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Where Is Ford taking the Lincoln Motor Company?

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Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    That is a real Lincoln grill and a real Lincoln shape. That it looks a bit (not very much) like the 300 in profile is merely testament to its credentials as both a Lincoln and a current design. It is in fact far more graceful and balanced than the 300. Plus it has the terrific suicide doors, setting it apart from all but Rolls.

    It looks nothing like the 300 from the front or rear, and only in the vaguest way from the side. it looks like a Lincoln, not an ersatz Acura (MKS) or a 300. This car would have been on the road at the same time as the 300, had Lincoln chosen to build it--and it would have grabbed a lot of the 300's Thunder.

    That you don't like it is good, too. Lincoln clearly needs a polarizing design, not an "ok" thing like the ersatz Acura--which may get a small number of people's hearts to race--but strikes many more as anonymous, boring, derivative, sort-of pretty, etc.
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    That is a real Lincoln grill and a real Lincoln shape.

    I just don't see it. It looks like "generic '00s luxobarge" to me. I'm not a fan of luxobarges, though, so I generally don't pay much attention to them. I do like this one for some reason:

    front
    rear
  • douglasrdouglasr Member Posts: 191
    In taking the reigns at Ford Motor, Alan R. Mulally (A.R.M.) has accepted an unwritten, but tacit agreement between Ford Motor Company, its engineers, designers, employees and consumers.

    Turning Ford Motor's factories from static producers of a single model to varying lines of models is JOB 1. At a maximum those factories must be capable of producing cars with an average build time of 25 hours, one car per minute, based on two shifts, yielding a build rate of 840 cars per day. That means any given plant can field 4,200 cars per week, and 201,600 vehicles per annum. The same rate of production used at the new award-winning BMW-Leipzig Plant. If every Ford Motor products incorporated the parameters used by BMW, there would be no passing Ford at any speed!. Variable plant capacity means that markets shifts can be answered quickly---often at the press of a button.

    Ford's competitors have been able to checkmate the Blue Oval using similar systems. Simply by 'punching-in' a coordinated code along the assembly line shifting tooling and build specification to the next model. Not unlike what GM uses today at its 'Wixom Engine Performance Center' handcrafting Cadillac and Corvette motors. The 60 employees are able to turn-out 15,000 engines per year, meaning each man makes more than 250 motors. "The days of producing 200,000 of one model are long behind us." Rick Wagoner stated hours after the annoucement of Mr. Mulally's appointment. The same process for quality and efficiency used by GM at Wixom, must now find its way to all Ford Motor plants and facilities.

    "Ford has always been nervous about leadership, they love being second to GM" former Ford Motor research consultant Martin Goldfarbe stated in an analysis by FT staffwriters Bernard Simon and James MacKintosh. Goldfarbe adding that: "It was not about being the best, it was about maintaining position." Since 2001 Ford Motor has not been able to achieve even that goal. In an effort to change the flexibility with which Ford can respond to the marketplace Mr. Fields thought it right and proper to close 'single model' plants regardless of how well the product they made was selling, or how well the plant built it. It was immaterial to Mr. Fields and his compatriots at the Glass House, irrespective of the investment levels in Lincoln, that Town Car will have sold 1Mn cars by the end of 2007 since 1994, and nearly 750,000 of the current model! Decisions attemting to enforce "manufacturing flexibility" in draconian fashion have sealed Lincoln's fate---until now.

    "The data will set you free" Mr. Mulally is oft quoted during his quest to beat AirBus and restore the Boeing market position. He cut Boeing's build time from 22 days to 11, and on track to cut that down to 3 days per air-craft without losing quality. "There are no surprises and management secrets will not be tolerated." ARM has also stated during his weekly business-round-up-staff-meetings. No doubt he will apply the same technique at Ford.

