced Ford's chairman, William C. Ford Jr., as chief executive.

One of Mr. Mulally's first, prescient acts in 2006 was to borrow $24 billion, which later gave Ford the cash it needed to stave off the government-sponsored bankruptcies of its crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler. He has also shifted Ford's emphasis away from trucks and sport utility vehicles to cars and crossover vehicles, and dumped luxury brands like Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston-Martin that were consuming Ford's resources and distracting management.

Perhaps most important, Ford has shrunk drastically, shedding jobs and factories to better align its production with demand. For decades, Ford executives and workers labored inside a bureaucracy that made decision-making cumbersome and often undermined dexterous responses to market shifts. It was a system that also withstood repeated efforts by others to streamline it.

But under Mr. Mulally's hand — and in response to a downturn that threatened the very existence of Detroit's Big Three — Ford has finally started to run a tighter ship.

All of this is beginning to show up in Ford's bottom line. It reported $1 billion in earnings in the third quarter of 2009, its first profitable quarter in nearly two years. Mr. Mulally, however, says he doesn't expect Ford to become "consistently" profitable until 2011. (Coincidentally, that's when the new Focus will begin appearing in sizable volumes in the United States and Europe.)

While the Focus is only one of several new products on the way, it is the centerpiece of Ford's transformation from a truck-heavy manufacturer to a producer of smaller, lighter and more environmentally friendly passenger cars.

The impact of the Focus on Ford's global operations is even more significant. While Ford has been an international company since early in the 20th century, its overseas divisions have long operated as semiautonomous units geared to individual markets.

In the 1990s, Alexander Trotman, then its chief executive, developed a plan called Ford 2000 to standardize some vehicles around the world. The new system saved money, but the products it yielded were successes in some markets and flops in others. The initiative was summarily dropped by Mr. Trotman's successor, Jacques A. Nasser.

Upon his arrival, Mr. Mulally took his own shot at knitting together Ford's far-flung operations, seeking the economies of scale that a "world car" could bring.

"Why are we doing it this way?" he asks. "Because we believe the customer requirements are going to be more the same around the world than they are different."

INDUSTRY analysts have long derided Detroit automakers as being overly fixated on the United States market and unable to see how vehicles designed for Europeans and Asians could appeal to American consumers.

"There's nothing revolutionary about selling the same car around the world," says John Casesa, an industry consultant. "Toyota does it. BMW does it. But the Detroit companies were always disproportionately run around their North American strategy."

In that regard, the Focus is Ford's first big bet that it can effectively sell a single, largely uniform car — with variations to come later — in several global markets. Currently, the company has three engineering "platforms" serving what the industry calls the C-car segment — essentially, compact vehicles the size of a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic. The three platforms account for annual sales of about 1.1 million vehicles, although the various models are substantially different inside and out.

The new Focus is built on one platform for all markets, from Shanghai to Seville to Seattle. The platform is also flexible enough that it can be adapted for different body styles, whether hatchbacks or small crossover vehicles.

Within a few years, Ford expects to sell as many as two million vehicles a year off the new C-car platform and to save billions of dollars in costs by avoiding multiple platforms.

"The Focus represents the first tangible evidence of a global strategy," says Mr. Casesa. "For the first time, Ford is executing it and not just talking about it."

A YOUTHFUL-LOOKING 64-year-old with close-cropped red hair and a toothy smile, Mr. Mulally is relentlessly optimistic and perpetually in motion. Educated in engineering at the University of Kansas, a father of five and married for nearly 40 years, he can be so exuberant that he'll sometimes hug people the first time he meets them.

But Ford executives quickly learned that beneath that sunny disposition was a demanding and competitive executive.

"The very first conversation I had with Alan was around the opportunities that we had never taken full advantage of here at Ford," says Derrick M. Kuzak, a 30-year Ford veteran and the head of global product development.

Mr. Mulally saw Ford as a messy conglomerate of brands, divisions and international businesses that obscured its best asset: the Ford brand and its blue oval badge.

