Better late than never
Today I came across a press release in the Globe and Mail that I've literally been waiting seven years to read.
I first attended the Detroit Autoshow in 2002 expecting the Big Three to present products to fit a future beset by declining oil supplies, rising temperatures, emergent middle classes in the Far East and ever more congested cities: smart, small, efficient electric cars. Needless to say it was a bitter disappointment to find "Made in Texas" stickers plastered on obscenely huge SUVs and even a mock rocket launcher fixed to the roof of a Jeep Cherokee.
It took seven years and a complete market meltdown to set aside that deeply entrenched delusional macho bravado in favor of reality, which we find embraced below:
The Associated Press May 6, 2009 at 9:04 AM EDT10:52 AM
WAYNE, MICH. — Ford Motor Co. [F-N] says it will spend $550-million (U.S.) to convert its old Michigan Truck Plant into a facility that will build small compact modern cars.
The retooled facility, which once built sport utility vehicles like the Lincoln Navigator, will now build Ford's next-generation Focus, expected to roll off the line next year.
The plant will also build a new battery-electric version of the Focus for the North American market. That vehicle is expected to debut in 2011.
The struggling auto maker says roughly 3,200 jobs will be created in Michigan because of the plant conversion.