Category talk:Ford platforms

message: I see a lot of confusion here between platforms and programs, and some misunderstanding of Ford's code name system.  I am no longer part of the product development community but I used to work with this stuff everyday, and I see some inaccurate and confusing information.  I would like to work with some of the primary contributors to gradually straighten this out, could we get a little dialogue started here?
Some history -- Until the mid-1980s, Ford used a code name system for major new product programs.  Some of these were major programs that spawned platforms (Fox and Panther), others may have been spin-offs of existing products.  The last code-name program was the Taurus.  Replacements of existing vehicles sometimes did not have a code name but were just known as, for example, "new Mustang".
About 1983, the company decided to adopt an alphanumeric scheme for naming new product programs.  The first letter denoted vehicle type and size: B=subcompact, C=compact, D=midsize, E=full size, F=luxury, G= sports car, S=sports coupe, V=van, P=pickup, U=utility.  (this changed a little later, but this was the beginning list).
The second letter denoted the responsible product development group -- N=North America, E=Europe, T=Mazda (at that time Toyo Kogyo, corporate name)
The numbers were 2 digit, sequentially assigned, and were originally planned to be rotated as the computer system at that time was set up to handle fixed length four character abbreviations.  IT developments made that unnecessary, so the numbers are sequential from the beginning.
The first programs so labeled were converted from code names.  A few I remember:  VN1=Aerostar, DN5=Taurus, SN8 a cancelled Mustang replacement, ST11  the first probe, FN9 and FN10 were the front drive Lincoln Continental and the Mark VII (I think that was originally code-named Saturn).  The 1981 Escort (Ericka) and the 1983 Tempo (Topaz) were the last code named programs with no numbers, as I recall, but the code names of the 1978 Fairmont (Fox) and 1979 Crown Victoria (Panther) lived on for years as platform designators.  The F-series truck has been redesign 2 or 3 times in my career, the Econoline twice, but usually people refer to "the F-series plarform", not "the PN96".  
In the new scheme all programs get an alphanumeric, whether they are whole new platforms (rare) or modifications of existing.  This makes identification of a platform much more difficult.
Example -- SN95 was certainly a major redesign of the old Fox platform, but even thought the sheetmetal changed a lot, it at least to me is more "Fox-plus" than a new platform.  The new CD338 Ford Fusion(translation: CD between a compact and a midsize) is certainly a new vehicle and is a complete redesign of the aging Taurus platform.  Its derivatives, the CD334 Lincoln Zephyr and CD336 Mercury Milan, are just derivatives.  And why does the lead vehicle have a higher numerical number?  VN58 was a major Econoline redesign in 1989 replacing the 1975 "Nantucket" Econoline, but the 1996 VN127 was just a freshening.  Similarly the VX54 villager was a new platform for Ford, two subsequent VX programs were just tweaks.
--Pmeisel 17:31, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)