Ford to Merge Car, Truck Engineering

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it will combine its car and truck engineering groups as it streamlines operations and cuts costs after a string of setbacks, including another round of recalls.

The move is the first major undertaking by Nick Scheele, formerly chairman of Ford Europe, who relocated in July to head the Ford brand’s key North American operations.

The No. 2 car maker is fighting to reverse falling U.S. sales, dwindling profit and rising consumer incentives. Its image has been hurt by the recall of millions of Firestone tires put on Ford vehicles.

Rival General Motors Corp. began combining its car and truck groups in January 2000 to develop new vehicles faster and cut costs.

Ford said the change, effective Oct. 1, will result in some job cuts but not a significant number.

“It’s not about cutting jobs; it’s about improving the process,” spokesman Jim Vella said.

Ford’s combined car and truck operations employ about 4,500 people and also draw upon the engineering resources of other operations within the company, Vella said.

Ford said last month that it would cut as many as 5,000 white-collar jobs in North America, or about 10% of its salaried work force. The company also said it will not give its top 6,000 executives bonuses for a year because it has been beset by quality problems.

Ford named Chris Theodore to lead the newly combined divisions, with Ford-brand car and truck product-development operations reporting to him. He has been vice president of car product development since 1999.

Ford also said Thursday that it has recalled about 778,000 1999-2001 Windstar minivans after 10 reports of windshield wiper motors catching fire.

An additional 525,000 1999-2001 Windstars were recalled for a potential fire with the rear seat air-conditioning and heating system.

Reports of 27 fires from a similar problem with the air-conditioning and heating systems in the 1996-1999 Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique and the 1999 Mercury Cougar prompted the recall of more than 342,000 of those vehicles, a spokesman said. Ford said it had no reports of any injuries in those fires.

Ford shares fell 57 cents to close at $19.40 on the New York Stock Exchange.