Ford hopes to regain edge

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By The Associated Press | Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:08 AM CDT | () comments

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A worker inspects a Ford Edge as it rolls off the line Monday at the assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario. Ford announced its flexible manufacturing facility in Canada will build the first for-sale 2007 Ford Edge and 2007 Lincoln MKX.

DETROIT (AP) — By itself, the teardrop-shaped Ford Edge won’t save Ford Motor Co., but executives are hoping the new crossover vehicle will be a strong player in the company’s bid to reverse its sales decline.

The five-passenger Edge, the latest entry into the crossover market, looks like a sleek version of a sport utility vehicle, but it is lighter, nimbler and more fuel efficient because it’s built on car rather than truck underpinnings.

Ford executives say the Edge is crucial to the company’s restructuring plan and to helping it reverse a market share slide from about 26 percent in 1995 to around 17 percent this year. The company’s sales have dropped 8.6 percent through September when compared to the first nine months of 2005, and it lost $1.4 billion in the first half of this year.

In a Webcast from San Francisco, where the Edge officially was unveiled on Monday, Ford’s President of the Americas Mark Fields predicted that it would become a crossover icon, calling it a “no excuses product that’s really going to set the benchmark for this segment.”

Prices for the Edge will start around $26,000, including standard front and side air bags and roll stability control. The front-wheel-drive version is expected to get gas mileage similar to its competitors at 25 miles per gallon on the highway. The all-wheel-drive version is rated at 24 mpg highway.

Competitors include the Toyota Highlander, Chrysler Pacifica and Chevrolet Equinox.

Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates, said the Edge is important to Ford, which will continue to lose sales numbers as it ceases production of the Taurus sedan this month.

Schuster said the Edge’s body styling and other features should make it a solid performer in a growing segment of the market in which buyers are looking for SUV features with the gas mileage and handling of a car.

“I think the Edge is certainly the direction where the market is heading,” he said. “That type of product, the segment and the body style, fits well into the shifts going on in consumer tastes, essentially the new family vehicle, the replacement to the traditional sedan.”

While the Edge won’t replace sales of the popular Taurus, it should settle in around 100,000 vehicles per year, Schuster said. Ford expects to sell about 175,000 Tauruses this year.

Fields said Ford expects crossover vehicles to be the largest segment of the automotive market by the end of the decade. During the first nine months of the year, crossovers amounted to 12.8 percent of the total U.S. light vehicle sales, according to Autodata Inc.

Fields said the company has a lot riding on the Edge. In a company video earlier this month, he told members of his management team that it is key to Ford’s success.

“This launch is absolutely crucial. If there’s any product that has to deliver, this one has to be it,” he said.

The Edge is built on the Mazda 6 car platform, which has received acclaim for its crisp handling.

Schuster said the Edge, built in Oakville, Ontario, is another example of leaner manufacturing techniques that keep costs down by building several models on one platform. The Edge’s counterpart, the Lincoln MKX, as well as the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan midsize cars also are built on the Mazda 6 platform. Ford owns 33 percent of Mazda Motor Corp. of Japan.

The Edge is due in showrooms in November.

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