    Regardless of whether or not Jaguar, Astons, Land-Rover, etc. are sold or spun off, ARM will have to 'punch-in' a new build parameter at Ford. Not only will the rank and file have to give him a chance, but the engineers, designers, and ultimately, "we the people..." will have to give him his due, and the chance to fix "our" Ford Motor!! This is part and parcel of the unwritten agreement that we must make if we are not to see our cherished brands go the way of Packard. The last 'wing-man' to take the reigns of an Auto Firm was Curtiss-Wright's Roy T. Hurley at Studebaker-Packard in 1957. The 50 years after that event, the difference is that Mr. Mulally was very successful at Boeing, and wants to 'fix-Fords', whereas Mr. Hurley wanted to bleed S-P for its assets and its inherent knowledge to save Curtiss-Wright. Hurley achieved neither the success he desired, nor the market position he wanted, effectively killing both firms in the process. From Mr. Mulally's record for results at Boeing, the out-come at Ford Motor will be very different.

    "You have to work hard to do as badly as Lincoln has done..." IRN reseach consultant to Ford, Kieth Korth, commented in the FT. Hopefully, ARM will indeed drive a Lincoln that in the words of Bernard Simon: "is a shadow of its former self" and part of an "uninspiring range" into the garage of the Glass House. IN less than 10 seconds Mr. Mulally will agree that Lincoln needs work too. And he will ask to see where it has been, what was proposed and where the team wants to take it. He can start by tearing down Wixom and building a new facility in its place---able to build four very different and new Lincolns and Continentals on the same line. He can use VWAG's investment in Bentley as a model of 'what-to-do', except in the American idiom as one example.

    After spending a couple of days in a Town Car, Mr. Mulally will have to aim higher than his LS430---if Lincoln is never to play second fiddle to anyone again. There's 1 million buyers out there who have long waited, and can't be wrong. But that's the ARMS-AGREEMENT which we now inherently make and Mr. Mulally has accepted---that it is his task now to: "make the finest cars in the world", and ours to wait. Ford may never become as large as GM, but given the chance, Ford Motor and Lincoln might now yet occupy a larger place in our hearts when we get behind the wheel.

    DouglasR

    Sources: FT, WSJ, Ford Motor Company; 'Car' Mary Walton, HH Dutton & Co, NY 1997; Baltimore Sun 09-06-06)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    Yikes!! What IS that thing?

    If you had more pictures of the Continental concept, I think you'd see it: the grill and headlights; the chrome knife edge trim on top of the fenders and doors that runs all the way front to back; the flat slab sides; the suicide doors; the Lincoln roof lines used all the way back to the 61. It is modernized with the windshield angle, flush glass, shortened front and rear overhangs, and a knockout interior.
  • scootertrashscootertrash Member Posts: 698
    image
    image
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    I forgot, too, a big difference from the 300 as well: frameless side glass.
  • scootertrashscootertrash Member Posts: 698
    "I forgot, too, a big difference from the 300 as well: frameless side glass. "

    That much easier to make a convertible with...
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    The only Lincoln that reminds me of is the Mazda-based Zephyr. I can understand the individual elements borrowed from the '60s Continental, but as a cohesive whole I don't see it as a legitimate successor to the old Conty.

    image

    The black thing is a 1990 Nissan President. We got the short-wheelbase version with a different nose as the original Infiniti Q45.
  • scott1256scott1256 Member Posts: 531
    "What lovely frameless door glass you have on your Lincoln prototype, Mr Ford!

    "The better to make a convertible with, my dear!"
  • euphoniumeuphonium Member Posts: 3,425
    When I toured the Lincoln plant, Wixom in 1997 three models were being turned out. Town Car, Continental, & Mark VIII. The Town Car/Continental were on the same line and were producing 33 cars per hour while the more expensive Mark VIII was 11 cars per.

    ARM will soon learn he is dealing with a different attitude and mind set of the UAW compared to the Aircraft Machinists in Seattle & that will be frustrating for him.
  • nvbankernvbanker Member Posts: 7,239
    Yeah, the UAW is definitely, the X-factor......
  • grbeckgrbeck Member Posts: 2,358
    He probably knows what he is getting into regarding the UAW.

    What worries me is the reception he will receive from the Glass House. He needs to look at the (very brief) tenure of former GM man Bunkie Knudsen, who was hired by Henry Ford II in the late 1960s to bring the secrets of GM's success to Ford, and learn from that experience.

    Bunkie was brought down by Lee Iacocca and his loyalists, who began a campaign to have the Ford corporate "body" reject this foreign intruder. Unfortunately, Bunkie didn't bring many executives with him from GM (stylist Larry Shinoda, who did work on the late 1960s Boss Mustangs, is the only one I can recall). He found himself alone and isolated when Iacocca and his troops began their campaign to eliminate him.

