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2015 F-150 launch to curb Ford profits?

Ford is making a big bet on aluminum with its new 2015 F-150, and it's possible that the decision will hurt the company financially, at least in the short term. After earning a record $8.6 billion in 2013, the Blue Oval does not expect to set another record in 2014. According to Automotive News, that's "largely attributable to F Series," says Bob Shanks, Ford's Chief Financial Officer.
To retool for the new F-150, Ford will idle its Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan for 11 weeks and the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri for 2 weeks. "3 of the 13 overall weeks occur during what normally is our summer shutdown timeframe," said Mike Levine, Ford Trucks Communication Manager, in an email to Autoblog. The extra 10 weeks will be preparing for the more aluminum-intensive construction for the trucks and will mean over 2 months of no F-150s being made. For comparison's sake, Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne just confirmed that the 200 plant in Sterling Heights, MI will be down for 30 days to retool for the new model, but obviously there are many more F-150 production variables than for the midsize sedan.
Levine notes that Ford is already running three shifts at both plants, and says the automaker has plans to ensure that there is adequate supply of the full-size pickups during the retooling process. The company does not want to suffer a shortage of the vehicle that accounted for 31-percent of its 2013 US sales and an even bigger percentage of its profits.

2015 Ford Mustang Convertible shown on Twitter [UPDATE w/video]

It hasn't yet been 12 hours since the hotly anticipated 2015 Ford Mustang has been let out into public view. After a series of evocative leaks over the course of the last days, we brought you a full deep dive of the sixth-generation pony car at the dawning of today. And yet, here we are rushing to bring you news of a new Mustang variant, already.
Be it part of a plan to keep the Mustang fervor at full boil, or a misunderstood email somewhere in the chain of command, Ford UK has unceremoniously tweeted a picture of the 2015 Ford Mustang Convertible. For a newly global Mustang, getting our first look at the droptop from the convertible-crazy British does make some amount of sense.
As for details, well, you're looking at them. Brandon Turkus reported yesterday that the Mustang 'vert would make use of a fully electric convertible mechanism, and that it would be of fabric construction rather than some kind of retractable hardtop. We see here that the fabric part is clearly true, and it does look as though Ford may still be employing the same kind of manually attached tonneau cover that exists right now. Of course, our view from this angle isn't great, and the particulars are still up in the air.

2015 Ford Mustang GT [w/video]

At 50 years old, the object of fantasies, a tuner's dream, a movie star and more than nine million strong, it couldn't be truer to say that the Ford Mustang needs no introduction. This newest Mustang, however - making the biggest changes we've seen to the pony car since perhaps 1964.5 - is something Ford has been introducing all year.
We went on a Deep Dive, covered the way it looks when it was revealed, detailed the engine specs, got a ride in the EcoBoost and listened to the V8, got rolling footage and watched it do a standard-feature burnout.
The only thing left to do? Drive it. Having now done so for a few hours around Los Angeles, what we can tell you is to forget everything you know about the Mustang. This new car shames the old, redefines the model and gallops far ahead of anything else in the segment.