Word: aerostar
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...will be a completely new model. Later this year the firm plans to unveil a Ford Thunderbird with styling resembling a BMW. Also in the works: face-lifts for the Ranger pickup and Bronco II sport-utility vehicle; a nip and tuck for the Taurus; a version of the Aerostar van that will stretch 15 in. longer than the current 14 1/2-ft. model; and by 1991 a compact four-wheel-drive van designed by Nissan and made by Ford to compete with Chrysler's line of Voyagers and Caravans, which now command 49% of the U.S. minivan market...
...recall 4.3 million cars, light trucks and vans to correct fuel-system defects that have caused some 230 engine fires and injured 16 people. The problems afflict vehicles with fuel-injected engines from the 1986 through 1988 model years, including the Mercury Sable, the Ford Taurus and the Aerostar van. Ford's ! recall is the largest by a U.S. automaker since 1981, and could be a setback to the company's newly regained reputation for high quality...
Some of those who rushed to buy an expensive robotic system got less than they bargained for. At a Ford Motor plant in St. Louis, snags in 200 production-line robots delayed the 1986 introduction of the Aerostar minivan. Then the discovery that the same robots had been skipping many key welds led to the recall three months later of some 30,000 of the vehicles. In another disastrous episode, a Campbell Soup plant in Napoleon, Ohio, was outfitted with a $215,000 system designed to lift 50-lb. cases of soup. But anytime it encountered defective cases, the machine...
...plant is operating at full speed and will produce 180,000 minivans this year, Chrysler is hard-pressed to keep up with demand. Some dealers are charging a $2,000 premium on each van. Due within the next nine months are two competing models: the Chevrolet Astro and Ford Aerostar. Industry experts think that minivan sales could go all the way to 750,000 a year...
...America during 1984. General Motors and Ford will not launch vans until early in 1985. Both firms chose to put out a line of small trucks before the minivans. To catch up, Ford has even taken the unusual step of displaying a mock-up of its slope-fronted Aerostar minivan at auto shows a full year before the official introduction. Says Sales Vice President Philip Benton: "We think there is a market for 600,000 minivans eventually, and we think ours is a winner." Chrysler Chairman Lee lacocca and President Harold Sperlich first discussed building minivans in the mid-1970s...