http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/25/r...cutting-2-000/

 

Ok so ford is basically going to cut itself down to Ford, Lincoln, and it's partial ownership of Mazda? Just wondering.

 

"1,400 white-collar staff and 600 blue-collar jobs are on the chopping block."

A little top heavy perhaps?

 

It's not as bad as it sounds since Ford has different divisions for pretty much every continent.

At least Fords are very competitive here in Europe. You should see European Chevys, or should I say Daewoos.

They're just embarrassing them selfs with cars like this one.

 

Aren't alot of the present Ford Platforms based on Volvo?

 

Pretty much all European Fords and Taurus/Sable/MKS.

 

Sorta, without the whole story we tend to end up with a misunderstanding regarding Volvo's level of involvement with these platforms and the impression that Volvo is more important to platform development than they actually are.

EUCD and D3 are the two Ford platforms people are referring to when they utter the words Volvo-based. Starting with the former, EUCD is pretty much a large car derivation of the C1 platform. And while Volvo did nearly all of the work needed to transform C1 into EUCD the reality is that C1 itself is a Ford platform developed by Ford of Europe with input from Mazda and Volvo. In light of this it's a bit difficult to look at an offshoot of the same as somehow not a Ford platform. Further, Volvo was only tasked with the development of EUCD because it was more important to them than Ford Europe. Nearly every Volvo will be based on EUCD/P24 within a few years, while only the largest Ford of Europe products utilize EUCD.

As for D3, Ford rendered Volvo's P2 platform into the less expensive D3 platform for two reasons. a: it had become obvious that Volvo product alone couldn't pay for the cost of developing and implementing P2 and Ford needed to spread the platform around a bit if they were going to change this eventuality. b: Ford needed a new, large car platform and spinning Volvo's well executed P2 design into something less expensive was both less expensive and less risky than starting from scratch.

While I have mixed feelings regarding the possible sale of Volvo the reality is that the Swedish brand doesn't bring as much to the table as many seem to think, and Ford can develop platforms just fine without them.

 

I'm still in "I'll believe it when I see it mode" with Volvo. Everyone from BMW to Tata to Greely has been rumored as getting it from Ford, unless something firm comes up or the rumors start concentrating on one buyer, they're just rumors.

 

Thats a bit of an over representation. Only the Mondeo, Galaxy, and S Max are EUCD based, and the origins of the EUCD platform aren't exactly clear cut by any means. The Focus, C Max, Kuga, Fiesta, Ka, and Fusion are all based on separate platforms which are clearly not Volvo platforms.