Claycomo, Missouri -- The growth of American lifestyles, roads and -- let's be honest -- waistlines has encouraged the development of larger vehicles. Along with gasoline that has been cheaper during the last few months than during any time in U.S. history, the public is becoming a Sierra club nightmare.

A few months ago Ford announced that the F150 SuperCrew would be built with four full doors and a short bed -- the first time that a light-duty full-size pickup had this configuration. This comes along with four-door versions of the compact Nissan Frontier and tweener Dodge Dakota plus the Explorer with a vestigial pickup bed. These are an advance to the three and four door compact and full-size SuperCab pickups whose rear-hinged rear doors are a help, but not the comfort and convenience benefit of the true four-door varieties.

DaimlerChrysler has just announced almost half a billion to be invested in their St. Louis Ram Truck plant expansion. They had mentioned a crew-cab version when the truck was introduced in 1993, and this is a hint that the time may be now. Most compact trucks produced overseas have four-door crew-cab versions, so these are bound not to be the last.

David Thursfield, vice president Ford Vehicle Operations, and Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan made the announcement that the Ford Motor Company's Kansas City Assembly Plant has been selected as the manufacturing site for the new Lincoln Blackwood luxury sport utility vehicle.

"Kansas City is the logical place to build the new Lincoln Blackwood, because of recent retooling for four-door pickup (F150 SuperCrew) production, its outstanding workforce, and its dedication to quality," said Thursfield. "Adding another vehicle to Kansas City demonstrates Ford manufacturing flexibility -- the ability to build several vehicles on one assembly line.

This was a foregone conclusion, since Claycomo is the only plant capable of building the SuperCrew configuration, and the low volume would preclude building the Blackwood at one of the other three Ford F150 plants.