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Ford Police Interceptor with 2.0L EcoBoost rated most fuel-efficient police sedan

Back in September, Ford announced a non-pursuit version of its Police Interceptor Sedan, which swaps out a choice of two V6 engines for a fuel-efficient 2.0-liter EcoBoost inline four-cylinder. This Special Service Police Sedan will be marketed to law enforcement agencies looking to cut fuel costs and don't need the extra power.
For college campuses, detectives and the like, this new police car has now been certified with EPA fuel economy estimates of 20 miles per gallon in the city, 32 mpg on the highway and a combined rating of 24 mpg. These figures represent a decrease of two mpg in city and combined ratings compared to the civilian-spec 2014 Taurus. These police cars still offer active grille shutters for better aerodynamics, although we're guessing agencies upfitting their cars with light bars and push bumpers aren't exactly concerted with aerodynamics. The true benefit of the SSP version is when it's compared against other police sedan options like the Dodge Charger, Chevy Impala, Chevy Caprice and even the V6 Police Interceptor Sedan.
Ford claims the new Police Interceptor Sedan SSP is the most fuel-efficient current option for police departments, saying that this car can save $1,720 per car over three years and almost $260,000 over the same span of time for fleets with 150 vehicles. There is an official press release posted below, and also check out the gallery of images from Ford collected from various police agencies across the US (although none show the 2.0-liter SSP model). Head on over to Ford's Police Interceptor mini-site for even more pictures of the Police Interceptor Sedan and Utility.

Ford will lay off 700 employees in Michigan

Lagging sales of compact and electric cars are starting to take their toll on automakers. Ford said Thursday it intends to lay off 700 employees who work at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, MI, over the next five months. The plant makes Ford Focus and C-Max vehicles. Sales of both have stalled in recent months. The layoffs affect 675 hourly and 25 salaries employees, and will begin in late June and continue through September, according to paperwork filed with state officials. The company expects to re-hire the affected employees elsewhere and use them on temporary basis throughout the summer. Ford spokesperson Kristina Adamski said the affected employees will be "first in line" for other jobs at nearby plants, and UAW vice president Jimmy Settles said he expected all would be re-hired at other southeast Michigan factories by "early 2016." Although industry sales have remained high overall, the growth has come from SUVs and pickup trucks. Conversely, compact cars and alternate-powered vehicles like the C-Max have struggled to find customers amid cheap gasoline prices. Focus monthly sales fell 14.5 percent year over year in March, and C-Max monthly sales dropped 22.9 percent over the same period. It was less than three years ago that Ford hailed the Michigan Assembly Plant as a model for its future, one that would quickly adapt to market conditions through a more flexible assembly process. The plant was retrofitted at a cost of $550 million so that the same assembly line could install electric, plug-in hybrid or gasoline powertrains. Ford produces the Focus, Focus ST, Focus Electric, C-Max Hybrid and C-Max Energi here. At the time, company officials said the flexible line was a way to "not be trapped with dedicated one-trick-pony plants where you have under-capacity or over-capacity situations," said Jim Tetreault, Ford's vice president of North American manufacturing, in November 2012. But that's exactly where Ford finds itself as consumers have turned away from both compact and gas-sipping hybrids and electrics as gas prices have fallen to a national average of $2.49 per gallon, according to Thursday's AAA Fuel Gauge Report. One year ago, gas prices averaged $3.70 per gallon. In perhaps a melancholy twist, the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator that were phased out at Michigan Assembly by the retrofit are once again the types of vehicles that are sought after by consumers.

10 automakers shack up in Detroit hotel to talk Takata airbags

Since Takata has decided not to take the lead concerning potential issues with its airbag inflators, the automakers have. Perhaps that's unsurprising, since it's the automakers, not Takata, that will take a beating on the dealership floor if consumers decide its models are a health hazards. The Detroit News reports that Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Subaru met in a hotel conference room near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport last week to sort out a way to understand the technical issues involved. So far, faulty airbag inflators have been ruled the cause of five deaths and 50 injuries around the world, but neither Takata nor investigators understands exactly why the inflators are malfunctioning. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently asked Takata to issue a national recall, Takata declined, citing a minuscule failure rate and the fact that it's still investigating the issue. Toyota and Honda then made an industry-wide appeal for "a coordinated, comprehensive testing program" that would pinpoint the problem inflators and get them replaced, and that's what the Detroit meeting was about. Numerous issues, however, will make this a long row to hoe: simply getting the parts to replace the nearly 20 million inflators in cars recalled around the world so far - even working with other suppliers - will take a years, but more importantly, no one knows if the replacement inflators currently being installed will suffer the same issue. Answers will hopefully come quickly with Takata, the ten automakers and NHTSA all independently investigating the problem.