Mark Your Calendar - the Summer of Lost Sedans Approaches

Here at TTAC World Headquarters, talk of sedans is never far away. While automakers have decided the three-box bodystyle is an afterthought, and while consumers aren’t helping by choosing cargo capacity over tradition, we still lust after a nice trunk.

Over at the Blue Oval, this summer’s shaping up to be a grim one for workers whose hearts bleed at the thought of such a noble bodystyle fading from the company’s lineup. July in particular will be painful for longstanding Ford employees who harbor fond memories of the Maverick, Granada, and Contour. Also: the Fairlane, Custom, LTD, Galaxie, Crown Victoria, Escort, Taurus, Fiesta, Focus, Falcon, Fairmont, Tempo, and Five Hundred.

As reported by Ford Authority, the midsize Fusion sedan, long marked for death, will cease production in Mexico that month. Sources claim the last police-spec Fusion to leave Hermosillo will roll off the assembly line on July 5th, followed by the last civilian Fusion on July 21st.

Joining the model on its date with death is the Lincoln MKZ, with which it shares a platform. Sources tell Ford Authority those dates could be pushed back a bit in order to fill existing orders kept from production by the coronavirus lockdown. Orders closed on February 28th.

It was well known that the Fusion and MKZ would ride out the end of the year in a coffin, but the unconfirmed discontinuation dates lend a sense of finality to the whole affair. Preceding the Fusion/MKZ’s journey into the crypt was the Fiesta, Focus, and Taurus. In a mighty swoop, Ford CEO Jim Hackett’s axe turned the company into a truck and SUV company, with the sole exception of the Mustang (which now has an SUV family member). Meanwhile, the slow-selling, Michigan-built Lincoln Continental is not expected to live past the 2021 model year.

Sedans will soon be extinct, at least in Dearborn.

In the Fusion’s wake, Hermosillo will see the arrival of Ford’s Bronco Sport — a compact crossover based on the Escape that mimics the body-on-frame Bronco due for a reveal sometime this year. Production of that vehicle is expected to commence in early September.

While the news is grim for passenger car lovers, all is not lost. Ford is still expected to return the Fusion name to the lineup in the foreseeable future, slapping the name on a raised wagon seen in spy photos. The exact nature of that vehicle, as well as its arrival date, remains hazy.

[Images: Ford]