A few months ago, Ford announced that it planned on killing most of its passenger car lineup, including the Focus, Fiesta, Taurus, and even the great Fusion in order to focus on pickup trucks, crossovers, and SUVs. Plans to only sell the Mustang muscle car and a new Ford Focus Active Crossover was the strategy going forward. Well, new tariffs have now killed the Chinese-made Focus Active. 

ford focus active rear 34

The Trump administration has ramped up the tariffs on motor vehicles imported to the U.S. from China, and Ford has determined that it's not worth it to bring the car here. "Given the negative financial impact of the new tariffs, we've decided not to import this vehicle from China," said Ford's president of North America, Kumar Galhotra, as reported by The Detroit News.

Find Local Discounts on the Ford Focus 

ford focus active surfer
This might as well be the East China Sea instead of the Pacific Ocean. 

So, for the near future, we won't see another passenger car (non-truck/SUV) sold by Ford, which is almost hard to believe. The Mustang, which isn't a great seller to begin with, will be the only car Ford sells in the near future. We don't know when the Fusion will stop being made since it's likely the last one to get canned. Of course, we were never all that thrilled about the Ford Focus Active coming here, but as a sign of the times, it's a bit saddening.

ford mustang
It's hard to believe that the model that's been around the longest will be the last man standing.

To give you an idea of how serious Ford is about making the production changes, they've already retooled their Wayne, Michigan plant to build the new Ranger pickup truck and the upcoming Bronco SUV. What's even more telling is the fact that the Wayne plant used to build the Ford Focus, which will no longer be sold as of 2019. Let's hope Ford is smart enough to keep the Mustang over the long haul, but our guess is that it will need to be even more of a "world car" to keep global sales at a decent volume. 

Find Local Discounts on the Ford Mustang