2009 Ford Mustang Shelby Gt500 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Watch these Australian Ford and Holden muscle cars duke it out

Australia's Motoring has put together a little video on two of the great performance vehicles available down under - the Holden VF Commodore HSV GTS and the Ford Falcon FPV GT R-Spec. And while both FPV and the Falcon might be on their way out, there's still plenty of time for a little head-to-head comparison between the two.
The cars aren't all that well evenly matched, though. The Ford boasts a 5.0-liter, supercharged V8, which the Aussies measure out at 449 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. The HSV, though, with its Corvette-derived, 6.2-liter, supercharged V8 is just too powerful - 576 hp and 545 lb-ft of torque.
Predictably, it doesn't end too well for the Ford. As the guys from Motoring point out, the new VF Commodore is just too new and too good, with its extra power and its adaptive dampers (GM's excellent MagnaRide). Interestingly, Motoring did point out that the Holden's electric steering is better than the Ford's hydraulic steering, which is a lot like a Porsche purist saying they prefer water-cooled engines to air cooled.

FCA to skip summer shutdowns as automakers rev up U.S. assembly lines

DETROIT — Several of FCA's facilities will skip their usual summer shutdowns to get a jump on rebuilding inventory, the company confirmed early Wednesday.  The plants that will remain open include three in the United States (Jefferson North in Detroit, Toledo Assembly in Ohio, and Sterling Heights Assembly in suburban Detroit), one in Canada (Brampton Assembly in Ontario) and two in Mexico (Saltillo Truck Assembly and Saltillo Van Assembly).  This will allow dealers to address depleted inventory of popular trucks and muscle cars, Automotive News reports. Other facilities not named will observe their normal one- and two-week breaks.  Automakers are speeding up U.S. assembly lines to meet recovering demand, increasingly confident coronavirus safety protocols are working to prevent outbreaks in their plants but wary of the challenges workers face outside. Screening workers for COVID-19 using temperature scans and questionnaires, the automakers have detected some people who reported for work despite being sick. Some plants have been briefly shut down for disinfection, but so far, there has not been a major outbreak within a U.S. auto plant since most reopened May 18, company and United Auto Workers union officials said. The risk of an infection picked up outside a plant spreading along assembly lines remains a prime concern, however. An outbreak could shut down a factory costing a manufacturer millions of dollars a day. The disruption caused by the pandemic is creating other challenges as well. At Ford Motor Co's F-series pickup truck plant in Louisville, Kentucky, the company has given more than 1,000 workers leave related to COVID-19 concerns. It hired temporary workers to fill their jobs as the plant accelerates production of trucks critical to Ford's financial recovery. Demand for pickup trucks helped boost U.S. auto sales in May, and contributed to stronger than expected overall U.S. retail sales for the month. Officials of UAW Local 862, which represents workers at the Louisville plant, said a lack of child care was a significant issue for members. It had led many to stay away from the plant and collect increased unemployment benefits provided under the federal CARES coronavirus relief act. Ford has now begun arranging subsidized child care for UAW workers, Gary Johnson, the automaker's head of manufacturing told Reuters.

Ford reports 58% drop in Q2 profits on European losses

Ford Motor Company announced Wednesday that it has posted a $1 billion profit for the second quarter of 2012. That sounds like good news for the Blue Oval, until you take into account that Ford posted a $2.4 billion profit for Q2 a year ago. That is a substantial 58 percent loss.
Ford also posted $465 million in international losses, with $404 million of those losses coming directly from Europe. The automaker also increased its European loss projections to $1 billion for 2012, due in large part to the economic crisis overseas, which has resulted in increased unemployment and decreased consumer confidence.