Explorer's future seems up in the air

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2006 | by Sharon Silke Carty

DETROIT -- At one point, the idea that Ford Motor would close its Louisville assembly plant seemed far-fetched, if not ridiculous.

That's where the automaker builds the Ford Explorer SUV, the vehicle one analyst estimates accounted for a third of Ford's profit in the fourth quarter of 1999.

But sales have slowly eroded since then. In 2000, the Firestone tire debacle put the words "Ford Explorer" and "rollover" in headlines for months. Now, high gas prices have put a kink in consumers' love affair with SUVs. And buyers increasingly are turning to so-called crossovers, which offer SUV convenience but a carlike ride. Explorer is a traditional truck-based SUV.

Sales of Explorer, redesigned for the 2006 model year, were down 29.3% in 2005, while overall sales of...