OK folks, Ford is listening!

[John Mitton]

Gang,

One of our members is at Ford HQ and has been approaching us to help him (or her?) to blitz senior management about getting back into producing NGVs. This person wishes to be anonymous so asked that I post the following and see if we collectively can start a letter-writing campaign.

Attached just below this post you will see 3 documents which show what Ford is doing in Europe. It might help to print these and stick them in your letter.

Be sure to print out two copies of your letter, sign them, stick them in envelopes, and send via US Postal Service to both William Clay Ford Jr. as well as to Alan Mulally.

Edited to add:
If you have the time, also send letters to:
Jim Farley -- Head of Marketing & Communications
Derek Kuzak -- Head of Global Product Development
(I assume the same "One American Road" address will work for these gentlemen too)

Please post here when you have sent your letter so we can get an idea of how many voices are being heard Here the is the primer from our friend at Ford...
-----------------

Please write to the Ford Motor Company expressing your interest in a CNG
Ford. In your letter, please point out some salient CNG facts that are
likely not known by these executives.

They may need informing of the basic facts:
> Ford made CNG vehicles from 1994 to 2004.
> CNG is costs $0.64 per gallon at the pump in Utah.
> CNG is available in most homes via the FuelMaker Home Refueling
Appliance ($1.30 per gallon, typical). Lack of fueling infrastructure
is no longer an issue.
> Honda sells a CNG Civic for an additional $6830.
> The Honda is CNG only and has nearly no trunk space and thus has less
general customer appeal than a bi-fuel vehicle.
> The European Focus and C-MAX Focus are available as a CNG bi-fuel
vehicle for 3275 Euro. That is about $5000. How can I buy one in North
America?
> CNG is cleaner than any other automotive fuel.
> CNG produces 29% less CO2 than gasoline according to the state of
California.
> CNG is domestically produced.
> There are 728 public CNG stations in America and the average cost is
$1.77 per gallon (DOE 2007 report).

Below are our executive's contact information.
****************************** **********************
Ford's Chairman and Executive Chairman can be reached at:

William Clay Ford Jr.
1-800-3923673
wford@ford.com
Chairman & Exec Chairman
One American Road
Dearborn, MI 48126-2798

****************************** *******************************
Ford's CEO & president can be reached at:

Alan Mulally
amulally@ford.com
1-800-3923673
World Headquarters Building
5050
One American Road
Dearborn MI USA 48126-2798
****************************** **************************

[rothstar]

Mr. Ford:

I love my 2001 F-150 super-cab bi-fuel truck, and if you still made new ones, my company would be interested in buying a fleet of them. My truck was converted to run on both natural gas and gasoline straight off of the assembly line. Ford stopped making natural gas vehicles (NGVs) six years ago, but I think that you should start producing them again. Here are the reasons:

- 728 natural gas public fueling stations exist in the United States. with an average price of $1.77 per gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE). Why is Ford manufacturing NGVs to sell in Europe but not the United States?
- Natural gas costs $0.63 per GGE in Utah.
- A natural gas engine is the cleanest burning internal combustion engine currently made producing virtually no toxic emissions and 29% less CO2 than gasoline.
- Natural gas is produced in the United States; this lessens our reliance on foreign oil and its associated problems.
- People are clambering for NGVs and Honda is the only company still selling them in the United States. Used natural gas Honda Civics sell in 10 minutes on E-bay for prices that are well above Blue Book.

You would be smart to start producing NGVs again. The market is for larger vehicles because the natural gas tanks take up most of the trunk space the Honda Civic, making it impractical for families. Rapidly rising gasoline prices will curb your gasoline SUV and truck market, but a well made natural gas crew-cab truck or SUV would sell as fast as you could produce them.

Samuel Roth
St. George, UT

[Andy-Paul]

Mr. Ford;

I am a loyal 3rd generation Ford driver. My grandparents honeymooned in a Model
A: in 1965, my parents carried me home from the hospital in a 1963 Ford Falcon,
and in the years since then there has always been at least one Ford vehicle in the
driveway at my parents' house, as well as the driveways of myself and my three
siblings.

We don't have many NGV stations here in North Carolina, but I am trying to change
that. However, one of the challenges I receive from prospective users/investors
is,"Well, Ford got out of it. Why should I trust some mechanic who may or
may not know what he's doing?"

My refitters are good engineers--as an engineer myself, I trust them. However,
a big dog like FoMoCo barking on the porch would help us quell the naysayers. I
believe that the full-sized cars/SUVs/crossovers with the 3.5L V6 engine would be
a good way to go, because the safety of those units is unassailable while the platform
size would definitely support the surtax of weight from the CNG tanks. Making it
an option for the Volvo would certainly let us woo the Social Conscience crowd,
as well.