Why, he asked executives repeatedly, did the company insist on pouring money and resources into Volvos and Jaguars when its Ford product line was a mishmash of Mustangs, S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks?

"We made a strategic decision to move from a house of brands to a laser focus on Ford," Mr. Mulally says. "That brand clarity was going to be absolutely essential and a competitive advantage."

He was also prepared to stake Ford's future on a thesis that consumers around the world are becoming more and more alike, and that what they want in a car is the same in China and India as it is in Germany or the United States.

After all, customers in disparate markets were already showing preferences for the same attributes in cars: safety, technology, fuel efficiency and appearance. The Internet was allowing car buyers everywhere to pore over the specifications of vehicles available in the United States or Europe, enabling consumers in developing countries to home in on quality products in mature markets and empowering them not to settle for lesser products.

"Everybody knows everything, and everybody knows what's available," says Mr. Mulally. "You look at the reasons people buy vehicles, and all those requirements are coming together."

The first planning sessions for the global Focus kicked off in late 2007, a year after Mr. Mulally came aboard. He told executives that it was crucial to design a single model that could serve many markets, and challenged the conventional wisdom that parts of the car had to be tailor-made for different regions of the world.

Gunnar Herrmann, head of the Focus project, recalled how Mr. Mulally kept referring to his years of developing airplanes that were the same no matter where they flew.

"He said, you guys are always doing multiple doors on these cars; at Boeing, we have only one door," Mr. Herrmann remembers.

Mr. Kuzak and Mr. Herrmann were assigned to create a development team that had European engineers and designers at its core, but also included members from Asia and the Americas. Mr. Herrmann assigned the team to develop a "program paper" that laid out projections for production volumes, market-share targets and competition. He says he ended up receiving a hefty document larded with traditional Ford approaches to doing business.

The paper was 150 pages long and contained separate analyses for Europe, Asia and North America. Rather than zeroing in on common goals for the three regions, the sections emphasized the differences. Mr. Herrmann says he threw it back at the team. "Where is the common denominator here, so we can do a single car?" he recalls asking.

His boss, Mr. Kuzak, had spent his three decades with Ford working here and abroad and was keenly aware of how the company's past practices could weigh it down — and how important it was to embrace Mr. Mulally's emphasis on global product development.

"It would allow us to bring our vehicles to market quicker than we have ever been able to do in the past," Mr. Kuzak says. "The benefits were in the neighborhood of 25 percent to almost 50 percent quicker time to market."

So the Focus team ended up rallying around a few main objectives. The car had to drive and handle like a European sedan and have the creature comforts like wireless Internet access that American consumers demanded.

When it came to designing the exterior of the vehicle, the team faced a quandary. Whereas European and American buyers appreciate flair, Chinese consumers, in particular, have more conservative tastes. In the past, Mr. Herrmann, said, Ford would have designed separate bumpers and headlights for the different markets. That approach, however, wouldn't fly with Mr. Mulally.

In the end, the Focus team came up with a front end with a low-set, three-part grille and tapered headlights. The look is striking but not too flashy, and the team was given freer rein to make the hatchback version sportier than the four-door sedan model.

TOWARD the end of 2008, Ford conducted dozens of market research clinics with potential customers in several countries. In the clinics, the team learned that it could tailor the interior of the Focus for different regions by simply changing colors and materials rather than pursuing larger design changes that would have been more complex and expensive to manufacture.

The development process entered the home stretch last April, when the first prototypes were presented to Mr. Kuzak for a test drive. Beyond look and feel, he was focused on sound: he wanted to be sure the car was quiet when driven."We needed to elevate customers' perception of our cars," he says. "When I drive the vehicle, I am the customer. We needed it to be refined."

The team gathered at the company's test track in Lommel, Belgium, on the day Mr. Kuzak came to test the Focus. "Any time the boss drives the prototype, you think, 'I hope we survive this,' " says Mr. Herrmann. But after he had driven the car, Mr. Kuzak broke into a big smile. "They exceeded my expectations," Mr. Kuzak recalls.

