Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Most popular vehicles
Popular New Cars
- New Acura MDX
- New Acura RDX
- New Audi Q5
- New BMW 3 Series
- New BMW X3
- New Buick Enclave
- New Cadillac Escalade
- New Chevrolet Equinox
- New Chrysler 300
- New Dodge Challenger
- New Ford Edge
- New Ford Escape
- New Ford Expedition
- New Ford Explorer
- New Ford F-150
- New Ford Focus
- New Ford Mustang
- New Honda Accord
- New Honda Civic
- New Honda CR-V
- New Honda Fit
- New Honda Odyssey
- New Honda Pilot
- New Hyundai Elantra
- New Hyundai Santa Fe
- New Hyundai Sonata
- New Hyundai Tucson
- New Jeep Compass
- New Jeep Grand Cherokee
- New Jeep Wrangler
- New Mazda 3
- New Mazda 6
- New Mazda CX-5
- New Nissan Altima
- New Nissan Maxima
- New Nissan Rogue
- New Porsche Cayenne
- New Ram 1500
- New Subaru Crosstrek
- New Subaru Forester
- New Subaru Impreza
- New Subaru Outback
- New Tesla Model S
- New Tesla Model X
- New Toyota 4Runner
- New Toyota Camry
- New Toyota Corolla
- New Toyota Highlander
- New Toyota Prius
- New Toyota RAV4
- New Toyota Sienna
- New Toyota Tacoma
- New Volkswagen Jetta
- New Volvo XC60
- New Volvo XC90
Popular Used Sedans
- Used BMW 5 Series
- Used Chevrolet Impala
- Used Chevrolet Malibu
- Used Chrysler 200
- Used Dodge Charger
- Used Ford Fusion
- Used Ford Taurus
- Used Honda Accord
- Used Honda Civic
- Used Hyundai Elantra
- Used Hyundai Sonata
- Used Tesla Model S
- Used Toyota Camry
- Used Toyota Corolla
- Used Volkswagen Jetta
Popular Used SUVs
- Used Acura MDX
- Used Acura RDX
- Used Ford Edge
- Used Ford Explorer
- Used Honda CR-V
- Used Honda Pilot
- Used Hyundai Santa Fe
- Used Jeep Compass
- Used Lincoln Navigator
- Used Mazda CX-5
- Used Nissan Rogue
- Used Subaru Crosstrek
- Used Subaru Forester
- Used Tesla Model X
- Used Volvo XC90
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
ED; I'm, not opposed to Government support for business and industry. But you must also note that while the Japanese government helped their auto industry, it almost went down this last decade as a Govt, barely avoiding financial ruin.
You are missing an important fact. The Japanese companies have a long term plan, stick to that plan and make products people want to buy.
The American companies plan quarter to quarter and make obsolete, irrelevant stuff like the Ranger, Taurus and Town Car and they wonder how the consumers could possible reject it.
Their main problem is a fundamental disrespect for the intelligence of the car buying public. Until they fix their short term greed and arrogance, they should not be rewarded with tax dollars.
No question about it, Scooter - they should not be enabled to continue to make inferior product and try to pawn it off on the public out of "patriotism" alone. If we loan them money to survive, they'd better change something, as when Chrysler reorganized for the 7th time under Iacocca.
There should be terms required for the assistance. And you are 100% right, it IS our money....
On the bright side, the town car triplets have a very low true cost to own (of the people i know who own them) a repair costs about 1/3 the price of a camry repair. Any part you need is available in a junk yard b/c these cars have been around for ever.
Also, they are very confortable and while they eat alot of gas, I talked to a guy last year who was car shopping, and accidentaly came to a F/L/M dealer here in brooklyn, they offerred him $17,000 for a Mercury Grand Marquis with leather. It is more car for the money than anyone can give you. For the price of a corolla you get a v8 RWD enough seating for 6, one of the biggest trunks you will ever find, and a very easy car to live with and fix.
Its sad that ford has not invested in the mustangs 4.6L v8, to be fit into these cars, and that new 6 speed would be nice too. I was reading a book about how the taurus saved Ford, and the book noted that these triplets saved ford when 15 or 20 years ago RWD came back into style and GM had fully converted to RWD, people started comming back to these cars and ford made good money on them. I forgot what years though.
Nvbanker, the industry might have went down a little, but toyota stock is so powerful it could buy GM and Ford Whole if it wanted to. Only politics would stop it. Long Term it seems Jaapanese business support and American refusal to budge helped clear the path for japan to be the worlds leading producer... meybe behind china. We need to stop this, and I don't think NAFTA and CAFTA will help, even though in the future we may see them as the saviors of the US auto industry.
It is horrible that this is they things have to be. I don't think the republicans are going to hold on much during the next elections. THEN we arer eally in for it.
What could have been if all those billions were instead spent on this revolutionary idea: exciting and competitive mainstream products.
The Mustang and F-150 prove Ford can do it if they care to. Their success make lumps like the Freestyle and 500 that much more shameful.
There is no excuse whatsoever for the miserable Ranger, and nearly 10 year old Focus and whatever the mini-van is called.
Ford's strategic "planning" is like seeing someone living in a low-income housing project with a 50 inch plasma TV saying they can't afford to feed their kids.
