Track conditions and train reroutes have resulted in delays of 3 to 5 days over normal transit. In the past week, flooding in Iowa and Missouri has had indirect impacts on the Ford network as congestion has increased in the Chicago and Kansas City terminals. Ford expects to return to normal this week. The flooding on the lower Mississippi has also had little impact on Ford's finished vehicle transportation.

Due to supplier capacity issues, the 17" Aluminum wheels (64I) will now be an option on XL EL, XLT and XLT EL in the U.S. The standard wheels on XL EL, XLT and XLT EL will not change from the 18" Machined Aluminum wheels (64K). If the 17" Aluminum wheels (64I) are ordered on XL EL, XLT, or XLT EL, a $395 MSRP credit is automatically applied.

 Below is an update to balance out paints. The following paints are now balanced out:
New as of this communication:
• Taurus/MKS/Explorer – Kona Blue
• Edge/MKX – Kona Blue
Announced prior:
• Mustang Lava Red
• Taurus/MKS/Explorer – Bordeaux Reserve, Red Candy and Tuxedo Black
• Focus – Tuxedo Black, Kona Blue & Red Candy
• Edge/MKX/Flex/MKT – Earth, Red Candy, Bordeaux Reserve & Tuxedo Black
• F150 – Red Candy & Tuxedo Black
• Escape – Tuxedo Black & Sangria Red
• Fusion/MKZ – Tuxedo Black
• Superduty/Expedition/Navigator – Tuxedo Black & Royal Red
• Ranger – Red Fire
Paints at Greatest Risk of Balancing Out With Next Week's Scheduling:
• Fiesta – Bright Magenta, Blue Flame & Tuxedo Black
USOB Conversion – Replacement Paint:
In preparation for the launch of the replacement paints, orders remaining in the USOB with the following colors will be automatically converted to the replacement paint as follows. Conversion of the following paints will occur next week.
• F150 - Red Candy (U6) converted to Red Candy (RZ)
• Ranger – Red Fire (G2) converted to Toreador Red (FL)
• Focus - Kona Blue (L6) converted to Sonic Blue (SN), Tuxedo Black (UH) to Black (UA), and Red Candy (U6) converted to Red Candy (RZ)

Due to supplier capacity issues, the 2011MY SUPER DUTY LT245/75Rx17E BSW A/T tire (TBM) has been placed on material hold. To ensure 11MY production, all unscheduled orders with this tire must be spec changed to LT245/75Rx17E BSW A/S tire (TBK). All 11MY orders not spec changed should be cancelled and resubmitted as 12MY orders.

GM published a list earlier this month regarding unavailable paint colors for the 2012 Terrain and Equinox. The Impala has been added to that list as follows:

Final Order Cutoff for 2011 MY Caprice Police (formerly April 15, 2011, extended to May 13, 2011) has been further extended to Friday, June 3, 2011.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA) announced last week that it will boost production earlier than expected, following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Beginning in June, North American production will reach approximately 70 percent of normal levels, up from approximately 30 percent in May.

The improvement in parts availability from Japan is the result of countermeasure activities implemented by affected suppliers. Toyota will continue to evaluate production model-by-model on a monthly basis, with a goal to return to fully normalized production by late this year.

Eight models will be returning to 100 percent production in June: Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, Sequoia, Sienna and Venza.

The press release for this announcement is posted on the Toyota USA Newsroom here.
Toyota has released no specifics regarding MY12 startup order dates.

Ford has announced on 5/4/11 that Commercial Fleet orders for the 11MY Fiesta were coming in much higher than anticipated due to two large orders received. As a result, the Fleet Final Order Date was pulled ahead to 5/4/11 from 5/27/11. Ford does have more orders than allocation so it will likely have to cancel a handful of orders and have them resubmitted as 12MY vehicles. Ford will update us as soon as the list of the impacted orders is received.

Due to supplier capacity issues, the 2011MY SUPER DUTY LT245/75Rx17E BSW A/T tire (TBM) has been placed on material hold. To ensure 11MY production, all unscheduled orders with this tire must be spec changed to LT245/75Rx17E BSW A/S tire (TBK). All 11MY orders not spec changed should be cancelled and resubmitted as 12MY orders.

Toyota continues to place priority on supporting the relief efforts in the regions affected and ensuring that our team members, the employees at subsidiary vehicle manufacturers and at our suppliers—and all their respective family members—are safe. With that in mind, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has decided to continue the vehicle production halt started on March 14 at all plants in Japan (including subsidiary vehicle manufacturers) through March 22. A decision on when vehicle production will resume in Japan has yet to be made. Separately, TMC resumed production of replacement parts for vehicles already on the market beginning March 17. This will allow Toyota to take care of current owners who may need repairs. Additionally, in an effort to keep production lines moving overseas, TMC plans to restart production of parts for overseas production on March 21.

The North American Plants continue to build cars. However, all plants except TMMK (which build Camry, Avalon and Venza) will turn off the vehicle change capability to ensure that they have enough parts to build the vehicles currently scheduled. While Toyota has plenty of pipeline available in its Commercial pool for new orders, you may see extended delivery times if orders are placed with a configuration that is different than the pool. New orders for Camry, Avalon and Venza will not be impacted. The configurations that Toyota carries in its pool and will not be impacted are:

Due to a potential paint pigment shortage from a Tier Two supplier that has been impacted by the disaster in Japan, we are temporarily restricting the scheduling of orders of vehicles in the following colors:
• Blacks: Brilliant Black, Blackberry
• Reds: Deep Cherry Red, Redline, Inferno
• Other: Bronze Star, Rugged Brown, Hunter Green, Ivory, Billet Metallic
This temporary scheduling restriction is necessary as Chrysler works through timing and availability issues with the supplier base. Chrysler is monitoring the orders that are currently in the system and if any action is required, LeasePlan will be notified.
Note: The current build out dates for paints are subject to revision.