Ford jumping on AWD opportunity

Ford Motor Co., surprised by the popularity of theAWD versions of its Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle, and the Mercury Montego, forecasts sales of such equipped vehiclesfrom automakers to reach 500,000 a year with eighty percent to be crossover vehicles (SUV or CUV). The company hasplans to jump on the opportunity.

"When Ford introduced the new AWD vehicles," says RobertParker, car marketing manager for the Blue Oval, "demand outstripped supply during the initial launch. Customerssaw that AWD really provided the best value for the dollar. Based on our experience with those cars, Ford has set aboutbringing the technology to a wider range of vehicles and expanding the consumers' choices."

The companywill be releasing AWD versions of its Fusion/Milan/MKZ (formerly Zephyr) mid-sized sedans by 2007. Ford's foreignsubsidiary Volvo offers AWD in most of its lineup while Mazda's Mazdaspeed6 comes standard in AWD. The feature willalso be available on the company's upcoming lineup of CUVs.

[Source: Ford]

Ford jumping on AWD opportunity originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 30 Mar 2006 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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