Those acquisitions were Nasser's idea, and I'm not sure they were bad ideas at the time. Ford had cash to burn, and investing in heritage brands across the world gave Ford a pretty large footprint. Problem was, that cash went away fast with the Firestone Tire problem, and so did all the momentum Ford had at the time. Nasser, who was a miserable manager, but a pretty good visionary from what I can see, was then fired and Bill took over. A consistent theme has not been noted since, as he went about undoing most everything Nasser had done - not altogether a bad thing, but PAG with Lincoln included, seemed to be working to me. All of those brands should have been lifted with a solid, consistent plan for reinventing the cars within the brands. Bill pulled Lincoln out of PAG, making it a rebadged orphan. Aston Martin actually makes money, as does Volvo. Jag and Rover are black holes for funds still. The Range Rover Sport seems to be a hit though, and may mark a spark of hope there. I think the two should be merged into one company, with Rover making the SUVs and Jag making the Sedans. Some efficiencies should be achieved and they fit well together. Like Lincoln-Mercury, it would be Jaguar-Land Rover.
You are correct that Ford and GM CAN do it right. The "Way Forward" is another smokescreen for Wall Street to attempt to rally the stock & investors. Wall Street LOVES to see jobs cut, costs drastically reduced, and corresponding revenue increases, you know. Unfortunately, it's Wall Street's fickle finger of fate that has ruined long term planning in the US industrial complex. Seriously both Bill & Bob can't afford to plan 3 years ahead, and tell Wall Street, "Just trust me, this will work out in the end." Even if it would, and it might, investors will abandon you like roaches in the light if this quarter's profits aren't higher than last quarters.
This is not how it's done in Japan. This is not how it should be, and it's driving our industries out of business. :sick:
"...There was a pride in belonging to this most famous industrial management crew---perhaps the most famous in the world, even though any one individual's part may have been small---a crew like this had a sense of achievement by association."
---Charles Sorensen wrote in his autobiography 'My Forty Years with Ford'. The man who built the Rouge and served the Henry Ford longest of any non-Ford family executive (serving Ford from 1903-1944) also added: "When one man began to fancy himself an expert, we got rid of him---the minute a man thinks of himself as an expert, he gets an experts state of mind, and too many things become impossible." It was this notion of the "Impossible" that became the guiding force of Ford Motor in the begining. Nothing was: "The Ford operations and creative work were directed by men who had no previous knowledge of the subject...they did not have a chance to get on really familiar terms with the impossible." Sorensen concludes that they were indeed pioneers, not knowing whether an idea, concept, or design was bad until they built it first, tested it, and put it into production. It had never been done before, so there were no guidelines; Ford Motor creating them as they went along. This was the sue que non of the Henry Ford era at Ford.
This perception about the impossible, and thinking that experts becoming blindsided in their approach to new problems by the methods and ways by their previous experience, perhaps is what William Ford Jr. means when he speaks about 'innovation' at Ford Motor. Yet one does not see the 'team' ethos at Ford Motor. The very mantra of 'innovation' being the watch-word at Ford seemingly to run counter to what Mr. Sorensen is talking about: by declaring they're 'innovators' so loudly, they seem to draw to much attention to that fact, and then no longer espouse what they seek.
For the team that designed and built the Mark II under the father of the current leader of the company reeked of excitement and thrill for the work on the Continental. It almost did not matter whether the car succeeded or not, (much like Bugatti Veyron today), it was the accomplishment and the teamwork to get there that mattered. I dare say with the opening of the new Dearborn Center that this might happen again at Ford Motor under Messrs. Ford & Fields. (F-sqd?) But they should take heed from the team that built the first modern Continental between 1952-1955, and the words of Charles Sorensen about the empire he built at the side of the Henry Ford.
It was the Rouge that WCF Jr. saved first. But now it is Lincoln that needs the saving. Making the car an import primarily is not the best path towards that goal, but for now seems the one they have seen to take---though I don't believe for a moment that that was the best choice: building a new factory for new products for Lincoln is. BMW-AG UK represents several billion dollars in investment within the UK for the Mini and Rolls-Royce plants. The ripple effect through the British economy created 55,000 jobs. It takes 2,000 man hours to build all the components for one Rolls-Royce Phantom, with a bulk of the suppliers in England. A new Lincoln plant would have essentially the same effect, though the number of workers at the plant might not exceed 2,500. Goodwood-Rolls-Royce only has 550 people on staff, yet their impact to the local economy has been tremendous. Mr. Fields says: "We will not keep building cars just to fill out a plant." Yet, like the Rouge, and the team that created the Mark II, it was in the first case, saving the plant that mattered, The Rouge having become synonomous with Ford Motor as much as the Blue Oval. That is what needs to happen for Lincoln as it was for the Mark II, building a great design worthy not only for the challenge of it, but a factory its own, and a workforce emboldened to make it....
...like Mr. Sorensen said: "...if he became proficient, he developed into a full-fledged Ford Executive, a specialist, but not an expert." That is the challenge that Ford Motor and Lincoln needs today: the rank and file no matter where they sit rising to the task. So that the word: "impossible" carries no meaning. Like putting a 600Bhp Mustang engine into a Lincoln. That is what the Road Ahead must hold for Lincoln. Hopefully the new Design Center might encourage bold thinking, and the results of Ford's Way Forward Plan will not become F-sqrd: fatally-failed under Ford & Fields.
DouglasR
(Sources: Ford Motor Company; 'My Forty Years with Ford', Charles E. Sorenson, Collier Books, NY 1962; Edmunds Inside Line)
Let Grand Marquie go the way of the Oldsmobile.
Enhance the Crown Victoria line to appeal to the Grand Marquie crowd.
Replace the Town Car with the Jaguar XJ8L and Vanden Plas in all dealerships currently housing Town Cars.
The XJ8 needs a dealer network like Corvette, extensive in small cities with big buck customers. The reason Ford's investment in Jag isn't profitable is they don't sell well over here & they would given a numerous dealer network.
