WASHINGTON, Jan 20, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Ford Motor Co.'s planned restructuring is expected to include dropping its line of minivans, which are selling poorly across North America.
The No. 2 automaker will announce a sweeping restructuring, numerous plant closures and massive layoffs of its worldwide staff Monday in discussing fourth-quarter results, USA Today said Friday.
Minivan sales at the financially ailing company, which lost $1.34 billion in North America during last year's first three quarters, sank sharply in 2005: Ford Freestar sales were down 25.1 percent from 2004 and Mercury Monterey sales were off 53.1 percent.
"We have to pick and choose where we want to compete," Mark Fields, Ford's executive vice president and president of the Americas, said in an interview last week. "The idea you have to be in all the segments, that's an old way of thinking."
The No. 2 automaker will announce a sweeping restructuring, numerous plant closures and massive layoffs of its worldwide staff Monday in discussing fourth-quarter results, USA Today said Friday.
Minivan sales at the financially ailing company, which lost $1.34 billion in North America during last year's first three quarters, sank sharply in 2005: Ford Freestar sales were down 25.1 percent from 2004 and Mercury Monterey sales were off 53.1 percent.
"We have to pick and choose where we want to compete," Mark Fields, Ford's executive vice president and president of the Americas, said in an interview last week. "The idea you have to be in all the segments, that's an old way of thinking."