Notes

When was the Grosvenor House Built?
It can be hard when decided who to choose if you need to act quick and don’t know of any plumbers yourself. There's nothing worse as a new employee than arriving at work for your first day on the job and having no one know who you are or why you are there. home builders The level of reliability is generally higher among the plumbers hired from a company than the ones who work on their own. Despite its product fumbles, Ford Motor Company seemed in great shape as the new century opened. For those who missed Escort's spunky GT hatchback, Ford offered the new 1998 Escort ZX2, a sporty coupe with a separate trunk and Taurus-like styling. By 2002, the ZX2 (minus Escort badging) was down to some 52,000 calendar-year orders, then slid below 25,500, a poor showing for the low- to midteens pricing. Ford was more on target with a redesigned Escort that rang up more than 655,000 sales for model years 1997-98 and more than 100,000 each for '99 and 2000. The previous Mazda Protege-based design returned with a smooth new wrapper and a 110-bhp 2.0-liter single-cam Zetec four-cylinder, thus ousting the old CVH engine at last.

More's the pity, for the 1996 model represented a major improvement over past Tauruses in many ways. Yet for all the controversy, Taurus sales remained strong, actually improving by some 11 percent for 1996 over the prior model year. There was nothing half-hearted about the all-new 1996 Taurus. Unfortunately for Ford, the result must have scared off some buyers, for Taurus promptly lost its standing as America's top-selling car line and would never get it back. Topping the line was a new SHO with 235 bhp from a 3.4-liter V-8, another Ford-Yamaha collaboration. With 130 bhp and relatively low weight (2470 pounds), the ZX2 was frisky, though no neck-snapper. Consumer Guide® and others thought ZX2 a bit pricey for what it delivered: $12,580 base for a '98 without air conditioning. Collectible Automobile magazine thought the SVT Contour so good that it would one day be a coveted keepsake. Alas, many enthusiasts either didn't believe their ears or thought the Blue Oval badge too proletarian.

Corporate profits hit a record $7.2 billion in 1999 as the stock market and new-vehicle demand stayed strong in an unprecedented boom economy. Both were vital high-profit assets in a market gone mad for trucks, and Dearborn gave them yearly improvements to protect their class-leading sales status. Ford also gave it standard seven-place seating on a 120.7-inch wheelbase, slightly longer than that of Chrysler's extended-length Grand models. Overall, Windstar was eight inches longer than a Grand and nearly a foot longer than Villager. Even so, Ford was only catching up, not advancing the art, and Windstar was never a threat to the sales-leading Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth minivans -- not even after being lightly restyled as the 2005 Freestar. Unlike Mercury's two-year-old Villager, which Ford built in Ohio to a Nissan design, the new 1995 Windstar was Dearborn's own front-drive minivan, using a modified Taurus platform and drivetrains to furnish a similarly car-like driving feel. The Explorer, for example, was redesigned for 1995 and given optional V-8 power the following year. The only options, in fact, were a power moonroof and CD player. Ford Division remained "USA-1," owning five of the country's top-10 sellers, including the big F-Series pickup and midsize Explorer SUV.

Answering competitive SUV challenges, Ford soon fielded the F-150-based Expedition and, a bit later, the jumbo Excursion and compact Escape. But they were only a short-lived bridge to the year 2000 and the debut of a far more ambitious small Ford. Volume then held at around 400,000 through 2000. But Taurus still relied far more on fleet sales each year than its leading Japanese-brand rivals, so Ford earned somewhat less on every sale and owners received less at trade-in time. Ford stayed the course one more year, then abandoned the sporty-coupe market, which was fast shrinking anyway. A comparable 3-Series BMW or Mercedes-Benz C-Class cost thousands more, yet the SVT Contour was easily their equal on a road course or a dragstrip, running 0-60 mph in about 7.5 seconds in most road tests. The use of this type of cabinetry can be quite cost effective when doing a home remodeling project.

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