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Ford brings FPV Falcon production in house [w/video]

For the first time since 1976, Ford of Australia is bringing the assembly of its stonking Ford Performance Vehicle line back in-house to the company's Broadmeadows and Geelong facilities. That's a point of pride for FPV, which builds high-performance versions of the Australian Falcon model like the F6, GS and the heroic GT seen here.
In the video below, we hear FPV employees talking in hushed tones about the important legacy that cars like the GT have for Australian gearheads of all stripes, and how proud they are to say that hand-built machines like this GT R-Spec with its Boss 355 engine are now rolling out of their home base. For our part, we're just dying to drive this version of the Coyote V8; the engine is rocking a "Miami" supercharger from Harrop and makes some 450 horsepower.
Continue on below for the video, or you can check out some images of the new FPV at the facility, as well as a gallery of the GT R-Spec car.

Ford's Troller introduces even more rugged T4 SUVs in Sao Paulo

The Bronco may be long gone from Ford dealerships back home, but down in Brazil its spirit lives on in the Troller brand. Founded independently in 1995, Ford do Brasil took over Troller in 2007 and has been teasing us with its rough-and-tumble SUVs ever since. So with the Sao Paulo Motor Show coming up, Troller has revealed this special version of the T4.
Looking even more rugged than the existing three-door sport-ute, this special T4 packs a snorkel, winch, upgraded bumpers and knobbier tires. We're not sure what to make of the "sophisticated" brown and tan paint job, but send it north and the Jeep Wrangler would have a new challenger on its hands... especially since the Toyota FJ Cruiser was discontinued.
Alongside the version seen here, Troller will also exhibit another T4 outfitted for rescue workers. Scope out initial details of both in the press release below, enclosed in both its original Portuguese and auto-translated into English.

Long winter means most automakers won't curb summer shutdown

A lot more happened during this latest brutal winter than days of snow and Netflix binges. Automotive sales took a battering. After all, going out car shopping when it's eleventy-billion degrees below zero isn't a good time.
Because of this Old Man Winter-induced sales slump, inventories are abnormally high as we head into the summer car buying season. That's led some analysts to predict that automakers will be more inclined to idle factories this summer, in a bid to trim some of the built-up inventory. Traditionally, American manufacturers offer up a two-week break in the middle of summer, although the burgeoning sales of the past few years have seen this practice become less popular.
"We're likely not going to see an acceleration this year," Jeff Schuster, a senior vice president at LMC Automotive, told The Detroit News. "We'll see production increases in 'pockets' but I don't know if it will be as widespread as in recent years."