This is also why the japanese govt and businesses have tight control over their distribution system to keep most of the foreigners out.
we have been shown many examples in business class about deals with japanese businesses that went sour over lies about getting into the japanese market. Everything from beer to rice to soup.
I'm not saying its the only reason that toyota is doing so good, but it is one of the major factors. During the 80's I think, Ford assembled or re-grouped its dealer network and that network helped it survive.
Excerpts:
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. has informed the Canadian Auto Workers union that it won't move the Lincoln Town Car to a plant in Ontario, putting the venerable luxury nameplate in jeopardy.
Ford plans to idle the Wixom, Mich., plant, where the Town Car is assembled, during the second quarter of 2007. Ford officials won't say what will happen to the Town Car, Lincoln's top-selling vehicle since at least 1980.
CAW President Buzz Hargrove told Automotive News that Ford executives have told the union that Town Car production won't shift to the St. Thomas, Ontario, plant. That plant makes the Town Car's sister products, the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis.
Even if the Town Car is discontinued after Wixom closes, that doesn't mean its Panther platform siblings also will be killed. Ford has told the CAW that it plans to build the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis at the St. Thomas plant until at least 2010, Hargrove said. After that, the plant's future is up in the air.
The St. Thomas plant is scheduled to go to one shift of production in 2007. Going to one shift often is a harbinger that a plant will close.
"I have a very nervous feeling long term about St. Thomas," Hargrove said. "We have no reason at this point to be optimistic that they're going to do anything with St. Thomas."
Staffwriter Amy Wilson of Automotive News interviewed CAW President Bud Hargrove who said: "We've been arguing for it, it makes sense, even if you put 30,000 to 40,000 units in the Canadian Plant." Though 59% of TC's sales are to livery and fleet customers, 1,530 TC's are sold each month just to retail customers alone against 2,550 for Zephyr/MkZ. Including the fleet sales, and TC rises to the same level as its Mexican sister. The AN article makes it clear that Ford Motor has told St. Thomas not to expect Town Car, the decision about its fate being open, but less than promising.
Less than a year now remains for the fate of the rwd large platform Lincoln at Wixom at a time when the American firms are scaling back their factories and workforce---while the foreign competition is increasing its plans for expansion in America. GM will "buy-out" 35,000 workers at a cost of $3.5Bn, Ford up to 10,000 at a cost of $1.5Bn---making the companies ostensibly leaner and more 'cost efficient'. On one hand it makes sense to eliminate the 'Jobs-Bank' which the manufacturers argreed to in order to increase efficiency in the plants in order to utilise new machinery that often displaced workers into the Jobs Bank---effectively paying them not to work while new jobs were waiting for them. One reason why the foreign competitors had but one more advantage against GM and Ford.
However, if Auto Workers are reduced to the levels of Delphi workers at $9Hr, who will buy their products? All they will be able to afford are Hyundais on monthly installments. (And to where does a Chinese worker go for redress of grievances?) The $1.5Bn Ford Motor is using to dispense with part of its work-force, could instead be invested in products for those workers to manufacture. The problem is not the labour: they assemble what they are given to assemble; can only make suggestions to improve design and efficiency if they have a job. The problem is that, like Wixom, Ford Motor is unwilling to invest in its products because it needs first to re-arrange how and/or where they are made. Instead they should take a quarter of those workers and tell them they are part of a new project within the company, and they need their help. A ground-braking partnership between the manufacturer and labour to produce great products.
Ford Motor did this when it built to Highland-Park Plant designed in part by Alfred Kahn to accomodate the design not only of the T but the moving assembly line to manufacture it---neither of which was possible without the other, given its introductory price of $950 and the demand it created. On January 6, 1914, Ford Motor set the tone for all labour within the auto industry worldwide when it increased pay four times greater than the concurrent average wage, to $5 a day. Three spectacular events unveiled simultaneously within one firm. That is what, I speculate, Bill Ford Jr., and Mark Fields seem to be attempting today.
They should take a page from what once was: set up a new design, a new factory, and a new working arrangement between the workforce---rather than closing down and casting off what is still viable. The American auto industry seems, given the news this week, to have come full circle: being weak on product, disconnected with its buyers, and unable to support its workforce.
Freshening up the TC as a test would be a start, before the successor model is ready; approach the workforce in North America as a whole with a new working arrangement (How long can Mexican workers continue to work at lower pay scales than their American and Canadian counterparts before they strike?); use CAD/CAM and Rapid Prototyping to design and entirely new building dedicated to modern production technique, and get the prospective workforce to make suggestions to ease the process of manufacture.
Without which, Lincoln will indeed go the way of Packard in America. It will end up as Oldsmobile had---being marginalised as a mini name plate and then discarded---while its last executives fail to see the connection the brand had, and could have with the public.
As Lincoln goes so goes the nation...
DouglasR
(Sources: Automotive News; FT; WSJ; Ford Motor Company)
I think it likely that Lincoln will be gone before too long, but I'm not sure the nation will follow it down the tubes. At least, not anywhere near as quickly. :-/
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Rocky
On this same day in 1923, June 27, the statue by F. Derwent Wood of Sir Frederick Henry Royce was unveiled at Derby---in accord with Royce's contribution to the Allied Victory in WWI with the Rolls-Royce aero-engine development and production. If Mr. Ford and MR. Fields fail in their efforts within their new Design Center at Dearborn to revitalise the Ford Empire, no statues to William Clay Ford Jr. will ever be erected. If he fails in his efforts, few will ever call him "Sir".
