Slow Ford Mustang, Mazda 6 Sales Lead to Cut of 900 Jobs
By Michelle Krebs February 17, 2010Much is going right for Ford but not all is rosy. 
The automaker announced Tuesday that it will drop a shift at its joint venture plant with Mazda outside of Detroit, eliminating 900 jobs.
The automaker said the shift and jobs at the AutoAlliance Mustang plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, south of Detroit, are eliminated in the name of plant efficiency. The plant, jointly owned by Mazda and Ford, assembles the Mazda 6 and the Ford Mustang, neither of which have been having banner sales.
Due to slow sales, the plant scheduled significant downtime in the past year. As it eliminates the shift and 900 of the plant's 2,300 jobs by July, the line speed on the remaining shifts will be increased.
Ford said a majority of the workers will be transferred to a different plants, including the Chicago plant that will add 1,200 workers to build the new Ford Explorer and the Wayne, Michigan, plant that will produce the 2012 Ford Focus.
Other workers will receive buyout packages. Still others will be laid off. The cuts take effect in July.
Mustang and Mazda 6 sales fell by 27 percent and 34 percent, respectively -- more than the industry average.
The Mustang has been in a fierce sales race with the Chevrolet Camaro, which went on sale last March. The Mustang closed 2009 ahead of the Camaro but the Camaro is gaining while the Mustang lags. The Camaro outsold the Mustang in January.
The race heats up further this year when the Mustang gets a new, more powerful V6 engine and the Camaro adds new versions. But a new engine may not be enough for Mustang to pull ahead of the Camaro. -- Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst and Editor at Large
Photo by Ford
Production of the Ford Mustang was moved for the 2005 model year to the Ford-Mazda AutoAlliance joint-venture plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, where a shift and 900 jobs will be eliminated by July.
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Long time fan of the Mazda6, until the current one arrived. It is just too darn big. Too heavy.
Better materials and higher feature content sure, however, if I wanted a CamCord I would not buy a Mazda.
I'm a long-time Mustang fan. I know a lot of us are holding out for the 5.0, which promises to make the Mustang much more competitive powertrain wise. Trouble is, it won't be offered until MY'11, which is going to make MY'10 a comparative loss versus the Camaro.
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