Ford considering selling its Arizona proving ground
Following on the heels of General Motors selling its Mesa, Arizona Desert Proving Ground, Ford has decided to look at doing the same with its own Arizona facility. The Arizona Proving Ground located near Lake Havasu is a 3,700 acre facility that employs 200 permanent staff in addition to Ford engineeers who come in to test vehicles. The track would be disposed of as part of the current cost cutting effort at Ford. Way Forward, ho! Most of Ford's vehicle development testing is being consolidated at its Dearborn Proving Ground adjacent to the automaker's engineering facilities. Nothing is finalized at this point, but it seems likely that a deal will happen sooner rather than later.
[Source: Detroit News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tyo 5:30PM (5/09/2007)
A private individual needs to buy this and make it open to the public for $40 and hour or something like that.
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Kwesi 5:23PM (5/09/2007)
200 permanent staff!!! the question is who'd buy? all well, most other automakers are trying to either cut costs, or keep them down..i cant think of neone whod buy, but i dont see the point of having more than one (in the same or similar climate), or in the same country for that matter.
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Bill Hancock 5:27PM (5/09/2007)
Their not looking for another automaker to buy it, they just want somebody to buy it, preferably a developer.
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Paul Y 5:33PM (5/09/2007)
I call dibs.
I could really use a proving ground.
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Henry 5:47PM (5/09/2007)
Maybe the BBC is interested in it, I hear they're going to make American Top Gear. Though typical of an American manufacturer, there isn't a race track. Jezza and the lads will have to make do with another airstrip.
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Deezee 6:45PM (5/09/2007)
Thats all ford needs, less testing on their cars. If anything, they're TOO reliable.
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lalaland 7:07PM (5/09/2007)
Who needs hot weather reliability testing? It gets plenty hot in Dearborn!
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cg 7:13PM (5/09/2007)
Hmm, no wonder Ford can't compete with Europe. While VW, BMW, etc. use the Nurburgring, Ford uses an oval. Fabulous.
(Euro Ford cars excluded, those are actually decent)
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Brent Schmidt 7:46PM (5/09/2007)
I was just using Google Earth to check out what I'll be treking through on my way to NW Missouri on Friday and I saw this. How odd that a story comes up only two hours later, haha.
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GhostDoggy 8:11PM (5/09/2007)
It is for sale because Ford has nothing to prove. Everyone already knows they are a lost cause.
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John 10:51PM (5/09/2007)
Sell it to Toyota, they've got the money and are the only one out of GM, Ford, Chrysler, that are still investing in this country! Go Toyota!
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Bryan 12:53AM (5/10/2007)
lalaland--Michigan does not get near as hot and muggy as the south.
As far as selling it..I don't see why. I mean, is this one of a few they have or what? Maybe they will build a new one here in Houston, seeing as it gets pretty opressive in the summer. Ok 9 months out of the year at least lol.
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drolds1 2:04AM (5/10/2007)
#8, where do you get your "facts" from? Ford used
Nürburgring in developing the Lincoln LS as far back as 1996.
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Phillip 4:21AM (5/10/2007)
#12
Yes, we only have 2 seasons in houston, Hot season, and slightly cool season. Lol... except last winter where it froze over, and closed schools.... global warming my ass
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EC 8:19AM (5/10/2007)
It really didn't make sense for Ford to have two proving grounds in AZ. The one near Phoenix is a better track, the Yucca (Mesa) orving grounds wasn't used for much other than hot weather testing. Selling this gets their total to three in the US. Even if they didn't have their own, there are many private owned places.
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leather bear 3:34PM (5/10/2007)
I think #2 is right on the money. The rally-race I participated in last year (http://www.rallyusa.com) had a transit section that ran on the road that passes the entrance gate to the Ford proving grounds. Areas southeast of the Ford site along the rally route already had dozens of county-dedicated and graded dirt roads set up in a grid pattern. I wouldn’t recommend selling that Palm Springs condo just yet, but Kingman AZ (about the same distance to the north of the Ford grounds as Lake Havasu is to the south) is showing a fair amount of growth these days, and snowbirds are moving there for the relatively cheap real estate and easy access the casinos at Laughlin NV, just a short drive away.
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kpong 11:18PM (5/10/2007)
Waitaminute, there are too many curves in that to be a Ford track. Live rear axles only lend themselves to straight lines. I guess maybe they bring along some Mazdas every once and awhile.
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JOHN MOHR 9:22AM (5/12/2007)
In answer to several people who appear not
to know what they are talking about, it'll be one of Ford bigger blunders to
get rid of APG.
1.They get more work out of that facility than the Dearborn and Romeo tracks combined. You could even throw in the recently disposed of (mamagement boondogle) track in Naples, Fla.
2. There was no union there as there was
in Romeo.
3. APG also supports needed testing in LA and Death Valley.
4. I am also familiar with the Chrysler track in Whitman, Az. and have come to the conclusion that any Phoenix area track has more native vegetation than that around Kingman and, as a result, has more scary objects hanging around the high speed track like havalino pigs.
I don't want to hit one of those 80 pound buggars at 90 mph.
Other than wind tunnel testing, the best use of the undersized Dearborn track is for (across the street) management evaluations, eliminating expensive boondogles to exotic areas of the country.
The Romeo facility, which was always a beehive of inactivity whenever I went there, should have been swapped for Chrysler's Chelsea proving grounds.
Access from Auburn Hills to Romeo is a lot better than from Dearborn, which is a straight shot from Chelsea.
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Judge 12:27AM (5/16/2007)
It's already sold... like 2 weeks ago... Roush Industries
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