On a completely different note, could I interest you in a **Halo Car**? The Renesis
rotary engine does well with gaseous fuel, we know that. How about selling a tweaked
CNG version of the RX8 through Mazdaspeed? It would make the performance world
sit up and take immediate notice, and with the octane boost, I'm sure it would
deliver beautifully.

We need NGVs, both for American jobs, and to ease the humanitarian cost of petroleum
price shocks--you remember 1973, right? Perhaps we are the generation to finally
resolve this issue, and I believe that CNG is one of the keys.

Thank you for your time.

Best Regards,

[Andy-Paul]

Mr. Mulally;

I am a loyal Ford and Mazda driver--in 1965, my parents brought me home from the
hospital in Jonesboro, Ark. in the back seat of a 1963 Ford Falcon, and they have
lived with at least one vehicle from one of those two marques ever since, as have
I myself and my three siblings.

This evening, I write to request that Ford Motor Group--including Mazda and Volvo--resume
building natural gas vehicles for the North American market (a CNG Volvo is for
the Social Conscience set). We don't have many outlets for NGV refueling here
in North Carolina, and one of the arguments I hear as someone trying to convince
prospective investors and users of its utility is, "Ford got out of it, so
why should I trust my truck/SUV to some guy who may or may not know how to retrofit
it correctly?"

The refitters I work with are very good, but we can only go so far without a big
dog on our porch barking at the naysayers. FoMoCo would really help us get CNG
here in NC if you would just resume production--if nothing else, make it an option
on the new 3.5L engine in the Taurus/Sable family--I would pre-order!

Also, could I possibly interest you in a **Halo Car**? It is my understanding that
the Renesis rotary engine does well on gaseous fuels. If Mazda sold CNG RX-8s as
part of the Mazdaspeed line and tweak its output (as I suspect some of their/your
engineers have already done), it would immediately make the performance world sit
up and take notice of CNG. As CNG is an American fuel produced by American workers--no
troops required and considerably more bang per buck!--it might even help us all
ease this economic/political mess that geopolitics and bad economic decisions (corn
ethanol included) have caused.

Thank you for your time.

Best Regards,

[Andy-Paul]

Hey y'all;

I mentioned Mazda in my letters because Mulally used to be in charge of Mazda, and also because the Mazda5 (selling well in these parts, at least) is a rebadged Ford Focus CMAX with slightly different sheetmetal.

I hope I have not taken up too much space,

Andy-Paul

[cngmike]

I plan on sending letters I am just trying to work it out in my head. Dose anyone know if an of the Ford divisions in Europe build a NG? On a side note Ford and Mazda has had a close relation dating back to the 70's. in the 70's my father was the national Distribution Manager They were headquartered out of Compton in those days.

[John Mitton]

It is nice to read the letters here, but please don't forget to also print, sign and mail them too! If you only post them here it will have little or no impact.

[Luke]

> The European Focus and C-MAX Focus are available as a CNG bi-fuel
vehicle for 3275 Euro. That is about $5000. How can I buy one in North
America?

I believe the price you mentioned is the incremental cost.
http://www.ford.de lists the base price for the focus and C-max as 15000 Euro (~$23,600) and 18500 Euro (~$29,100), respectively.

[John Mitton]

Update from our friend at Ford headquarters:
It seems the AP news article on Utah's 63 cent CNG prices landed on some desks in Dearborn...

The words "natural gas" came out of (President & CEO) Mulally's mouth the other day. We think we have traced the source.. We need to keep sending him the CNG message.

[rothstar]

Probably best to take John's advice and mail your comments the old fashioned way or submit your comments on the Ford New Ideas link included below. If others who have responded are like me, they have been e-mailing their responses to the Ford executives using the supplied e-mail addresses. Emails gets intercepted and result in the following reply from Ford.

Dear Samuel,

Thank you for thinking of Ford! We are always interested in new ideas. After reviewing your email, it was determined that it included an idea or suggestion and so was referred to the Consumer Innovation Office for handling.

Given the size of our company, we have a standard process for receiving ideas. The process prevents us from considering any ideas or suggestions without a signed waiver. Please visit our secure website and submit your idea or suggestion at www.fordnewideas.com. Once we receive your online submission, we will route your non-confidential information to an experienced technical reviewer for consideration. Regrettably, if there was any attached correspondence to this email has been destroyed as it is our policy to return or destroy all materials sent to us.

Thank you for your interest in Ford Motor Company. We look forward to working with you following the above procedure.

Best Regards,
Stacy