Did Production Actually Begin 8/23 at AAI ?
9/1/04, 06:46 PM
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A small news item in the Aug. 23 edition of Automotive News stated " AutoAlliance Inc. begins building the Ford Mustang today. The cars are pre-job 1 cars. Job 1 will be built Sept. 7". About the same time, I remember a thread on this site where I think an AAI guy made mention that 50 pilot vehicles and 120 verification vehicles had been built, and the next step was the "integrated build". I really didn't understand exactly what "integrated build" meant, but it finally hit me like a ton of bricks when I just recently got around to closely reading another article in the 8/23 issue of Automotive News. The title of this article is "Ford-Mazda plant adds '05 Mustang". It states "The Flat Rock plant has been configured for maximum flexibility to build both cars. The Mazda 6 and Mustang have their own body stamping lines, but the vehicles come together in the pre-paint area. All final assembly goes down the same line".
Based on the above, it is evident Mustangs have been being built since Aug. 23 on the same assembly line as the Mazda 6 to verify they can built both cars on the same line without some unforseen difficulty. I further speculate that unless there is some insurmountible quilty issue, these cars will be shipped to Dealers for sale to the public. I would bet these cars go to the high volume dealers as sort of a reward for their past performance. This is may be why Kevin, our salesman contributor, saw paperwork showing August "bucking" dates for the new Mustang.
Based on the above, it is evident Mustangs have been being built since Aug. 23 on the same assembly line as the Mazda 6 to verify they can built both cars on the same line without some unforseen difficulty. I further speculate that unless there is some insurmountible quilty issue, these cars will be shipped to Dealers for sale to the public. I would bet these cars go to the high volume dealers as sort of a reward for their past performance. This is may be why Kevin, our salesman contributor, saw paperwork showing August "bucking" dates for the new Mustang.
9/1/04, 06:58 PM
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About Five, or six weeks ago my dealer told me that they made a few for Quality checks ,and that they would start up production soon, and that Sept. 7 will be a party for 2005 Mustang Job #1.
Edit: I had posted some where on this site then.
Edit: I had posted some where on this site then.
9/1/04, 07:22 PM
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Originally posted by Galaxie@September 1, 2004, 7:14 PM
there are probably Mustangs being built as we speak which surely are sellable cars. They, along with the first batch will be held for a time for quality checks.
there are probably Mustangs being built as we speak which surely are sellable cars. They, along with the first batch will be held for a time for quality checks.
9/2/04, 12:07 AM
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Hello all. This is my first post here, as I felt the need to provide some input. I work at Ford's St Thomas assembly plant, and I imagine the procedure for new cars at AAI isn't much different than ours. Most of the initial builds will be FEU (Field Evaluation Units), not for sale to the public. There are actually several different stages (I can't remember the names of all of them) the new cars go through. I do know that Ford is taking quality issues at first launch very seriously these days. We held the first 2 weeks of 2005 Crown Vics/Marquis for 4 weeks before shipping, trying to iron out any possible problems (and yes, there were a few). I can imagine with a new car like the 05 'stang, there are going to be a lot of vendor and quality issues that need resolving before Ford will release any of them. On the other hand, I wouldn't worry about the first 100 or so cars, they'll be built as well as any others coming out of the plant. It's the "friday night" cars I would worry about.....
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9/2/04, 06:08 AM
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Originally posted by Dan@September 1, 2004, 11:17 PM
Question is.....would you want one of the first 100 or so?
Question is.....would you want one of the first 100 or so?
Lately Ford has become very catious about its launch procedure.
If you drove by Ford's Oakville plant in the summer of '03, there was a lot with at least 5,000 Freestars parked there which they did not release until they were sure of no glitches.
As long as my car is not built between Friday and Monday I am happy
9/2/04, 06:55 AM
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[quote]Originally posted by Galaxie@September 2, 2004, 6:11 AM
that's funny
Originally Posted by Dan,September 1, 2004, 11:17 PM
As long as my car is not built between Friday and Monday I am happy
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