Ford temporarily shuts down Michigan plant

In a move that makes a lot of sense considering the latest in automotive developments, Ford has shut down it's Michigan plant until August. With sales of previously popular large vehicles taking a dive and the price of raw materials going through the roof, Ford's Michigan plant currently builds the Navigator and Expedition models, both large gas guzzling SUV's.

Ford has also announced that it plans to lay off 15% of it's white collar work force and reduce overall truck and SUV production for the year. All of these moves, along with increasing small car production, are signaling a largely reactive move towards recent customer trends.

While Ford is in the process of retooling it's current plants to build small cars, the Wayne plant will remain primarily a truck plant. This is being done in anticipation of the future F-100 pickup which will be rolled out with a short development span.