    Bunkie was out in less than two years. The saying around Ford at the time was, "Henry Ford said 'history is bunk,' but now Bunkie is history." Some say that Henry Ford II's disenchantment with Iacocca started with this episode.

    Ford's new CEO may find that the real problem isn't the UAW, but the "snakes" in the Glass House. There are probably more than a few Ford executives who view the CEO spot as rightfully theirs. Even more frightening, I wouldn't be surprised if a fair number of managers don't think that the company's situation is so dire as to warrant the hiring of this "outsider."
  • euphoniumeuphonium Member Posts: 3,425
    The "outsider" complex hit Stonecipher pretty hard when he landed at Boeing a few years ago. Although his alleged love entanglement with another employee didn't help his longevity either. Professional jealousy runs rampant in all industries. The most fatal attacks of PJ happen to the insecure managers.

    Tomorrow we fly Old Glory everywhere we can.
  • nvbankernvbanker Member Posts: 7,239
    Yes, I am old enough to remember (vaguely) the Bunkie incident, and some of the cars he had Larry design. Frankly, I loved that pointy nose Thunderbird they made in 71 & 72, but they were awfully big boats.

    You may be very right, grbeck, but he's no dummy. I'm sure he's got some assurances, and some mighty handsome parachutes if he doesn't have a free hand to do what has to be done. I don't know if even the "family" can freeze him out. Hopefully, he has the "Harry Bennett" deal.
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    I guess you haven't seen the MKS concept :P J/K

    I do like it alot lemko. I know it's not your cup of tea, but it's something sporty for this Gen Xer to finally respect. I would like to see a big RWD Lincoln Town Yacht for the older generation to enjoy eventually. I guess once the MKS, goes into production you should check em' out in person since a pic doesn't always protray the best in some vehicles. My wife isn't sure if she now wants a GMC Sierra Denali truck. She really like the MKS alot, so we will see. :confuse:

    Rocky
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The MKS will appeal to old guys, probably even more so than the younger ones. It is the same recycled Lexus/Infiniti/Acura styling so common now on luxury/near luxury models. And have you noticed the new (2007) G350 has adopted the exact same rear door cut lines too?
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    gregg, I did notice a bit different styling on the GS 350 ;)

    Rocky
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The GS is the Lexus, right? I was looking at the Infiniti G. Although the Infiniti, like most rear drive cars, has a longer wheelbase compared to its overall length--and therefore a less pudgy stance than the MKS. The MKS at 203" is a pretty big car (same size as the Buick Lucerne or the previous LeSabre). However, it only has a 114" wheelbase.
  • savethelandsavetheland Member Posts: 671
    Yesterday I saw '62 Continental convertible at the show. It is a huge car but there was less legroom in the back than in e.g. Saturn Aura, but shoulder room - a lot more. Most of space was taken by hood and trunk. I can imagine MKS having more space than ’62 Continental. There were other cars most impressive of them being Packard from 30s. Even being big luxurious car it was pretty tight inside - similar to my Ford Focus, but in the back you have space for additional 3rd row.

    ’62 Continental’s design is rather understated elegance than bold. MKS is bolder and more appealing for younger crowd.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    If you say so...

    I do not see bold. I see banal. It is too derivative of current Japanese luxury design to be called bold. Of course some people like that look, or everybody wouldn't be copying everybody else. But in years to come, this will be one of those forgettable shapes.

    Jeez, what they could have done using a fresh canvas with a bolder or more stylish grill, and same with creative fender design and rear end design. The MKS is pretty and largely inoffensive, but it will soon be lost in the crowd.

    I haven't seen one auto publication that thinks this could possibly turn Lincoln around--any more than the Lucerne will save Buick by itself. Another decent design that few give a second glance.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    Autoextremist's take:
    I don't care how you spin the new Lincoln MKS, it's a "me-too" car with a "me-too" shape that is totally devoid of character, distinctiveness or even a whiff of Lincoln heritage.
    Says it a lot better than I could.
  • grbeckgrbeck Member Posts: 2,358
    The nose on those Thunderbirds was known as the "Bunkie Beak." Apparently he was trying to have Ford ape Pontiac styling.

