– Ford Motor Co. will begin offering Sirius Satellite Radio as a factory-installed option in four vehicle lines this summer and will increase that number to up to 21 lines in the next two years. Beginning this summer, Sirius will come factory installed on the 2006 Ford F-150, Ford Explorer, Lincoln Mark LT and Mercury Mountaineer. Organizers of a planned World War II homefront museum in Evansville, Ind., are seeking a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane to join an LST 325 landing craft along the city’s riverfront. P-47s and LSTs were built in the Evansville area between 1942 and 1947. Only about six P-47s still are flying, and one in flying condition would cost about $1 million.
– Ford is investing $820 million in its Oakville, Ontario, plant to convert it to flexible manufacturing. This would allow the plant, which produces minivans, to shift production to other models more quickly. Ford wants 75 percent of its North American plants to have flexible manufacturing by 2010.
– Don’t look for Toyota’s Scion division to build cars in the U.S. to increase supplies of its in-demand lineup. “The intent is to keep output low and not be put in a position where we need discounts or incentives to sell them,” says Scion Vice President Jim Farley.
– Motor Trend magazine has named the 2005 Toyota Tacoma its truck of the year. It beat four other new or significantly revised trucks–the Dodge Dakota, the Ford F-250/F-350 Super Duty, the Hummer H2 SUT and the Nissan Frontier.
