Ford Launches All-New Super Duty F-Series Trucks
16 January 1998
Ford Launches All-New Super Duty F-Series Trucks
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Jan. 16 -- A new generation of Ford trucks
was launched here today as thousands of employees at Ford Motor Company's
Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP) celebrated the production startup of
1999-model Super Duty F-Series trucks.
The event was held on the 50th anniversary of the popular Ford F-Series --
first introduced to dealers on January 16, 1948.
The stars of today's show were two of the new KTP-produced trucks -- an
F-250 and an F-350 -- which rolled off the assembly line. They included the
industry's first new SuperCab with standard four doors.
"The Super Duty F-Series goes on sale in March and we already have about
70,000 orders from our North American dealers," said Jac Nasser, president --
Ford Automotive Operations. "Customers want a truck with more powerful
engines and heavy-duty suspensions able to carry and tow heavy loads. Super
Duty F-Series offers engines with exceptional horsepower, torque and fuel
economy."
Customers purchased more than 746,000 Ford F-Series trucks in 1997. The
F-Series has outsold every vehicle -- car or truck -- in North America for
16 years in a row and it has outsold every truck in the United States for
21 straight years. F-Series trucks account for one out of every 10 vehicles
built and sold by Ford since the company was founded.
"The fact that these new-generation F-Series trucks are being built here
is more evidence of Ford's confidence in the quality of the Louisville
workforce," said Frank Foley, manager of KTP. "The new production is a
fitting addition to Ford's truck lineup in Louisville, the 'Truck Capital of
the World'.
"We recently announced plans to hire an additional 1,000 employees and we
intend to implement 3-crew operations in the second quarter of this year to
support the increased production of these hot-selling trucks."
KTP ended production of medium trucks in November 1997 and it stopped
producing heavy trucks in December 1997 -- to make way for production of more
commercial light trucks. The heavy truck division was sold to Freightliner in
February 1997.
The Louisville-built trucks are produced with a unique platform for over-
8500 pound applications -- intended predominantly, but not exclusively, for
commercial use.
Included in KTP's new lineup is the industry's first SuperCab with
standard four doors in the over-8500-pound gross vehicle weight truck segment.
This version serves both commercial and recreational customers. It allows
commercial buyers to use both doors for easy access of people and cargo, and
it gives personal-use customers the option of utilizing only the passenger-
side rear door for their children and pets.
The 1999-model Super Duty F-Series features several Ford exclusives --
including the F-350 SuperCab dual rear wheel 4X4 Chassis Cab and standard
four-wheel power disc brakes.
Customers will have a choice of 44 vehicle configurations, compared with
24 available on the current model -- including pickups or Chassis Cabs
available as Regular Cab, SuperCab, or Crew Cab models; two- or four-wheel
drive, short- or long-box configurations.
Ford is the leader in total U.S. truck sales and has been for three
consecutive years. U.S. customers bought more than one million Ford pickups
and nearly 700,000 sport utility vehicles in 1997. In total, a record
2,248,793 Ford trucks were purchased from Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealers
last year.
While Kentucky Truck Plant production is devoted to light commercial
trucks, Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant on Fern Valley Road produces Ford
Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicles as well as Ranger
pickup trucks.
SOURCE Ford Motor Company
