THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060462
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Amid cheerleaders shouting, Gov. George F. Allen spouting innuendo about chewing tobacco and truck-themed songs blaring over a sound system, a Ford pickup crashed through a wall Tuesday morning in Norfolk to launch a product critical to Norfolk workers, Ford Motor Co.'s profits and wannabe good ol' boys everywhere.
Enter the PN96, soon to be better known as the 1997 Ford F-series pickup.
The Norfolk Assembly Plant in the Campostella section of the city and its 2,000 workers had been preparing for this day for nearly three years. The Norfolk plant was chosen as the lead plant in the introduction of the new F-series, which underwent its last redesign in 1979.
Workers trained a total of 72,000 hours, and Ford invested $320 million in a new body and paint shop.
A nerve center of 175 engineers and vehicle launch experts moved from Ford's Detroit-area headquarters on May 1 and have been living in Norfolk to get the plant ready. The Norfolk plant will ramp up production between now and February, when local workers will begin bolting together 45 trucks an hour.
The launch came off as a combination of rural Virginia hospitality and Detroit Auto Show excess.
Allen paid tribute to the Virginia side, focusing on the folksy image many have of the traditional Ford pickup: kicking up dust on country roads with a dog riding in the truck bed. Allen liked the idea of a third door - a patented invention aimed at upscale, city buyers - to make it easy to strap a child seat into the back. But the tobacco-chewing governor also liked the improved cup holders.
``Now, I don't know what you might be putting in that container,'' said Allen, noted for his fondness for chewing tobacco. ``Some of you all understand what you might be using a cup for other than drinking.''
Then Allen, plant manager Bill Boggs, Ford automotive operations President Ed Hagenlocker and local United Auto Workers President Tom Cusick donned hard hats, revved up a new pickup and drove it through a ``brick'' wall. Well, it looked like bricks, but turned out to be Styrofoam.
Ford is driving a treacherous road in introducing a new F-series. For one thing, the current model is immensely popular. It's been the top selling vehicle in the country for 14 years running.
In October, Ford sold more F-series pickups than in any month since 1979, Hagenlocker said. And this year, the company's total truck sales - which includes pickups, sport utility vehicles and minivans - will exceed 50 percent of its total vehicle sales, he said.
Keeping all that in mind, Ford changed the F-series. The new model flashes a rounded, almost sporty, grill and hood; passenger and driver-side airbags; a patented third door on the supercab model to let rear passengers in and out, and a ride just about as smooth as a car.
But Ford executives, mindful that the F-series was traditionally a farming vehicle, like to emphasize the new model's toughness.
``We didn't want it to be car-like, we just wanted it to have really good ride and handling,'' said Thomas D. Baughman, chief program engineer for the new truck. ``But you won't ever hear me using the C-word. There isn't anybody who wants a vehicle that rides poorly, gets poor fuel mileage and doesn't retain its resale value.''
Ford retained certain farm-use functions in the F-series, Baughman said, even though three-quarters of F-series buyers these days order the upscale XLT trimmings on their trucks. Baughman said full-size pickups still have to seat three in the front, muster the push of a V-8, tow a 5,000-pound boat and carry a 4-foot-by-8-foot piece of plywood in the back.
Baughman acknowledged that some people may have a difficult time getting used to the sleeker look of the new truck. But, he said, they will be won over by its ruggedness. That's one reason Ford invited media writers, dealers and dignitaries to Smithfield after the morning's events for an off-road driving test at the riverside estate of Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph W. Luter III.
There, two dozen of the vehicles turned off the main road for some rugged terrain. People stood over the river and shot skeet. They served peanut soup and sweet potato biscuits for lunch. The winner of a slalom course driving contest won a Smithfield ham.
And if none of that grabbed the attention of the ``traditional'' Ford pickup driver, try the instructions of an Isle of Wight County deputy sheriff, stationed at the beginning of the off-road driving course:
``Stick to the road. If you get off the road, you'll find rocks, ruts, cowpiles . . . lots of cowpiles.'' ILLUSTRATION: VICKI CRONIS color photo/The Virginian-Pilot
ABOVE: Ford rolls out its new F-series pickup Tuesday in Norfolk by
crashing it through a Styrofoam brick wall. The Norfolk Assembly
Plant is the lead plant in the vehicle's introduction. BELOW: The
final welds are applied to a pickup cab in the Norfolk body shop.
by CNB