Ford Focus Shortage Blamed On Parts Problem

WAYNE (WWJ) - It's one of Ford Motor Company's most popular models, but a parts shortage is hurting sales of the all-new Focus compact car, built at the recently remodeled Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne.

WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert says equipment problems have led to a shortage of dashboards, forcing the Dearborn automaker to take the unusual and costly step of flying in parts from Europe to keep its assembly lines moving.

Despite those efforts, Focus production in Wayne has been unable to run at full speed.

"Obviously, if you can't get all the parts for a car, you can't make them," said Gilbert, speaking live on WWJ.

"(The dashboards) come from a factory in Saline, that's where they're being manufactured now, but there's another supplier they've been able to tap into in Germany," Gilbert explained.

Gilbert said the Focus is one of the hottest-selling cars on the market, in heavy competition with the Chevy Cruze.

"Obviously, it's very expensive to fly these parts in from Germany. But, this just shows you how important a vehicle this is to Ford," he said.

Officials are Ford are not commenting, but there are reports that the company is doing all it can to fix the problem.