Landing in Oakville

Ford Motor Co.'s ongoing talks with Canadian government officials concerning a flexible manufacturing update to the Oakville, Ont., assembly plant are meant to pave the way for the long-overdue Lincoln Aviator and other Mazda6-based production there, a Ford executive tells Ward's.

The new Aviator, Lincoln's first cross/utility vehicle, is slated for Job One sometime in 2006 and will be one of as many as 10 vehicles for North America spawned from the Mazda6 platform, known as CD3 within Ford.

If all goes according to plan, the Aviator will be assembled in Oakville, says Paul Mascarenas, executive director-medium, large, front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive platforms.

A pair of CD3-based minivans likely will be among the vehicles accompanying the Aviator on the Oakville assembly line.

While the plant likely will have the potential for building cars on more than one platform, it probably will assemble only CD3-architecture vehicles. That follows a similar strategy Ford will use at plants in Chicago, Atlanta and Hermosillo, Mexico, which calls for production of many “top hats,” or body-style configurations, off a single platform.

Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr. says the official announcement is expected “some time this fall.” The Canadian government has committed C$100 million ($77 million) to the project, and Ontario has said Ford will get a portion of a C$500 million ($383 million) auto industry commitment made earlier this year.