Freestar Ends Production.

Amy Wilson


DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. has produced its last Freestar minivan.

The automaker won't restart production of the Freestar at its Oakville, Ontario, assembly plant, spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari said Tuesday. That decision was reached during the last half of December, she said.

Freestar production went on hiatus in early November. At the time, it was a temporary halt to allow for a smoother production launch of the 2007 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers at the Oakville plant.

The Freestar was to resume production early in 2007 and run through the end of the model year. But Ford executives preferred the business case for the Edge and MKX.

"We looked at the demand for Edge and MKX, and it's so strong that we've decided that this is the thing to do -- concentrate fully on the all-new models there," Gattari said.

Fleet buyers are the majority customer for the Freestar, responsible for about 65 percent of sales during the first 10 months of 2006, according to the Automotive News Data Center. Ford intends to work with fleet customers with Freestar orders on substituting other Ford vehicles, Gattari said.

Ford produced just 430 Freestars in November, Ford sales analyst George Pipas said. About 2,500 remain in dealer inventory. That doesn't count December sales, which will be reported Wednesday.

The December sales report will include "a handful" of Edges and MKXs, Pipas said. After a delayed launch, those vehicles began reaching dealerships mid-month.

"The demand for the Edge and the MKX is such that if we restart Freestar, we'll have to compromise some Edge and MKX volume, and that's not good," Pipas said. "The future of Ford Motor Co. is not with the Freestar."