Today, as Ford Motor spends up to $150,000 per worker to 'buy-out' 10,000 workers contracts; GM spending $108,517 per worker to 'buy-out' 35,000 workers---one quarter of its work-force; VWAG buying out 1,000 workers at Wolfsburg in a similar though not as expensive fashion (yet Wolfsburg work-week is 28.8 hrs per week.) Combined the two firms are spening more than $5Bn to eliminate jobs. Equivalent to what Ford Motor spent on Jaguar. Equal to what it could have spent on Lincoln: $1.5bn.
Across the ocean, tiny Rolls-Royce leads the industry in labour relations: begining a four-year apprenticeship program for a small cadre of 16-24 year old men and women, each of whom will work in all facets of assembly and manufacture at Goodwood. "We are delighted to launch this program which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to development and training of young people in the U.K. Manufacturing industry...." Rolls-Royce CEO Ian Robertson commented upon the initiation of the program (06-09-06). He added: "Every Rolls-Royce is hand-built to the highest levels of quality and our new apprentices will join a dedicated team of craftsmen and women." A speech not heard on these shores in some time, by any American auto executive.
Mr. Robertson's words echo the words of Henry M. Leland when he began the Lincoln Motor Company, and the first Model L chassis rolled out of the Livernois Avenue plant: "Boys...you've been telling us your ideas, and now we are ready to go ahead with them...You know our ideas as to quality, ruggedness, and reliability. You have an opportunity now such as you never had before." HML admonished his workforce, telling them of the superiority of the design they were helping to build. He added in conclusion that day in 1919: "Do the job as you have always been accustomed to doing, only do it better."
Since Mr. Ford has chosen to lead his company, appear in advertisements, stump the nation with Mr. Fields as to the causes of the Ford Motor Company, the fate of Lincoln then as important as any other issue within our marketplace today. Given its rank within Ford Motor, it remains the pivotal division within the company with respect to the long term future of Ford Motor's Empire. Lincoln's Hermisilio workers do not make what their Highland Park precedessors once made: no where near the equivalent $92 an hour. And no one will stand within the factory gates in paterinalistic fashion excoriating the workforce to "do your best, only do it better." in terms of Lincoln---the MkZ being just another unit on the line. The only hope remains that the designers and engineers within the Dearborn Center working behind computer screens, will have the same verve and vibe for their work that their predecessors did working at black-boards and hand-finishing wooden and steel patterns for parts never made before decades ago.
One day soon, Bill Ford must stand before a new Lincoln, unveiling it to the public. He must not leave that to the minions beneath him. And he will have to speak the words that call not only to the present and the future, but to all the roads and miles past that Lincoln has travelled. For his predecessors both at Ford and Lincoln did not know the meaning of 'impossible'...and that is what Mr. Ford must now do: say that the future of Lincoln is not an impossible one. Nor can he skirt the issue with bromides about safety, fuel economy, or environmental issues---for the product still remains king. Lincoln's fate not falling into the hands of a cold announcement from a union chief across our borders---Mr. Hargrove not becoming the arbiter of Lincoln's future.
When F. Derwent Wood's statue of Royce was unveiled, Royce, or 'R' as he was known, stated: "but I am not dead yet." Bill Ford may well find himself very much alive, on the day that Ford Motor finds itself in peril without a viable Lincoln Motor Company---should he not now make the same remarks his predecessors had---one that inspire and lead men and women all in the same moment. Working "Over to Ford's" should mean something again, (as my family often called it), as it does for those who work for Rolls-Royce. It should mean far more than that for those who design, assemble, and manufacture Lincoln. Only then, perhaps, will Bill Ford earn a sobriquet as R is fondly known---though something other perhaps than "F"!
As Lincoln goes, So goes the Nation...
DouglasR
(Sources: Rolls-Royce Motorcars Ltd; 'The Lincoln Motorcar, Sixty Years of Excellence' Thomas E. Bonsall, BookmanPublishing, Baltimore Md, 1981; 'My Forty Years with Ford' Charles E. Sorensen, Collier 1962)
Thanks for this color, and I hope someone at Ford is reading it too.....
Thanks for this color, and I hope someone at Ford is reading it too....."
I agree with NV, but it might be more effective if it could be translated to Lincoln's new native tongue- espanol.
MKZ, Mexico
Town Car, Ontario, Canada
It's a start!! :confuse:
One day soon, Bill Ford must stand before a new Lincoln, unveiling it to the public. He must not leave that to the minions beneath him. And he will have to speak the words that call not only to the present and the future, but to all the roads and miles past that Lincoln has travelled.
I don't think it'll ever happen.
MKZ, Mexico
Town Car, Ontario, Canada
The Town Car is not going to be built in Canada, or anywhere else, a year from now.
If that's true - then they're done for.
(How could they?)
What will livery drivers do? And how could they drop their number one product, even if 59% of sales ARE to fleets, and it dates back to 1980 without any chassis updates?! :-P
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
If that's true - then they're done for.
See my post 364 for a link to the Automotive News article.
Ford Motor would then have to explain why there is no Continental today...when the press prints: "Prime Minister Kuzuimi tries the wheel of Elvis' Continental---a former top model line discontinued by Ford." Even William Clay Ford Sr. might have to comment upon that in the Detroit Free Press. With the demise of Wixom, and the Town Car, Lincoln will have no top-line model to sell the public, if production is not taken up at St. Thomas.
