Ford Motor Co., surprised by the popularity of the
AWD versions of its Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle, and the Mercury Montego, forecasts sales of such equipped vehicles
from automakers to reach 500,000 a year with eighty percent to be crossover vehicles (SUV or CUV). The company has
plans to jump on the opportunity.
“When Ford introduced the new AWD vehicles,” says Robert
Parker, car marketing manager for the Blue Oval, “demand outstripped supply during the initial launch. Customers
saw that AWD really provided the best value for the dollar. Based on our experience with those cars, Ford has set about
bringing the technology to a wider range of vehicles and expanding the consumers’ choices.”
The company
will be releasing AWD versions of its Fusion/Milan/MKZ (formerly Zephyr) mid-sized sedans by 2007. Ford’s foreign
subsidiary Volvo offers AWD in most of its lineup while Mazda’s Mazdaspeed6 comes standard in AWD. The feature will
also be available on the company’s upcoming lineup of CUVs.
[Source: Ford]