Ford vows to stage comeback

[phillyc]

I'm awfully confused, diesel 2.0 is in short supply so diesel in Mondeo, Focus and Kuga are restricted, difficult or just plain unavailable
but through all of that, Ford has no plans to build Mondeo in Asia or to put a diesel plant there as they say Asians want petrol.
What about the Australian market that's crying out for diesel stock, come on Ford play the game and start listening
to the long line of diesel buyers and stop making diesel unobtanium....

Very happy the 2.7L V6 TD is in the SZ Territory! Considering it is 70% or more of Territory sales, imagine if it was supply limited?! ugh. But it is not. Yay!

Wonder if it possible to convert the Geelong plant to diesel manufacture? I know the tooling etc would be different, but the place is geared up for Iron blocks. New diesels tend to be CGI which requires new tooling.

Heck, make the I5 3.2L TD (or newer version) in the Ranger here as well as a I4 to be fitted to a locally built Mondeo, Falcon, Territory etc!

[Falc'man]

Perception is the one major area where the EB isn't better than diesel.

[phillyc]

Agreed. With diesel the marketing has already been done by other manufacturers on it's benefits. EcoBoost requires Ford to market it.

Other than it being an excellent vehicle the diesel Territory has all but sold itself. An EcoBoost would require education of the masses. Thankfully Ford are getting it across just about every model so it will be advertised.

From all reports the EcoLPi is getting great consumption figures in the hands of those who have them too!

[Falc'man]

Yeah you're right they do need a serious push. Most importantly they do need to get bums in seats and test drive it.

[jpd80]

The crazy stupid thing is that mondeo is severely limited in supply due to popularity of 2.0 TDCI in other FoE vehicles,
Ford is reasoning that there is no point building Mondeo in Asia (FAPA) because they wont build a diesel plant there
because Asia wants petrol cars....Huh?
How about Broady builds the 2.0 TDCI and 2.7 TDCI with Geelong cast iron blocks, cranks and we import the rest of the parts.
Mondeo could then be built here as could Kuga....

[phillyc]

The crazy stupid thing is that mondeo is severely limited in supply due to popularity of 2.0 TDCI in other FoE vehicles,
Ford is reasoning that there is no point building Mondeo in Asia (FAPA) because they wont build a diesel plant there
because Asia wants petrol cars....Huh?
How about Broady builds the 2.0 TDCI and 2.7 TDCI with Geelong cast iron blocks, cranks and we import the rest of the parts.
Mondeo could then be built here as could Kuga....

Yeah, that was my thoughts earlier in the thread. Is is possible to convert the Geelong casting & engine plant over to manufacture of diesel engines. Surely, having the foundry there is a bonus, next comes the tooling. How many 'sets' of machines would be required to supply FAPA with enough engines?

If Europe can't get enough supply then it the question needs to be asked. What is the bottle neck in the supply of the engines? The block, the heads, bearings, pistons, what is it?! Could Ford Aus help? Could some parts come from Europe whilst the block and cranks head in the opposite direction. Depending on the relative value of the items, the high AUD wouldn't matter to Ford HQ from an Australian export sense, because the imported parts would be cheaper. What would matter is the improved ability to supply engines and sell more vehicles.

I always liked the idea that Kuga could be built in Australia. Being Australian made from a CKD kit it could be made at very reasonable cost relative to it's retail price. Same with Mondeo.