While Mr. Ford and Mr. Fields ponder what to do, Cadillac has revived one of its Carrara-Pan-America from 1953-4, putting a modern drivetrain and brakes under the unchanged bodyshell. #127 will ride again, and Cadillac will champion the car as one of the 'Great Racers'. They might forget to mention that Lincoln won the race in its class: an average speed of 90.90mph in its class driven by Chuck Stevenson---and only 10mph below that of the 300SL driven by Karl Kling. Lincoln even performed well against sports cars like Ferrari, who bettered Lincoln's overall time by a similar margin. In 1953-54 Lincoln had used the first of Earl MacPherson's ball-joint suspension design, Y-Block predecessor V8 that was both light-wieght and powerful giving Lincoln a top speed of 116mph---tested by Bill Stroppe at Bonneville. Though Lincoln would be beaten in measured mile speed tests at Daytona (107.88mph vs. Cadillac's 110.85) the balance of the engine and chassis, plus improved brakes gave Lincoln the edge in that November 19, 1953 race south of the border. 14 Lincolns entered the race, two finished-victoriously. But Lincoln will not make light of that victory as Cadillac is reviving bright moments from their past.
Now that Lincoln is being "built" in Mexico, it also behooves Ford Motor to bring back the 'Road-Race Lincoln'. This they can do with the Mustang engine, and/or something from Jaguar-Astons. But a red blooded high-performance American V8 is what is needed. Chrysler announced today that it will build Challenger---and with it comes Imperial. The Dodge Boys already have the hot-rod-motors on the shelf they can throw at the competition. You can bet that the product engineers are burning a lot of mid-night oil knowing they can check-mate Ford and Lincoln.
As Prime Minister Kozuimi admired both the music, the culture of America, and the real-steel in Mr. Presley's garage, the press will write that the American Auto Industry was beaten back by Japanese competition with their just-in-time inventory system; a system ostensibly copied by Ford Motor at Chicago---where the next Lincolns are built. But that is a misnomer. The Japanese industry, Toyota in particular, copied that system from Ford Motor---Fordson Tractor to be precise: "Kanzler became fascinated with the relationship between production and shipment...So exact were his schedules that supplies arrived practically as needed, freight cars bringing in wheels, radiators, castings, etc. were utilised a few hours after their arrival to dispatch completed tractors". authors Allan Nevins and Frank Hill recount after their June 11, 1956 interview with Kanzler. His methods along with Sorensen were applied across Ford's larger plants at Highland Park, and later the Rouge.
Toykyo Gas Co. began importing Ford trucks in large quantities (9,000) after the Tokyo earthquake of 1923---previous military government subsidies unable to spur production of cars and trucks. Ford established its first knock-down assembly plant in Japan, at Yokohama in 1925. Of the 11,303 vehicles sold in Japan that year, 2,381 were imports, 8,677 were Ford knock-down assembled trucks, and only 2.2% of the market: 245 cars were indiginous Japanese domestic manufactured vehicles. After Ford-Japan, and GM-Japan's activities were proscribed and effectively shut down and/or usurped in 1936 by restrictive laws, Toyota dissasembled many American products to study their manufacture---including their systems of assembly. "Kan-Ban" was merely a modification of what Ford Motor had already achieved---the only difference being the establishment of supplier plants near the main manufacturing facility---just as is true at 130th & Torrence Avenue today. So the press will taut how American companies have become more "japanese-like" or 'toyota-like', but that is not true. Like Prime Minister Kozuimi singing and admiring American music, just the key might be a little different.
Yet Ford Motor can't forget, like Elvis' songs---and Mr. Presely's love for Lincolns, having purchased a '56 Mark II after one of his first big hits---the roads they have taken. 'Hot-Rod-Lincoln' might not have been an Elvis song, but Mr. Kozuimi might in-advertently remind Lincoln and Ford Motor where they have been---like Cadillac is doing today. Who will sing: "Love me tender, love me sweet..." for Lincoln, and Continental today at Ford? Sweeter still if a reporter asks a Ford representative: "Prime Minister Kozuimi loved the Presley Continental Mark II, stating: "It's too bad they don't make them anymore..."; causing the reporter to ask; "will Ford bring back the Continental?"
DouglasR
(Sources: 'The Japanese Automobile Industry, Michael A. Cusumano, Harvard East Asian Monographs, Harvard University Press, 1985; 'Ford Expansion & Challenge, 1915-1933' Allan Nevins & Frank Earnest Hill, Scribners & Sons, NY 1957; Prime Minister Kozuimi's Office, Japanese Government; The White House, President George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Wash. D.C.; Automotive News; WSJ; 'The Lincoln Motorcar, Sixty Years of Excellence, Thomas E. Bonsall, Bookman Publishing, Baltimore Md. 1981)
Brilliantly, Ford decided to have Lincoln go all FWD, in an effort to copy Cad's failed and now abandoned plan.
They are reaping the same success Cadillac did back then.
Yes, I saw the Challenger was given the official green light today and that likely means the Imperial is coming too. Maybe the German owners of DC know something Billy doesn't : Americans like V-8 RWD cars. - What a concept.
I saw a picture of President Bush and the Japanese Prime Minister - in front of one of Elvis's Cadillacs, there was no report that they discussed Lincoln.
When I toured the Wixom plant in '97 - we were introduced to this system they called, "Computer Sequential Production". The only part of the Town Car around for more than 24 hours was the basic painted body in the paint room. On one line was the Town Car and Continental at 33 per hour. The other line was the Mark VIII at 11 per hour.
At that time it was easy to see how Wixom could easily install a Mark VIII engine in a Town Car.
It is my opinion Lincoln could have done that option, called it the power package & got another $500 per car.