    The main problem with those Thunderbirds is that the car lost its charm as it grew in size...after 1966 the Thunderbird became the Thunderbarge. With its larger size, body-on-frame construction and available four-door bodystyle, post-1966 Thunderbirds became more of a highly styled Galaxie 500 as opposed to a car that was...."unique in the world."

    As for the Lincoln MKS - it reminds me of the late Oldsmobile Aurora with a Lincoln grille. We all know how successful the Aurora was in turning around Oldsmobile.

    Above a certain price point, buyers prefer rear-wheel-drive. Cadillac discovered this, and so is Acura with its slow-selling RL. I don't think Ford will have much better luck with Lincoln.
  • nvbankernvbanker Member Posts: 7,239
    Nor do I, grbeck.
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    yes the GS is the Lexus. ;)

    Rocky
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    Acura's RL, isn't slow selling because of its SH-AWD, but because it is severely under powered when compared to the competition. If Acura put 350-400 hp and had a 0-60 time in the low 5's it would be a huge winner. 0-60 in 7+ seconds is far from class leading or even competitive. The RL, does out handle most of the competition and even this area could be enhanced. ;)

    Rocky
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    The MKS, with a good dose of power and performance could prove to be a winner. It's going to take a great interior and engine to make it a winner and it's styling alone won't put it in a winners circle without the hardware to back it up. The MKS needs to be a high speed luxury sedan with a sporty flair injected into it like a Volvo. ;)

    Rocky
  • savethelandsavetheland Member Posts: 671
    I think high quality interior and overal refinement are more important than style. Lexus proved it.

    There are unconfirmed rumors that Merucry will be dropped and replaced with Volvo. If it is true then Lincoln must be more luxurous than Volvo and has to be technically more advanced. I do not know who will buy Lincoln if at the same dealership they can buy Volvo built on the same platform? At least Mercury has a great value compared with Volvo and Lincoln/Mercury made sence because Mercury was considered "baby" Lincoln for much less.
  • grbeckgrbeck Member Posts: 2,358
    A rear-wheel-drive configuration, with decent traction control, would seem like a less complicated and more effective solution than SH-AWD.

    I haven't yet seen a road test that puts the RL ahead of a BMW for handling.

    As for traction in inclement weather - anyone who can afford a $45,000+ car probably has an SUV in the garage, too.

    Acura is finding that what works in the $37,000-and-under category (for passenger cars, anyway) doesn't work so well up against Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Lincoln, I'm afraid, will learn the same lesson, unless the new CEO reverses the marque's direction.

    There's a reason Cadillac switched back to a rear-wheel-drive layout, and it isn't nostalgia for the good old days...
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    I'm not sure what you'd call outhandling but the RL "don't quote me" I believe pulled 0.87 or 0.90 G's on the skidpad. :surprise:

    Rocky
  • euphoniumeuphonium Member Posts: 3,425
    Wow! Which Cad sedan now has rear wheel drive?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    You are kidding, right?

    Every Cadillac vehicle, except the DTS (and the BTS which is not sold here), is rear wheel drive: CTS, STS, XLR, SRX, ESV, EXT, Escalade, and all the V Series.
  • nvbankernvbanker Member Posts: 7,239
    And of course, all the Lincolns USED to be RWD except the Continental, which has been discontinued for years -but now that Cadillac has come around, Lincoln is going to be all SH-AWD.... Grrrrrrrr :mad:
  • douglasrdouglasr Member Posts: 191
    "The concept did start with Veraldi, and now he's bringing it back to Ford..." James Lewis comments in his managment tome about ARM's reliance on the Taurus Chief Engineers success at revamping product development at Ford. Boeing CEO Phil Condit and ARM met with Veraldi during the development of 777, applying some of his techniques at Boeing, thus saving the company. The head of the Machinist Union also comments with respect to ARM: "An engineer that knows how to fix what doesn't work..." And the other half of Boeing's union the SPEE's Charles Bofferding added that: "Our negotiations....were based on criteria that we all understood, rather than who could force the other to do something they don't want to do..." These are remarks printed among various sources that indicate the tennure of the leadership we can expect from Mr. Mulally at Ford Motor. A welcome and much needed change at Ford.

