Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO has taken some very drastic and bold action very recently, going as far as overriding the veto of large swaths of Ford's upper management.
Because US the dollar has fallen hopelessly against world currencies, agreements won from the UAW, and the fact that even the CEO realizes most all the good stuff from Ford is made overseas, money is being sent to revamp factories to make most replacements for Ford's current lineup of cars based on vehicles from overseas.
For starters, the plant making the Econoline van will be redone to make the Transit van from Ford of Europe. Luisville will be converted to produce "unibody cars and crossovers".
The Fusion will be replaced by a US built version of the next Mondeo.
We'll be making the European version of the Ford Focus here in late 2010 for the 2011 model year.
Seems the only vehicles to be sourced here will be Ford's upcoming RWD chassis (which is being developed jointly with Ford Australia, though Ford North America is heading it) and assorted SUVs and trucks.
Adding to the story, Ford seems to be backing out of Volvo based vehicles. Ford's RWD replacements for the Crown Victoria will be close to the same size as the Taurus and MKS. Next year's Taurus resembles the current Mondeo (creating a link for the Mondeo-based sedan to be called Taurus while the Fusion name is cancelled??).
The new F100 mid-sized pickup will be made in the Wayne Michigan plant that currently makes F150s.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...806110388/1148