Prime Minister Koizumi and President Bush indeed stood by one of the Elvis' Cadillacs---surely there's a shot of them by the Mark II. In either case, Mr. Presley hung a copy of Theodore McManus famous Cadillac advertisement, on his wall. "The Penalty of Leadership" of January 1915---mailed to Presley in 1967 by Cadillac, which he took up as applying to his life as well as to Cadillac. Strangely enough, four months later he took delivery of a pre-production Continental Mark III (Navy Blue, sans 'Continental' letters on the decklid!), later seen in his 1968 'Come-Back' special broadcast that year on the old 'Television' network. His affection for Lincoln as keen as his affection for Mr. MacManus's prose.
Concluding in the MacManus Cadillac ad: "That which is good or great makes itself known---no matter how loud the clamor of denial---that which deserves to live, lives." Words that Mr. Ford and Mr. Fields should read again today, and written in part: "If he achieve a masterpiece---it will set a million tongues a-wagging---jealously does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a common place painting..." and rising to a moment which all auto executives should take heed: "Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build---no one will strive to surpass or to slander you---unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius."
It is that 'genius' which Mr. Ford must now seek to attain. As "Dr.Z" is willing to place his staff in the public eye, and his company making the bets in the marketplace on vehicles that clearly excite---he will be attacked as much for the bet as for the product. But the buyers will prove or disprove that bet. A bet that Mr. Fields seems leary of making: "We will only make cars we can sell...." But where is the verve and the dash---that same kind of excitement that makes great artists, or performers? ----from Ford Motor in the hands of steel?
We forget that our nation imposed stiff tariffs and taxes on imported cars between 1918-1942, making them a rarity on our shores. Chassis were taxed between 25-33%, and whole vehicles at 27%-35% by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign Commerce & Navigation. Given the exchange rate against the dollar, cars as Rolls-Royce were very expensive, often four times that of a comparable Cadillac and Lincoln Model L---why Rolls-Royce built a factory at Springfield to beat the tariff and the tax, (and despite claims to the contrary, was a success---selling 200-350 cars per year during its operation.) Between the wars no more than 16 cars per state were imported in any one year in all the fifty states---on average---with some states like New York, and Los Angeles receiving the lion's share of imports because they were off-loaded in NYC, and LA. "Seeing" a foreign car, therefore, was indeed quite an experience, regardless of where you lived. (In some years and some states as rare as seeing a Chrysler Trubine Car in 1964!) This reality contributed to the popular myth of superiority and acceptance of imports after WWII when the taxes and tariffs were removed in 1947-8---which made MG's, Triumphs, Jaguars, Bentley's and Rolls-Royce far less expensive than they would have been. This same 'snobbery' toward imports made it that much easier for Americans to make them second cars---and now given the abdication of domestic manufacturers, their only car. The days of a foreign car being exclusive are gone. In 1956 when Ford Motor become a public stockholding company, imports held less than 3% of the market, today it stands at 37%, and Ford has lost its traditional 25.5% of the market---now standing at 18.7% Imports, therefore no longer a novelty. Even if GM-Nissan-Renault becomes a reality, controlling 25% of the Global market, Lincoln should lead, as Cadillac once did, and not be left in Imperial's dust. Otherwise "Z" will not stand for Mark Z; Z-350; or even Zorro: it will stand for Zetsche.
The "Penalty of Leadership" should be re-written, or rather reprinted: but this time it should not remind us of Elvis, or Cadillac---or Imperial. It should remind us, that for Lincoln, the Road Ahead should become theirs---with engines dressed in chromed stainless valve covers basked in dark blue paint---the Lincoln escutscheon emblazzened in cast aluminum and steel. Real Steel---as Mr. Presley once enjoyed. Cars we can drive with our right foot. Mr. Zetsche may well pull up the driveway of Bill Ford's house, as Walter Chrysler once did at Edsel Ford's Grosse Point home...leaving a new Plymouth in the driveway with a kind note: "Dear Edsel, though you might enjoy this...", and decades later leaving a note for Bill: "Dear WC, thought you might like this Imperial..." The day Wixom closes, Mr. Zetsche may well be able to do so...and that, as Mr. MacManus tells us...is 'The Penalty of Leadership.'
As Lincoln goes, so goes the Nation, that which deserves to live, lives.
DouglasR
(Sources: 'Any Color So Long As Its Black', Peter Roberts, Wm. Morrow & Co, NYC, 1976; Elvis Presley Museum; WSJ; FT; Ford Motor Company; DaimlerChrysler, askdrz.com; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign Commerce & Navigation, Washington D.C.)
While you have a touching boatload of 70-year old nostalgia, have you a single scintilla of evidence that your visions of the past are nothing more than delusions when applied to the future?
"When I took over...I felt like I was holding up a collapsing building with an umbrella." ---Bill Ford Jr. in 1998. Six years later, he would add: "Where does all this put us now? I'd say we went from about the bottom of the barrel to about the middle of the pack. But is that good enough?" WCF Jr's answer is instructive: "No...I did not join this company to be average...We aspire to be great, because this is our heritage." Mr. Ford recollects in his 2005 book: "Ford Tough'.
From where I sit, I see a ray of hope. For today Mr. Ford has abandoned his desire to build a quarter-million hybrid vehicles (which are NOT profitable)---freeing his company for capital investment in product. His company has opened a tech & design center at Dearborn to rival that of his cross-town "friends" at Chrysler. Despite terrible sales losses, and extreme levels of capital investment, top-line Jaguars have earned a respective first rank place in the marketplace in terms of engineering and quality, as have Astons under Ford Motor ownership. The lessons learned there applied to Lincoln and Continental in the future. The pressure of the competition---especially a GM-Nissan-Renault Tie-Up---will spur a rethinking of future options at Ford, these must ultimately place Lincoln squarely in their plans. I see a rationalisation of Ford's 103 plants world-wide to fight the now global marketplace.
