2007 Ford Focus S / Hatchback 5-door / 2.0 Liter Duratec 4-cylinder / Kr3463 on 2040-cars

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Ford taken to task by gov't for Chicken Tax end-around

Ford is in a bit of a pickle for importing and selling Turkey-built Transit Connect cargo vans as passenger vehicles in the US, then converting them to commercial-vehicle specification stateside in an effort to bypass a 25-percent tax imposed on vehicles imported for commercial use. Automakers are required to pay a 2.5-percent tax on imported passenger vehicles.
The Blue Oval got into trouble for this in a January ruling in which U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials asked Ford to stop the practice of importing the Transit Connect vehicles with passenger seats, then removing and shredding them. Now Automotive News reports that Ford is appealing the ruling. The 25-percent "Chicken Tax," as the tariff is often called, is 50 years old and was enacted as a response to a German tariff on chickens. Like Ford, Chrysler bypasses the higher tariff, but it does so in a different manner. It partially disassembles Sprinter cargo vans before shipping them to the US, then rebuilds them at a plant in South Carolina.
But the ruling against Ford's strategy states that it "serves no manufacturing or commercial purpose" and is there to "manipulate the tariff schedule," Automotive News reports. As Ford's appeal goes through, it is importing the Transit Connect and paying the higher tax, hoping for a favorable outcome and planning to build the next-generation Transit Connect, which it plans to launch before the end of the year, in Spain.

Ford recalling 65k Fusions from 2014 and 2015 because key can be removed

Ford is recalling an estimated 64,869 examples of the 2014-2015 Fusion, Fusion Energi and Fusion Hybrid in North America because the key can be removed when the vehicle isn't in Park under certain conditions. Specifically, the campaign covers 56,479 units in the US, 6,048 in Canada and 2,342 in Mexico, according to the automaker's tally on November 11.
Ford says a programming problem in the instrument cluster means that the key can be removed 30 minutes after the ignition is turned off, even if the transmission is not in Park. The situation where this could happen seems quite limited, and the company is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the issue. However, the fault puts the vehicle out of compliance with federal regulations covering theft protection and rollaways, and must be repaired.
The fix is easy: Ford will reprogram the instrument cluster at no cost to consumers. According to Ford spokesperson Kelli Felker in an email to Autoblog, "We will notify customers the week of January 5th." Scroll down to read Ford's announcement.

Ford E-Series chassis cabs and cutaways to survive mass Transit onslaught

In March 2013, Ford announced we'd be getting chassis cab and cutaway versions of the Transit. Since incoming Transit vans will soon be rolling over the grave of the E-Series van, it was assumed that all E-Series models would go six feet under as well. According to a report from PickupTrucks.com, however, that's not the case, the report claiming that the highly modifiable E-350 and E-450 chassis cab and cutaway versions will continue being produced in Avon Lake, Ohio "at least until 2020."
Being decades old, the be-cabbed E-Series platform has found its way under an army of heavy-duty shuttle buses, work truck and ambulances. Ford spokeswoman Jessica Enoch verified the production horizon, telling Autoblog that the particular E-Series configuration "are a higher GVWR than the Transit chassis cab and cutaway (available this summer), which is more Class 2 and a new segment for us." So there you have it.