With pine mulch, white spruce and bus exhaust perfuming the midmorning breeze, Ford revealed its new 2011 Explorer outside Herald Square’s landmark Macy’s department store in Manhattan on Monday.

The automaker envisioned Catskills-on-Broadway for its signature S.U.V.’s public unveiling, building a wooded hillock with a gently graded slope that descended to a campsite, where outdoorsy models sat rummaging through their fishing-tackle boxes, tucking into sandwiches and riding mountain bikes around their idyll’s perimeter.

Mike Rowe, a mainstay of Discovery Channel programming as well as television commercials for Ford, cued the Explorer’s entrance. The car emerged atop the hill, then coasted down to a knoll where Mr. Rowe intercepted Ford’s chief executive, Alan Mulally, as he exited the front passenger seat, beaming — due in no small part to the $2.6 billion second-quarter profit his company posted last week.

During the ensuing repartee, Mr. Mulally called attention to Ford’s social-media marketing approach for Monday’s revelation. “What’s going on today is getting talked about right now on Facebook, and it’s all over Twitter. To have this conversation happening all over the country is very exciting,” he said.

The Explorer will be assembled at the company’s Chicago plant, which builds another revived Ford nameplate, the Taurus sedan. Citing the $400 million investment that the Explorer represents to the plant, Mr. Mulally said, “We’re fighting for the soul of manufacturing in the United States.”

Though primary manufacturing and assembly will occur domestically, Ford’s sales strategy for its S.U.V. faces emphatically outward. “It will be sold in 90 countries,” Mr. Mulally said.

The new Explorer is being introduced to a market that has cooled on sport utility vehicles, the traditionally pickup-truck-based vehicle segment over which the Explorer reigned for well over a decade, selling more than six million units since its 1990 introduction. To lure buyers away from so-called crossover vehicles that have captured market share with superior ride comfort and gas mileage, Ford has created a more supple Explorer, eschewing the body-on-frame construction of its previous incarnations for a unibody setup based on that used by the Taurus.

Fuel efficiency is addressed via the company’s first domestic application of its turbocharged 2-liter 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which generates 237 horsepower and 250 pound-feet of torque. Ford executives claim a 30 percent combined efficiency improvement over the outgoing 4-liter V-6, which was rated at 14 miles per gallon in the city and 20 on the highway.  Also offered is the 3.5-liter V-6 found in other Ford products, good for 290 horsepower and 255 pound-feet of torque and a 20 percent increase in efficiency over the outgoing Explorer. What the V-6 sacrifices to the 4-cylinder in efficiency, it compensates for with a higher towing rating: 5,000 pounds versus the 4-cylinder’s 2,000.

Ford’s group vice president, David Leitch, said in an interview that mileage numbers have yet to be released for both drivetrains.

As further evidence of Ford’s intent to exorcise the Explorer’s gas-guzzler baggage, the brand expects consumers will be willing to pay a premium not for towing capacity, but for efficiency. “The EcoBoost 4 will be priced slightly higher than the base V-6,” Jay Ward, the Ford communication director, said in a phone conversation. Additionally, Explorers equipped with the turbo 4 will not be available with 4-wheel drive, whereas V-6 models are offered with either front- or 4-wheel drive.

A V-8 is no longer an engine option on the Explorer.

The Explorer will be offered at three trim levels when it goes on sale this winter: Explorer, XLT and Limited, with a base prices of $28,995, including $805 destination charges, ranging upward to $37,995 for the Limited, positioning it below the coming 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which starts at $30,995.

Source (article): NYTIMES

Source (pictures): ONLINESOCIALMEDIA, THEMUSTANGNEWS

If you didn’t already think Mercury was dead—the brand has been languishing for many years now—Ford has finally given it the official ax. The brand holds just 0.8 percent of U.S. market share, according to company spokespeople, and the Ford brand has grown its own market share already this year by over twice what Merc holds annually.

To the many previous claims by Ford that Mercury wasn’t going to be killed, the company maintains that the decision was not planned and discussions about Mercury’s demise only began this past week. We remain skeptical; one week seems like an awfully short time in which to decide to kill a 70-year-old brand, and the total lack of new product for Mercury in recent years suggests few people were planning its future.

Ford plans to begin offering special incentives this summer to clear out inventory and says it will end Mercury production in the fourth quarter of 2010. Compared to the quagmire GM has discovered can be created when closing a brand and abandoning franchises, Ford should have a relatively easy time of it. Of all 1712 Mercury dealers extant, not one is a standalone store. Ford and Lincoln dealers will of course continue to service Mercury vehicles and honor warranties on them.

Lincoln to Benefit

With Mercury still warm and in transit to the morgue, Ford has already announced its plans for Lincoln to more directly compete with Cadillac and Lexus (another hint that the demise of Mercury was no quick decision). Company resources are being reshuffled to expand the Lincoln line with “seven all-new or significantly refreshed vehicles in the next four years.”

In a move sure to appease dealers losing the Mercury line, Lincoln will gain is own C-segment offering based on the upcoming Ford Focus’s new global platform. The C-segment car will offer an EcoBoost powertrain, as will all other Lincolns within the next four years, including the Navigator. An all-new V-6 is in development and will be specific to Lincoln.

Derrick Kuzak, vice president of global product development, says that future Lincolns will not simply be badge-engineered Fords, but will be designed and “engineered to be Lincoln,” with unique Lincoln-specific technology and features. We aren’t exactly sure “engineered to be Lincoln” is quite an ambitious-enough goal, but Lincoln says its new focus is to provide, “engaging dynamics and a warm inviting cabin.” A warm cabin it’s on the way to achieving, but to accomplish engaging dynamics, Lincoln certainly has a lot of ground to make up. Without the dead weight of Mercury burdening the company, it will at least have more resources to devote to the cause.

Source (article): CARANDDRIVER

Source (picture): MSNBC.MSN

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