If they do continue production of Panther platform vehicles at another assembly plant, I hope it is for fleet sales only. Having these antiquated vehicles in their retail lineups gives Ford a very dowdy, outdated image.

Ford has already relegated the Crown Victoria to fleet sales only status. They need to do the same thing with the Town Car once the MKS hits the market.

Ouch. I feel bad for those employees.

Man I love my full frame RWD V8 Grand Marquis. I hate to be forced to buy an SUV for RWD.

Whats strange when I hear about car plants closing down, so many of the workers who have been working their for 15 years or more earning good money all of a sudden are afraid of losing their houses and feeling a huge financial crisis. Don’t these people save their money? Do thse idiots spend everything they earn on ordering pizza and beer and smokes? Do they understand the concept of investment? To all those old timers who earned that good money for over a decade and now fear losing your homes I say good for you, now you see the consequences of being a wreckless idiot.

HA HA its not as if they were productive

I think the idea is to discontinue the Towncar and Marquis also. It’s been in talks for quite some time now.

^planet makes a good point. what do these people do with all the money they make? earning $26/hour, many of them working overtime, full health insurance and benefits and when the factory closes they got no money in the bank saved up. Domestic autoworkers are nothing but a worthless group of uneducated whiners always demanding more money so they can go and buy pointless toys like ATV’s and snowmobiles. They’re too stupid to save money, but everyone in America now is too stupid to save, everyones in debt, everything everyone has is owned by the banks. We have become a nation of artificial posers.

The axe is falling hard on a dated, and dying lineup.

m-r 13: “Domestic autoworkers are nothing but a worthless group of uneducated whiners always demanding more money so they can go and buy pointless toys like ATV’s and snowmobiles.”

Whare are you from? I suspect you’re jealous of our freedom and/or your own limited set of physical or intellecual skills. Oh, well.

Perhaps CAW folks are not rocket scientists, but they worked all or most of their life and when plant closes what do you do? If you 30-35 you can start something, but pass that point it is difficult.
And if you are engineer (and auto engineers are not in it for the money) there is little opportunities. Who wants to become been counter or open a deli?

Hey moto-retard 13, i work with teachers, police officers, accountants, and many other educated people, but you know whats pays better…thats right auto work you ****ing jackass.

I’m with JJT and 400hpSS.

^400ss you just proved his point with your comment making you look like an idiot. Can you figure out what that point was? He was talking about how so many of these autoworkers who have been working for so long making good money are all of a suddend dealing with a personal financial crisis when they lose their job. The whole point of his statement is how stupid so many of these workers are making good money and not saving any of it or investing it, and when the plant shuts down, they wonder how they will be able to pay the bills because they were too stupid to realise the importance of saving money. So you are right autoworkers make good money as moto mentioned first. I’m sure moto is having a good laugh if he comes back to read this.

Nothing in this article indicates that these workers haven’t saved.

F451,

Finally.

That platform hit in 1978 or so. I was a little kid then. FORD had several good opportunities since then to seriously update the cars. Their 1980s large coupes were basically shortened panthers. The last one was with the introduction of the New Mustang. The one before that was with the 1990s Thunderbird, Cougar, and Mark VIII – just stretch the coupe out to a sedan. Front engine RWD, and four wheel independent suspension. Sound familiar? Kinda’ like the 300 and Charger? I actually wanted a Thunderbird SC back then.

FORD was way ahead of the curve in the 1990s. Long ways to fall.

Still falling, it seems.

On the up side, this is maybe going let the Falcon in.

Have fun eating Ramen noodles, you ****ing union monkeys!! LOL!!!

Blakkar: I wanted a Thunderbird SC for a while, too. One of the local “white boys” had one.

They should just keep making the damn things specifically for taxi/ limo companies. They’ll keep buying them for as long as Ford makes ‘em. They’re perfect for that. The parts are cheap and you can re-use parts from a 20 year old one on a 2 year old one. That’s why Checker lasted for 20 years or whatever. I’m in NYC a lot and can attest the Escape and Sienna cab’s are worn out after a year and a half.

rsg: good point. Taxi companies (and Cops to a lesser extent) care mostly about toughness.

That’s a lot of good people losing their jobs. And I fear this won’t be the last such announcement we’ll hear of this nature in the near future. And since when did $26 an hour become a King’s ransom? Anyone who would chastise these folks for not having saved enough from 20 years of working at an auto plant (or anywhere else for a similar wage) has obviously never raised a family in today’s world.

If I were building the probably three oldest models on the street, I’d be worried that the plant will close sooner or later, so not surprising.

26 MPG highway Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marq. 24-25 MPG Highway Towncar….all V-8 engines…all go quarter a million miles or more with little maintenance. Taxicabs, copcars, limos and rental cars all benefit from these cars…and of late, so did Ford Mo Co. Its all about the canadian dollar and the old factory with the expensive union. If they could move the factory to Mexico, they would. I’m sure if 100k unit production is being considered to be axed, they are surely checking into it before reacting. These sales will not be replaced by some MKS of other Ford vehicles currently being built…these are in a league of their own.

Most UAW people have a second vacation house, a nice boat, camper, ATV’s, etc.

They make a lot and spend a lot, saving money is not in their thinking (mostly).

When the axe falls, all the toys are lost, plus the house. Sad.

^and thats exactly why people shouldn’t feel sorry for those laid off auto workers who will be forced to go on welfare. Big spenders usually become big losers.

But it should be said not all of them are wreckless spenders, I know a few who have saved and invested and when they got laid off, no worries. But alot of their other co workers had to sell their house, some of them got divorced due to all the financial strain. One even committed suicide. Everything that happens is a result of choices you made so no need to feel sorry for anyone.

Get real, mr-13. Y’all done lost y’all’s minds. “Second vacation homes?”
Come on!

It is not economically feasible to pay line workers what they make … my uncle works at the Oakville assembly plant and makes over $30/hour. Unacceptable.

To assume the workers are uneducated is an uneducated opinion … I worked in Oakville and there were engineers who worked the line because they couldn’t find jobs paying so well, in addition to having security with the union.

‘jjt’, not everyone’s jabbing is due to jealousy, as you seem to truly believe. I am one who clearly disproves that theory. There are jobs that require sweeping floors … I remember one girl who couldn’t do anything else so they gave her a broom … at $20-something an hour … WRONG.

These jobs, with global competition being the way it is, should be shipped off to emerging economies. If I ran this business, there would be NO way I’d be paying more than $15/hour for basic, physical labour.

CLOSE IT DOWN !

Impulsive: you can talk about whether it’s economically feasible, but don’t complain about their wages. I didn’t say you WERE hjealos, I said that was a stament that sounded like it came from a jealous guy

Why not complain about their wages? $30+/hour is obscene for that kind of work … more so when it can be done by anyone, anywhere at 80-90% yield here for 1/2 to 1/6 less.

The union has no legs to stand on … cut paycheque in half or lose your job altogether.

Don’t worry, the market will take care of this unjust situation shortly.

“It can be done by anyone?”
What?

… Assembling vehicles.