F-150 redefines "Built Ford Tough" by offering the industry's broadest variety of body and trim configurations.

Ford Motor Company's 100th anniversary marks a major milestone for a company that started with humble beginnings in a converted Detroit wagon shop to become the second-largest automaker in the world. Ford literally put the world on wheels by mass-producing simple, reliable vehicles that an average family could afford.

"In terms of economic and social influence, I don't think there's a company that had a greater impact on the lives of people around the world in the 20th century than Ford," says Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Ford. "If you look at our 100-year history, it is clear that our success always has been driven by our products and our people. Great products made us what we are, and they will take us where we're going in the future."

As the company looks toward its next century, those same values are driving the next chapter in Ford history.

"Our goal is to build on our traditional strengths and redefine them for the 21st century. We're going to apply fresh thinking and innovative technology to everything we do, from our basic business processes to the products that define who we are as a company," Ford says. "Our vision moving forward is to build great products, a strong business and a better world."

Great Products:
65 in 5 Years

Ford's product vision begins in North America with the biggest wave of new product introductions in its history. The company plans to introduce 65 new Ford, Lincoln and Mercury products during the next five years. The first of those new products is the all-new 2004 Ford F-150 pickup, which debuts this fall.

The F-Series is the most successful vehicle in the history of automobiles. Since the truck's debut in 1948, more than 27.5 million have been sold. It has also been the best-selling truck in America for 26 years and the best-selling vehicle for 21 straight years.

Building on that foundation, the 2004 F-150 redefines "Built Ford Tough" by offering the industry's broadest variety of body and trim configurations, more power and payload, more cargo volume and more capability all around. That toughness is combined with new convenience features, such as four doors on every vehicle, more interior space - six more inches in the Regular and SuperCab - as well as a bold exterior design and a knockout interior.

While the impact of the new F-150 cannot be overstated, it's not the only news for the 2004 model year. Two new minivans, the Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey, also join the lineup in the fall.

The Freestar is designed to be the most flexible, most powerful and highest-quality minivan Ford ever has built. Freestar offers more safety features than any of its competition, including available rollover side curtain air bags in all three rows of seats. In addition, the vehicle's interior is all-new and more functional than ever.

The Monterey is the first of four new Mercurys debuting during the next three years. The upscale minivan caters to the luxury end of the minivan market. All Montereys come well equipped and offer unique features, such as heated and cooled seats and front and rear sonar parking assist. Monterey is expected to bring new customers into the Mercury showroom, from families to empty nesters.

New for 2004

Strong Business:
Re-inventing Design, Engineering and Manufacturing

To bring the "65 in 5" new vehicles to life, Ford also is re-inventing the way it designs, engineers and manufacturers its cars and trucks.

Ford's newly strengthened Advanced Product Creation group is creating the future of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury products and developing the "next big thing." The work includes bringing technology, marketing and trends in line with the company's upcoming product plans.

In addition, Ford has launched its new Product Creation process with more vehicle platform flexibility, as well as increased commonality and standardization of components and processes. By moving to more flexible, common platforms, Ford can introduce new, derivative products at lower cost in the future - including several all-new Ford, Lincoln and Mercury products not yet announced.

In total, the changes will help Ford achieve a 10 percent annual product development productivity improvement, a 25 percent reduction in the number of platforms in North America by 2010 and a 25 percent reduction in product development time.

The changes also support Ford's unrelenting commitment to "Quality is Job One." In the J.D. Power and Associates 2003 Initial Quality Study, Ford Motor Company was the most improved domestic automaker for the second consecutive year. Ford improved its quality position by 5 percent on the heels of a record 12 percent improvement in 2002. Likewise, Ford showed improvement in J.D. Power's Sales Satisfaction Index, Customer Service Index and received more segment awards than any other manufacturer in the APEAL survey, which measures "things gone right."

In parallel, the huge wave of new products gives Ford an opportunity to improve its manufacturing operations. The company is taking advantage of the massive changeover needed for the new products and bringing its manufacturing systems up to new levels of quality, flexibility, leanness and sustainability.

The 2004 F-150 is being built in Ford's Norfolk, Va., and Kansas City, Mo., assembly plants - the first two of the company's plants to install a next-generation flexible system. The system allows Ford to build several different models off a variety of platforms, and change the mix, volume and options of products produced at the plants in response to consumer demand and market segmentation - all with minimal investment and changeover loss.

By mid-decade in North America, half of Ford's body shops, trim and final assembly operations will be flexible. That number rises to 75 percent by the end of the decade.

Better World: Social Responsibility in Ford's Plants and Products

In addition to being lean and flexible, Ford's manufacturing operations, as well as its products and services, are part of the company's commitment to making the world a better place - through corporate citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability of its products and operations.

Among the most dramatic undertakings is the redevelopment of the Ford Rouge Center in Dearborn, Mich. When the new facility begins operations in 2004 - as one of three plants building the 2004 Ford F-150 - it will signal an expansion of the company's manufacturing vision and the first major step toward making the legendary Ford Rouge Center an industrial icon of 21st century lean, flexible and sustainable manufacturing.

The sustainability comes from ecologically advanced methods for storm water management, energy usage, air quality and soil restoration. These methods will help improve the environment and save the company money.

Ford worked with internationally renowned environmental architect William McDonough on many of the environmental innovations and test beds at the site.

Advanced environmental initiatives being developed at the Rouge Center include:

But at Ford, making facilities environmentally sustainable is not enough. The company says that, ultimately, customers judge automakers' social responsibility by the vehicles they produce. Ford also intends to lead in this area as part of its "better world" vision.

Later this year, Ford begins production of the Ford Escape Hybrid, which combines a gasoline engine with an electric drivetrain as a promising near-term solution to greatly reduced emissions and improved fuel economy. Low-volume fleet production starts at year-end, and retail production begins in mid-2004.

As the first true no-compromise hybrid SUV, the Escape Hybrid combines the cargo capacity and go-anywhere capability of the Ford Escape with the fuel economy and emissions benefits of a "full" hybrid system. Its 300-volt nickel-metal-hydride battery allows the vehicle to run on either the gasoline engine or battery power alone and achieve 35 to 40 miles per gallon fuel economy in the city driving cycle, as well as extraordinarily low SULEV and PZEV emissions standards.

Ford has also announced that its future midsize sedan, the Futura, will be the company's next hybrid vehicle. Like the Escape Hybrid, the Futura Hybrid combines a 2.3-liter I-4 gasoline engine with a 65-kW electric motor. The Futura Hybrid will be introduced after the 4- and 6-cylinder Futura models enter production in 2005.

This year, the Ford Focus continues to be offered as a PZEV - meeting California's stringent partial zero emissions standard without compromising the vehicle's performance, fun-to-drive character or economy. The Focus PZEV, powered by a new 2.3-liter I-4 engine, is the standard engine for all California, New York, Vermont and Massachusetts Focus models. The engine is available for the 2004 model year on all non-SVT Ford Focus models in the United States.

In addition to these production vehicles, Ford continues to pioneer new technologies with several advanced research efforts, including:

In the same way that Ford Motor Company considers its environmental impact from a broad "life-cycle" perspective, the company's approach to safety is designed to be well-rounded. The company's safety leadership includes innovations in energy-managing crash structures, restraint systems and accident-avoidance technologies, including:

Ford@Off-Road.com