THE Focus is also serving as a laboratory for sweeping changes in how Ford markets its vehicles. Ford's previous C-car models had not only different and distinct engineering platforms, but also as many as 20 advertising campaigns. James Farley, Ford's global marketing chief, said the new Focus would have just four or five ad strategies around the world.

Mr. Farley says that in the past, Ford had to shape the ads based on vehicles' differences. Now, any variation will be based on the campaign's audience.

"This is not a one-size-fits-all effort," he cautions. "But the diversity of the marketing is created by the customers we want to reach, and not by the differences in the vehicles."

Analysts view the Focus project as a significant step forward for a company that, for years, had been burdened by the weight of its own complexity. Aaron Bragman, an analyst with IHS Global Insight, compared the new direction to Toyota's systemic approach of building high-quality vehicles that have a singular identity and global appeal.

"In its history, Toyota's growth was basically organic," says Mr. Bragman. "They used the same production system everywhere, and sold the same cars everywhere. Their success was all in the execution."

For his part, Mr. Mulally has long been an unabashed admirer of Toyota, and he relishes the comparison. He also makes no apologies for Ford's dependence in the past on selling pickup trucks and big S.U.V.'s to earn profits. With the new Focus and other passenger cars in the product pipeline, he expects to compete head-on with Toyota, Honda and other leaders in the car market.

That won't be easy. Japanese auto companies still dominate the small-car segment in the United States, and their customers have proved very loyal to the brands. G.M., now out of bankruptcy and well financed with government money, is also laying the groundwork for its own product offensive.

Moreover, Ford has yet to prove it can command healthy prices for cars that were historically sold on the cheap.

"The biggest issue that Ford is going to have to deal with is convincing hundreds of thousands of people to pay premium prices for small cars that used to be a bargain," says Joseph Phillippi, a principal of Auto Trends Consulting.

Mr. Mulally promises that Ford is up to the challenge. "We can make cars and make them profitable," he says. "You know how much money Toyota has made on cars? The new Ford can make money on all of its vehicles."

He concedes that Ford's rebirth is a work in progress. But within three years, as many as 80 percent of Ford's products will be built on global platforms, Mr. Mulally says. It is the essence of a strategy to simplify a sprawling, complicated company, leverage its still vast resources and talent, and try to change its direction forever.

The company must still show that it can earn profits quarter after quarter, and not allow its costs to creep up in its pursuit of more sales worldwide. And Mr. Mulally has to be wary of overconfidence after his recent success. "There's no question that he has to keep the pressure on constantly," says Mr. Phillippi.

Ford did dodge the bankruptcy bullet that hit G.M. and Chrysler, and many consumers are gravitating to it precisely because the company did not need a government bailout. That momentum should help as it brings new cars like the Focus to its dealer showrooms.

What Ford won't do is change direction again, at least not under Mr. Mulally's watch. He promises that he — and Ford's 200,000 employees — will not waver from his "point of view" about the future of the auto industry.

"That is what strategy is all about," he says. "It's about a point of view about the future and then making decisions based on that. The worst thing you can do is not have a point of view, and not make decisions."

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Double The Destruction: Tom Meents Sweeps Monster Jam In Atlanta - Bleacherreport.com

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 07:31 AM PST

Photo credit goes to Eric Stern, MonsterJam.com

On a cold Saturday night, the town often nicknamed "Hot Lanta" became a hot bed for the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Series. With a sold-out crowd of over 65,000 people, the Speed TV cameras made their live debut inside the Georgia Dome.

A total of 14 of the top trucks were set to compete on a "Chicago-Style" race course and tackle some of the biggest freestyle obstacles ever brought to Atlanta.

