My new van.

[Geordie McBoyne]

Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo became part of Ford's Premium Automotive Group (PAG).

And of course Aston Martin.   How could I forget that?   The car that saved Aston Martin was the DB7, one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Styled by Scotsman Ian Callum.  His brother Moray was responsible for the styling of the new Mustang.

Don't where the design of the new Transit was done.  The Ford Dunton, Essex design centre perhaps?

Geordie McBoyne. 

[Geordie McBoyne]

The new Transit was designed by a team led by Ford of Europe design director Paul Campbell.

From Commercial Motor magazine:

http://www.commercialmotor.com/news/excl...m-designer

Geordie McBoyne.

[Murphyv310]

Ford was the supplier of all engines to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) a legacy of the fact that Ford was the owner of JLR up tp 2008.   I believe all the larger engines are still sourced from Ford, all the V6 and V8s for example. Now all the JLR four cylinder 2 litre petrol engines are made in house.  The 2 litre petrol engines are called Ingenium.

Not so. My Freelander (02) has a BMW Engine and my mate's Discovery has effectively the same one with an extra Cylinder.
If I remember rightly the V6 Petrol was effectively a Honda Engine.

Alan

Hi Alan.
The V6 is not a Honda, It is very much a Rover, the KV6, loosely based on the K series all mechanics hate. The KV6 though does not suffer the problems found in the larger four cylinder K series units. My 75 has the KV6 (2.5 litre) and it is a very nice albeit greedy engine.

[Terry]

I've been in hospital for a couple of weeks, so I've also been suffering from 'Forum Starvation'!

Hence this belated comment ...

Gone are the days when Ford made a commitment to the British worker and the British public bought a Ford because it was "British" 

I lived in Grays, on the Thames near Tilbury, for the first 29 years of my life and Ford were a major employer in the area. I well remember the succession of strikes that took place at Dagenham at around the time I started work. But then, of course, Trevor never mentioned a commitment from the Ford worker ...

Frankly, I'm surprised that Dagenham remained open as long as it did, although there isn't much left there these days  ...

[Murphyv310]

I've been in hospital for a couple of weeks, so I've also been suffering from 'Forum Starvation'!

Hence this belated comment ...

Gone are the days when Ford made a commitment to the British worker and the British public bought a Ford because it was "British" 

I lived in Grays, on the Thames near Tilbury, for the first 29 years of my life and Ford were a major employer in the area. I well remember the succession of strikes that took place at Dagenham at around the time I started work. But then, of course, Trevor never mentioned a commitment from the Ford worker ...

Frankly, I'm surprised that Dagenham remained open as long as it did, although there isn't much left there these days  ...

Hi Terry.
Do you really think I'm not aware of the major industrial issues at Dagenham and so many UK car plants of the time?
Ford like BL had a terrible reputation but you cannot blame the workforce for all the issues. Management took big rises, they didn't invest in better plant and carried over outmoded engines and suspensions to new models. Ford especially had a couldn't care less attitude to the end user, inspired by their US attitude they fitted under-rated tyres and didn't fix a simple problem that could kill on one of the US pickup's.
Ford's attitude was $5M in law suits were cheaper than a re-call.
One reason I still won't and never will drive a Ford, you certainly cant blame the worker or the unions for that, in fact the Union actually did try to sort out some of Ford's mess to no avail!!!!!!!!!!!

[Crackle]

I like my ford 2L TDCi C-Max, superb handling on the bends, 60+ MPG, (on a long run) quite sprightly, and unclip and remove the back seats and you have a small van. It is my 4th Ford, the others being a Anglia 100E, a Thames diesel mini bus, and a grossly underpowered Transit Dormobile.

Mike