    As the Ford Motor Board meets today at this hour to decide the fate of the company and the 'Way Forward Plan', one of its chief architects, Ann Stevens, may leave Ford according to Reuters and Automotive News. Stevens, not a fan of Lincoln...given the tennets of the orignal plan, also wants a higher calling in that she says: "I do want to be CEO..." ARM has checkmated her fortunes at Ford Motor. She may well be gone within a fortnight. Leaving the COO's position open for rank and file from Boeing. ARM could bring in his own cadre of "Whiz Kids", just as HF II did bringing in Ernest Breech, and staff from the Strategic Bombing Survey in 1945---one of whom was McNamara, as arbitor of the '61, and set the stage for the revival of Lincoln. Will there be a similar "man" brought aboard at the behest of an ARM's-TEAM? We can only hope so.

    Between 60 cars per hour and 33 cars per hour from Wixom's heights in 1997, the ARM's TEAM will have to reestablish Ford Motor manufacturing to remain profitable between that range, responding to fluctuations in the marketplace without betting the farm. You can bet that Ford Motor under ARM's TEAM will cut employment down to the levels similar to Toyota---meaning that far more than 10% of the current workforce will go. He did that at Boeing, and also installed their first "moving" assembly line to build 777/787/737's---using 60% fewer employees. 60,000 Ford workers may well be bought out or asked to leave. Painful, terrible to watch, especially if you are one of them. Hopefully they will not lose rank and file that have expertise in areas they need. Though it is a foregone conclusion that the competition at the high end of the engineering, design and executive staffs will be very keen indeed. But this is what is being decided at this hour---from the wreckage of Ford today may yet rise, not only a "British Motors Corporation" from the sell-off of assets, but a new, rather more virile and vivascious Ford Motor Company.

    Almost fifty years ago to the day, July 29, that the last Aero Executive took hold of an automotive Company, Curtiss-Wright's Roy T. Hurley taking over at Studebaker Packard, Bill Ford and ARM hashed out what will happen at Ford, and their plans presented to the Board at this hour. But the fact that ARM relied upon one of the engineers who brought Ford a great success in the past as inspiration for the future at Boeing bodes well for the future of Ford Motor. We can only hope that tomorrow as the details are presented to the world, that "Way Forward" is unrecognisable, scrapped, or completely rewritten. If ARM arrives in a blue Town Car tomorrow at the Glass House, we shall know just what kind of a stamp "our man Mulally" will have upon the Blue Oval.

    We can only pray.

    DouglasR

    (Sources: 'Packard, Decline and Fall' James A. Ward,, Stanford University Press, NY, 1999; FT; WSJ; Reuters; Automtoive News; Edmunds Online)
  • jroger19jroger19 Member Posts: 27
    Well, the problem is that Lincoln does not have any rear-drive platforms to work with. For one reason or the other they have dropped the LS platform, and other than that or other expensive Jag platforms there is really nothing to build upon. As it appears that Ford is not interested in investing in a rear drive platform for Lincoln the only choice is front or AWD. The key difference vs. Cadillac is that GM beleives Cadillac is critical to their success and invests in the brand; Ford, it seems, has come to a different conclusion concerning Lincoln.
  • heyjewelheyjewel Member Posts: 1,046
    Hello, stranger! Hope all's well with you.

    I'm still driving my 2001 Autumn Red Getrag LS. 76,000 miles and runs like new, thank you very much.

    As for Lincoln now - it's looking like burnt toast to me. Navigator finished dead last in 5 SUV comparo (and is butt-ugly for 2007 in and out) the MK Z has not, to my knowledge, been tested against anything in it's class, but IMHO, it has no class and no reason to buy it over a Mazda 6 so what's the point? The MKX has a nice rear end, the rest is shockingly bad including a go-kart like instrument panel, an AMC Spirit grille treatment and slab sides. THis is gonna compete against the RX330 or MDX? I seriously doubt it. Then in 2 years comes their flagship - a V6-powered Acura clone. Please stop it, Lincoln, you're killing me.

    PS: THe supposed excuse for dropping the LS is they lost money on every one they built. EXCUSE ME but I HIGHLY doubt that. 7 years they built the car and lost money on every one? If that's true, well bankruptcy is the proper place for them. The LS was Lincoln's future, it's path to competitiveness, a base on which to build a brand. Now, Lincoln is warmed over Mazdas and Volvos. Excuse me while I lose my lunch and head for a Japanese car dealership.

