Here is What's Wrong in Detroit -- Letter from Ford Motor Co

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Permalink Reply by Brent Wakeman on October 17, 2008 at 7:52am

Thank you for sharing the Ford letter. Its no wonder brain dead Detroit is behind.

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Permalink Reply by Ray Phillips on October 17, 2008 at 10:02am

I read the letter and it was very informative. It's no wonder they stopped making cng vehicle after selling just 16,000 units in 7 years, it wasn't worth the cost of producing them. They stopped producing them because of lack of demand. The lack of demand may well have come from lack of infractructure. We still don't have the infrastructure for any of the automakers to put the money into building cng vehicles.

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Permalink Reply by Terrence Abrams on October 17, 2008 at 1:41pm

There is also the fact Ray, that CNG cars, even with the best capacity and compression ratios, get only 1/2 or so of the same range of a conventional gasoline car. So it could cost less to fuel and be pretty clean, but profit minded Detroit would have tossed the initiative out since complaining customers would have to re-charge twice to go as far.

I was from Detroit as an infant, go back there to visit family and business associates. I can tell you, its one industry where the inmates were running the Asylum. And hey, Michael Moore never got it right either. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by R Kramer on October 18, 2008 at 8:52pm

I'd will also say, thank you for sharing the Ford letter. I do not think Ford or GM ever really tried to promote CNG vehicles and I know both produced the CNG Vehicles in a dedicated and bi-fuel version from approx 1996-2005. I also own one of the 16,000 produced by Ford, my 1998 bi-fuel F-150 is a decade old and still runs grate. I had only found out about CNG vehicles after working on a military base in 2002 and seeing some around the military base. But I do not ever remember seeing a add or Ford or GM brochure promoting CNG Vehicles.

I did look in to this some time ago ( 2 Years ago) why Ford and GM were not promoting these vehicles. 1. the fuel cost is grate. 2. The engines are suppose to last longer due to a cleaner fuel. 3 lower in emissions. If any one would have gone into a Ford or GM dealership and requested a CNG vehicle from 1996-2005 they could have purchased a CNG vehicle for and additional 4 or 6 K above the standard gasoline version.

I did hear another reason why Ford and GM produced CNG vehicles 1996-2005 (and I stand to be corrected). I was informed the real reason Ford and GM produced CNG vehicles was because if they did build so many units of alternative fuel vehicles, they did not have to meet their then current emission standards on the gasoline versions of the same vehicles. Or the emission standards would be relaxes so Ford and GM could build the gasoline SUVS and pickups with a readjusted up emission standards ( more emissions ) this made economical sense to Ford and GM since it cost money to lower the emission of there whole fleet. What's a few thousand Alternative Fuel vehicles in relation to the 10's of millions of vehicle Ford and GM Produced from 1996-2005. and the saving they had for not needing the more stringent emissions.

my opinion what killed The CNG Vehicle

1.Low oil prices, $1 to $2 Gasoline
2.The Government taking away Ford and GM,s emission incentives by requiring Ford and GM to meet the emission standard, no if and or but's . They were only building CNG vehicle so they would not have to build the rest of the gasoline vehicles with lower emissions.
3. No infrastructure, little or no place to fill up CNG vehicles
4. No promotion or adds to the public that they even sold CNG vehicle and the good reasons for buying one.

Once again thank you for sharing the Ford letter.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh Hemington on October 23, 2008 at 10:57pm

... So CNG isn't viable because of the sparse refueling infrastructure, but HYDROGEN is in their lineup? HUH?

Did anyone ever go into a Ford dealership and SEE a CNG car? When you go into a supermarket, they have all the products they want to sell on the shelf. They don't expect people to ask what's in the back!

I've seen the Crown Victoria NGV, a Chevy Cavalier, and one model from Chrysler in the refueling sites. A pretty pathetic effort if you ask me. I guess Honda will keep a monopoly on this market. When it explodes, they'll enjoy the same advantage as Toyota with the Prius, and the U.S. automakers will trail along behind, whining about how unfair it all is. If we'd had these dolts in the executive suites in the 40's, the Japanese would have mopped the floor with us.

This is truly the hidden cost of golf.

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