Yet due to the lag time between product and market-place, the bets placed at the table must be bold ones, and right ones. "This industry is not for the faint of heart" Lee Iacocca once said in an interview---that feeling echoed by Mr. Lutz in his book 'Guts'. Yet the shocking fact remains that 50 people are reponsible for the options placed on the table that became the 'Way Forward Plan'---thus the closing of Wixom, and the abrogation of Lincoln as a viable marque. 750,000 people wrote Ford Motor when Alex Troutman was CEO---urging Ford not to stop production of Mustang. As a result Troutman repsonded: "$750Mn, and not a dime more." And Mustang lives today.
It is, in small and large part, the efforts of the thousands of people working for Ford, my own family included, that has made the company what it is, then and now. To wish for a greater future, to outline a path which evidently is not being taken, to outline ideas worth considering no matter the messenger, and put together pieces within the grasp of the company to make greater products is no delusion. To motivate the people who make the steel real becomes as much of the battle as it is to make it. It is a hard reality. Otherwise Ford would not have hired designers as J. Mays and Freeman Thomas, would not have allowed Dr. Bez alone to sire Astons to victory, nor given Ian Callum a free hand at Jaguar---nor given Peter Horbury bailiwick to revive Lincoln. To consider the future without being well aware of where you have come from, is dangerous at best. Otherwise we would all be riding horses, and Charles Sorensen would never have had the chance to make the Henry Ford's ideas a reality---for they were considered impossible.
It is Bill Ford Jr. that speaks of 'heritage'---therefore fair enough to raise the heritage of Lincoln with respect to its future. It was Bill Ford Jr. that rushed to the Rouge the second week of his Chairmanship to aide wounded workers in a Steel Furnace Fire. It was Bill Ford Jr. who chose to revive The Rouge. And if one assembly plant is synonomous with "Ford", than The Rouge is it. That $2Bn investment was no delusion---thus as Ford is The Rouge, then Lincoln represents something in and of itself in the same fashion---to which '...as Lincoln goes, so goes the nation...' It is Bill Ford Jr. that replaced the Blue Oval sign atop the Glass House---a symbol both of the future and the past, and equally paramount to preserve the symbols of Lincoln. And not unlike his famous uncle, Henry Ford II, placed in the seat of one of the largest corporations somewhat unexpectedly---but having to learn on the job, thus his admonishion not to be 'average' . Yet I see that there is a greater path that he can take, far beyond the average, not only for Ford, but for Lincoln too---but he has to walk into The Glass House each day sorting the future for Ford, five years in advance, and that is no delusion. Harley Earl once said that he does not live in the 'present', but only 'four years into the future....', but Bill Ford has to do both---the present and the future. And that is no delusion. Can we afford to let him make the mistake of not considering his public---those that use, own, and want to buy the products his company makes? The answer is a resounding NO, and that is no delusion.
The details will make themselves clear enough from this public soon enough---but all great products come from great ideas. As it was once said in this nation: "Some may say when they see things and declare, "Why", but I look at the future and say: "Why Not?"
DouglasR
Sources: 'My Forty Years With Ford', Charles Sorensen, Collier Books NY 1962; 'Ford Tough', Bill Ford Jr. with David Magee, John Wiley & Sons, Detroit 2005; Speeches of Robert F. Kennedy, JFK Library, Boston, Ma.; 'Guts', Robert Lutz, John Wiley & Sons, Detroit)
Time and time again they promise things and completely flake out or introduce half-baked products and rather than perfect them, they immediately flake out and let them whither and die.
I just read a story recounting how Bill Jr promised to improve the MPG of Ford SUV's by 25% by 2005. but in 2003 he said they were "unable to develop fuel-saving technology as quickly as it had hoped" So, poof- there goes that promise.
A few months ago BF announced Ford would sell 250,000 hybrids a year by 2010. Well, that goal was publicly made was several months ago, with the passage of so much time they have officially given up that goal.
"William Ford, known for his lifelong interest in environmental causes, acknowledged that he would be criticized for the move. But, he said, "The goal all along is a sustainability goal. It is not a hybrid goal"
That's funny, it was a hybrid goal a few months ago.
If that is who's controlling Lincoln's fate, better make room in the Oldsmobile/Plymouth club.
Oh, Ford can still get it out faster than GM, which is why the Camaro may make it out this decade - or may not.
Meanwhile, though GM has had years of lethargy of its own, it has moved up the introductions of both its fullsize SUVs and pickups. These are thoroughly restyled, unlike the Fords coming this fall. Saturn has four new models here or arriving in dealerships soon. Pontiac has the Solstice, the G6 sedan, coupe and hardtop convertible. The Grand Prix is being re-done. A more exciting GTO (badly needed) is coming before the Mustang will be re-tweaked at all. Chevy's Cobalt is newer than Focus, and new Chevys (some rear drive) will be out before Ford will ever get around to redesigning the 500 and Fusion, since both will have to make do with minor styling changes for many more years. Buick is rebuilding itself with the so-so LaCrosse, the Lucerne, and the Enclave (although beaten to market by the MK by a few months, will have a more upscale interior than the Lincoln, and not have to share body panels with a lesser brand. Cadillac has re-vamped its entire line, and has redesigns of some of those in the pipeline as well as entirely new models.
Although I am a dyed in the wool Ford guy when it comes to choosing American iron, it does seem that GM has responded to market loss more aggressively. Its stock reflects that, whereas Ford stock is lower than its been in decades and seems stuck in the toilet for now.
