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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Car maker Ford Motor Co is drawing up plans to retool American plants to make small, fuel-efficient passenger cars that it mainly makes and sells in Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
      The paper said Ford has looked at bringing over European models, including the mid-size Mondeo, in response to high fuel costs that have hit sales of larger, fuel-hungry trucks and sport utility vehicles.
      Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ said portions of this move could be announced on Thursday when the Dearborn, Michigan-based company reports second-quarter results.
      In June, Ford announced it would slash output this year by eliminating shifts, slowing assembly lines and idling truck plants. The car maker said further details on its revised restructuring plan would be provided when it released its second-quarter results.
      In an e-mail response to a request for comment on the WSJ report, Ford spokesman Mark Truby said the company would not release details of its plans before Thursday.
      "We won't comment on speculation on what we may or may not announce in advance," he said.
      (Reporting by Nick Carey, editing by Eric Beech)

Theres nothing wrong with the crown vic other than they made to many. But i do want a Focus ST but when do we get the fords form Australia? because as far as ford goes Europe is only 2nd best and australia gets the best stuff and USA gets the left over fords but thank god we know how to fix them up and we all got a Ford Racing catalog or other aftermarket parts books.

Carmen, I can't believe I'm telling you this, but we've had at least two other threads about Ford building Euro cars in their retooled and idling truck plants. :p

BANGALORE (Reuters) - U.S. car company Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F - News) is about to alter its focus drastically and build more small cars, the New York Times said on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the plans.
 
Ford will make the announcement on Thursday, when it releases quarterly results, the newspaper said.

The company is expected to announce that it will convert three of its North American assembly plants from trucks to cars, according to the sources, the paper said.

Ford will realign factories to make more fuel-efficient engines and produce six of its next European car models for the United States market, it added.

The company will also make its Mercury brand an integral part of its new small-car strategy, the newspaper said, citing the sources, who did not want to be named because of the timing of the official announcement on Thursday.

A Ford spokesman did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

(Reporting by Varsha Tickoo in Bangalore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

So Ford looks like making Mercury into Saturn. GM has done a complete 180 on Saturn, a division that was created to "design and build vehicles in the USA" that were supposed to bring import shoppers back into a domestic car. Now Saturn is being billed as GM's North American Opel outlet. It has resulted in some great cars (the Aura and Astra) but has not been particularly successful sales-wise.
 
Hopefully Mercury can do it better. I say this with mixed feelings, because as much as I'd like to see Mercury (and Ford) succeed, I still think Ford will screw this up. They'll end up bringing us "almost" Euro-cars. They'll look European but Ford will dumb them down for North America. They'll be afraid to offend "traditional" Ford buyers, so they'll turn the Mondeo into a Taurus. I hope I'm wrong, but history has a way of repeating itself...

Umm, of particular note, the Saturn, per se, is no longer built, period.  There will be no new Saturn models produced in the US.  The plant is gutted.  I know this from personal acquaintance and former colleague at the facility.  Strange feeling that gives me.  I designed, built, and installed the energy management system at the Saturn plant.  I've now seen the whole plant de-commissioned.  The plant is going to be re-tooled to build ANY GM vehicle.  That's right ANY GM vehicle, including Corvette, according to my source.  The Corvette will only be assembled there, but there will be some small (mid-size/compact) cars produced there eventually.  Who knows what, though.  There was also hearsay about a truck/bus division being built, but that's been scuttlebutt for years, at least 10 years that I personally know of.
 
This is not to say that GM won't do something weird like ressurrect the Opel/Olds brands through the facility.  Who knows what the heck they're going to do.  Unless we start thinking like the Europeans, though, and start hunting that 40-45 mpg, the few oil executives will continue to get richer while our vehicles continue to cost us more than a new car payment for one tank of fuel.  We have an '06 Chevy C2500 cargo van at work.  It cost $99, exactly, to fill that thing up last time I drove it.  Profitable vehicles will be the smaller models with higher MPG as long as fuel costs are high.  I don't hold much hope for any penitent lowering of fuel prices in the near future.  The only way fuel prices will drop is if demand for it is sharply reduced.