The two biggest names in Monster Jam were in attendance. Up first was Dennis Anderson, beginning his 28th year driving Grave Digger. At this event last year, he won both the racing portion and freestyle, his first of five on the year. He was looking to accomplish the same feat in front of the live audience.

But, to get that done, he had to face off against a driver who I have seen in person on just two occasions. That is eight-time Monster Jam champion, Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction.

Last year, Meents could not be in attendance as he was at another event. The other Maximum Destruction driver from last year, Kreg Christensen, went into the Georgia Dome to put on a show. Unfortunately, a blown motor cut his night short, so Meents had a debt due to the fans in Atlanta.

To get there, he had to beat many of the top guns in the business. Also in attendance were two-time racing champion John Seasock in Batman, Anderson's son, Adam, in Taz, Linsey Weenk in the Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder, and George Balhan in an Escalade.

Once introductions were complete, it was time to go qualifying on a very tacky clay surface. The course was three different hits across the cars, with two tight corners to complete the lap.

The driver that had the track figured out right away was Anderson in Grave Digger, as he blistered the track in a sub-20 second run. No other driver was near that, as even Tom Meents was over 20 seconds on his lap.

Qualifying also saw Weenk struggle and not complete his lap, which put him at the bottom of the bracket and to a meeting with Grave Digger.

The first round had the usual cast of characters win their respective races, as Anderson, Meents and Balhan moved on. The spectacular moment came after Adam Anderson won his race against Batman. He carried so much speed after the final jump, he cut the wheel to the left and the truck flipped on it's roof, destroying the body.

The first round also saw Randy Moore in War Wizard beat Alex Blackwell in Captain's Curse because of Blackwell flipping in the first corner.

Because of the 14 truck line up, a fast loser from the first round came back to make an eight-truck bracket in round two. This time, it was Cam McQueen in Nitro Circus who got the reprieve to come back and race.

Unfortunately, his reward was a run against Grave Digger, and the icon of Monster Jam did his job, moving to the semi finals.

Adam Anderson made it back for his race, but was defeated by an Escalade. Also winning were Maximum Destruction and the big surprise, Paul Cohen in Monster Mutt.

The run of the Mutt came to an end as Meents took the win. On the other side of the bracket, Grave Digger kept the momentum high as he took out Escalade, making a match-up of the greatest rivalry in monster trucks.

As they pulled to the line, the focus could be seen on Anderson's face, who did not get out of his truck all night long. Meents had a dead stare in his eyes as they pulled to the line. When the green light came on, it was full throttle for each driver.

Coming to the line, it was close but Meents was able to get the victory by the length of a wheel. Meents came out and celebrated with his fans as he stood on top of his truck.

As Meents accepted the winner's trophy, the track crew began preparations for the second half of the event, freestyle. The track had a large bus stack, a double jump containing six cars, a step up hill and a van stack sitting on a four-foot tabletop.

Right away, it was Cohen and the Monster Mutt setting the pace with big jumps and good momentum. His run finished with a crossed up jump that saw the truck on it's side before he throttled out. He set the bar with a score of 22.

The first big run of the night came from Scott Hartsock in the newly repainted Gunslinger. Over the summer, Hartsock made some shock changes to his truck, and it worked incredibly well as his truck landed well after some big jumps.

He was also the first truck to pull off some strong wheelstands and the crowd loved it. His score would be a 30.

Hartsock would remain in the lead until Blackwell brought out Captain's Curse. His roll in racing did not hurt the truck and he came out showcasing his horsepower. Some great crossed up jumps, two saves from rolling over and a donut later, it was time for Hartsock to step aside as Blackwell got a 31 from the judges.

The first real breakage came from Randy Moore in War Wizard as early in his run, the spindle on his passenger front wheel snapped after a leap over the bus. The truck balanced on the left side for what seemed like an eternity as he landed, but finally came to rest on it's side.

More rollovers soon followed as Superman, Escalade and Taz all wound up on their roof. But, then came the hardest hit of the night as it was time for Weenk to bring out Blue Thunder.

