A life with Ford
David Woods started his career with the Ford Motor Company Ltd. on 7 March 1960, when he joined the International Statistics and Market Research section of the Product Planning department at Dagenham. This was a time when the Fordson Dexta and Major were big players in the market, but scheduled to be replaced by a brand-new range of tractors.
It had been planned that the Tractor Division, as it was then known, would vacate the Dagenham plant by early 1964 to allow Ford to build car engines. Tractor production would switch to a new, purpose-built plant at Basildon.
“No other tractor manufacturer had ever contemplated producing a completely-new product line and a new manufacturing plant at the same time,” David told . “It was a plan full of timing risks. Not only that, but the transmissions and rear axles