If the Camaro does emerge in 2009, I'm afraid Ford may still be selling the 2005 Mustang. And will the Lincoln variant even be here yet? The market moves awfully fast these days. Ford needs to hussle.
GM still doesn't know how to disappear a 3rd seat in their SUVs, even though Ford has shown them how since 02! Yes, GM cancelled the Camaro/Firebird twins, a stupid mistake, but they couldn't sell their F-cars any longer, because they were rattletraps, poorly designed with big humps on the floors, doors that wouldn't shut unless you lift them, and dashes that cracked in the showroom. The Mustang has 10 times the following the Camaro ever did. Ford tried to cancel it, the public was outraged! GM cancels the Camaro, and - dead silence from both fans. You hardly see a Camaro on the road these days.
The GM reskin of their SUVs, which by the way is all it is, same powertrains, suspensions, equipment, made them look just like the Ford counterparts! They're square now, and sit higher, just like the Expeditions! And, surprise, the Escalade STILL doesn't have a unique interior. It's the same as a Tahoe - just not the same as the truck anymore. Yeah, kudos to GM for that one, still haven't even caught up to Ford design, let alone surpassed it at any level.
I remain unconvinced - Ford is always out first with new product, sometimes inventing and reinventing the class, GM then tries to trump it in 3-4 years, but fails every time, and you call that being ahead of the game?
Ford stock is not in the toilet because of bad product.
Bad management is the issue now.
Ford has done some very innovative things. The 500 wasn't one of them. Nor was it a first anything. The Fusion is holding its own, and doing well for Ford--but is hardly a standout in a field of terrific intermediates. And it wasn't first...it was late to the party.
My point with the Mustang is that a vehicle that has done so much for Ford deserved better. It only continued to reign because GM did so much worse. Ford could have used the sales the 2005 generated in previous years. Now that it is back on top and deservingly so, they can't sit back. The Camaro (this time done right more along the lines of the original pony cars) and the Challenger (apt name) will be here some time in 2008 as 09 models. Each will have IRS and 400+ hp options without having to go to the expense of Shelby Cobra prices. Will Ford be ready with an updated 'Stang? I hope so, but I am skeptical, given the track record.
BTW, the 2007 Escalade does have a unique interior from Tahoe. The exterior is also more unique this year too. Even the rear doors are different this time. Moreover, it has 403 hp (with better mpg), whereas the 2007 Lincoln can only field what it has had for many years: 300 hp. The Lincoln folding seat and IRS are great features, but they are not carrying the day in the marketplace.
Lincoln invented this class and then gave it over to the Escalade. They didn't have to if they had merely spent a few bucks on the 2003 re-do to give the truck a new body to go with the improvements inside and underneath. Most people still have a tough time telling the 2003 and the previous iteration apart on the road.
Ford sales are down more units than GM and Chyrsler combined since 2000. There is no question bad management is to blame. Ford can do better and at times certainly has. Always out first with new product would be a good goal.
Bill Ford has reversed himself on numerous issues because he, I think, is begining to see the daylight---and listen to some of the people around him. PAG has already declared a sharing of drive-trains in the next generation of cars, which means Lincoln can benefit from this. Jaguar stamping plants in England have excess capacity and that could be taken up by a bodyshell for a new Lincoln---making good use of both Jaguar and Lincoln facilities/platforms. It won't be long before (if it is not already on test) someone in the engineering department jams a hot-rod motor under the hood of the current Lincoln for test...as easily as they could have when the Mark VIII was being built.
The answers for Lincoln are as plain as daylite, and all of the materials, engineers, stylist and marketing staff are available to make it happen. Horbury has already commented that the new Navigator is making headway and getting a lot of attention. The pieces of the puzzle are present, they just need to be put together. And before the purchasing power of GM-Renault-Nissan makes itself apparent in the marketplace.
DouglasR
It's just that using both hands and a flashlight GM has found theirs and Ford is still looking.
If Ford is committed to "Bold Moves" as anything more than a slogan which will bve forgotten in 3 months, it will be a long time until bold products replace Town Car, Ranger, 500, Focus etc...
"Bold Moves" sounds nice, is meaningless because but only Bold products will save the company.
(This is the part where Doug starts humming the Battle Hymn of the Republic)
What kind of attention, and from whom? I certainly haven't read much positive about it here.
What kind of attention, and from whom? I certainly haven't read much positive about it here."
Yes, sadly, I agree. As a prior owner (happy one too) of 2 Navigators, a 99 and an 03, I find the 07 to be a garish exaggeration of the family DNA. I hate the front end, the interior has been cheapened, the instrumentation for one. Gone is the high tech backlit and floating needle display, in favor of the guages from the 64 Continental. Nostalgic, but hopelessly out of date. If I were to get another Navigator, and I'd love to, it would be an 06, before they put the "ruined" model out.
I haven't heard anything positive about it, and I have nothing positive to say about it.
So what's the big deal with the new grille? I don't think I would crane my neck for that, except maybe to remark that true excess is alive and well.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
However, a grill that grabs even more attention than the chrome on the Escalade will likely not be enough. The Escalade has a great new body, while the Nav makes do with the previous one. Moreover, the extended version of the Nav is not nearly as balanced looking as the the extended Escalade. Not to mention power, gas mileage and that very tasteful 07 Escalade interior.
But on the whole, if Lincoln couldn't afford to thoroughly re-design the thing as Cadillac did theirs, I think they did the right thing to at least make the grill polarizing. A more subdued grill and the 07 Nav wouldn't receive much attention at all.
Comment.