After some great jumps, Weenk set up for a leap over the step up hill. Hitting the ramp at full throttle, the truck landed on the other side of the Georgia Dome, breaking off the left front tire.

The damage was extensive as he broke off the spindle, the shock mount and tore the steering ram right out of it's shell. The run was spectacular, but he did not get the lead.

Then, out came Meents in Maximum Destruction. Following his win in racing, Meents was set to live up to his truck's name and went crazy on the track. Big air, crossed up jumps, an attempt at a cyclone donut and some insane saves made up the first part of his run.

With about 10 seconds left in his regulation time, the rear steering in the truck went out, locking in a left-hand turn. Meents did not care as he just kept going. His run ended with a twisting roll over, but not before the entire crowd was on it's feet.

As the scores came in, Meents made his way into the stands to find a fan holding a Maximum Destruction sign. As a reward for being one of his followers, that young fan got the helmet Meents wore for the event. The score would be a 40, enough to fly into the lead.

But, one truck remained. George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" hit the speakers, and the Grave Digger fired up. The first official invite to the 2010 Monster Jam World Finals was ready to go, and Dennis Anderson was ready.

His throttle rhythm was unbelievable and his momentum was huge. Every obstacle was hit on the track. As his bonus time began, Anderson went for a major leap across the floor. He hit the step up ramp and landed on the double car jump on the opposing side of the floor.

The truck rebounded rough on the rear shocks, and the truck flipped over. The fans were in awe, and loved the run. But, the score would be only a 36, which would give the win to Meents and Maximum Destruction.

For not having drove in the Georgia Dome last year, and knowing that his truck didn't perfrom well that night, Meents knew he was on a mission to satisfy the fans.

He did that as he got his first Double Down trophy in over a year as the winner of both racing and freestyle in Atlanta.

If Saturday night was any indication, then the 2010 season for Monster Jam is going to be more competitive and more exciting than any in history.

The season concludes at the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas from March 26-27. I will be at Sam Boyd Stadium to attend the two-day event.

This will be an incredible year for Monster Jam. Strap in, because it is going to be an awesome ride.

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Detroit auto show may answer big issues - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 06:05 AM PST

Some of the things we may learn as the North American International Auto Show kicks off over the next two days in Detroit's Cobo Center:

Can American automakers build great small cars?

Ford and GM will unleash a fleet of advanced and attractive compact and subcompact cars. The 2012 Ford Focus has stunning looks and features foreign brands can't match.

The Chevrolet Cruze is selling like hotcakes in Europe, Asia and Australia. It offers exceptional interior room and unsurpassed safety with 10 air bags.

The Ford Fiesta and Chevy Aveo subcompacts boast style and engineering light years removed from the bare-bones small cars American automakers foisted on buyers in the past.

Can they become world leaders in fuel efficiency and electric-vehicle technology?

The compact Cruze and subcompact Fiesta should both hit 40 m.p.g. on the highway, while the Chevrolet Volt's electric powertrain and unlimited range could make it the first all-purpose electric car, capable of long drives without hours of plugged-in recharging.

Can General Motors flourish with new leadership and without four underperforming brands?

GM's four remaining U.S. brands -- Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC -- will all reveal new models intended to attract new buyers and fill the gaps in their product lines.

In addition to the small Chevys, GM needs the sporty Buick Regal to attract new buyers to a struggling brand.

Can Chrysler survive until its alliance with Fiat provides appealing, high-m.p.g. compact and subcompact models?

Chrysler will add equipment and tweak many of its existing models in an attempt to stop its sales slide.

A couple of Fiat models like a 500 electric car on Chrysler's stand should provide a look at the expertise the Italian automaker will lend to future Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles.

Was Ford simply lucky when it bypassed government assistance, or can it continue last year's growth and roar to No. 1 among the Detroit Three?

Last year's reworked Ford Fusion and Fusion hybrid were unexpected hits. Can Ford impress buyers equally with the Focus and Fiesta?

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