    BTW, JR, perhaps you know why the Continental concept was apparently never seriously considered?
  • euphoniumeuphonium Member Posts: 3,425
    Not kidding because when I brought up the 2007 Cadillac website and being interested in the V8, the most economical sedan is the DTS with FWD. Dut to the price of the STS to begin with, I didn't venture further to learn it has RWD. As there is more than $10,000 difference between the two, it is not worth 10 grand to have a RWD Caddie, IMO.

    Base STS 52185 Base DTS 41990

    As for me, it is bad enough to take 40K out of the market just to buy a depreciating liability. :(
  • nvbankernvbanker Member Posts: 7,239
    " Now, Lincoln is warmed over Mazdas and Volvos. Excuse me while I lose my lunch and head for a Japanese car dealership."

    Evidently you feel like I do, heyjewel. And that's why I'm driving a Lexus now instead of a Lincoln, and it pains me to lose my relationship to the brand I have driven since 1990.

    If they didn't lose money on EVERY LS they built, the margin was too small to justify updating it. Thunderbird was worse. At the Ford and Lincoln price points, you got a real bargain of engineering excellence for the money. With the Jag, you got pretty much the same thing in a British package with a slightly modified engine. But at that price point, it worked.

    But it's all gone now....
  • scootertrashscootertrash Member Posts: 698
    DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. has told the United Auto Workers Union that it would offer a buyout package to all of its 75,000 U.S. factory workers as part of an accelerated turnaround plan, a union official said on Thursday...The news comes a day before the automaker is expected to announce a sweeping restructuring plan....The long-anticipated announcement, which is expected to include more plant closings and employee layoffs, will be detailed in a statement scheduled to be released at 7 a.m. EDT
  • scootertrashscootertrash Member Posts: 698
    I just read this and honestly, I got angry.

    Ford Woes

    The dopes that have been running this company didn't just passively watch something occur, they killed it.

    Look at the plants being closed and their products: Town Car, Ranger, Crown Victoria, Taurus and even the Expedition/Navigator Michigan Truck plant.

    Everyone of those one time great products has been killed through utter neglect. The mismanagement this company and it's workers, and (in a nod to Doug) American Industry as a whole, have suffered is so wrong, it seems criminal.
  • jroger19jroger19 Member Posts: 27
    I suspect the reason for no Continental is that the investment was simply too great at a time when Ford has had to be very careful with its investment dollars (see recent news). Lincoln, in my opinion, is simply not a priority for Ford, and will be less so in the future given the corporate situation. So what is happening is that those in charge of Lincoln are attempting to come up with a competitive product line with little investment. This is hard to do and remain a real, competitive luxury brand.

    The LS did not, when I worked on it, lose money. However, with recent incentives it might have got to that point--but again that gets down to lack of investment to make the vehicle competitive. Little investment=non-competitive product=high incentives=low profits. The LS was meant to be the start of a new Lincoln but things did not work out as planned...to succeed in the hyper competitive luxury market you need commitment and investment; otherwise you are marginal at best.
  • heyjewelheyjewel Member Posts: 1,046
    "The LS did not, when I worked on it, lose money."

    My suspicions confirmed. Ths LS represents what Lincoln COULD have been. Yes, lots of external forces worked against it, but the buck stops at the door of Nasser and Bill Ford and Daryl Hazel and ... such a shame.
  • heyjewelheyjewel Member Posts: 1,046
    Looks like Mulally's first move is to get rid of the UAW! Now THERE's an idea whose time. All 75000 hourly orkers offered buyouts. Bring in a new labor force working for more typical American wages as Toyota, Honda etc are doing. The road to competitiveness. Unless of course they're just going to build more factories in Mexico.
  • grbeckgrbeck Member Posts: 2,358
    Rocky, there is much more to handling than figures generated on the skidpad.

    The 1984 Corvette pulled very impressive numbers on the skidpad, and was lousy car to drive in the real world (the suspension was so stiff that even minor bumps would shake the whole car and bruise the driver's kidneys).

    The RL doesn't have the same type of problem (I'm sure the suspension tuning is far more supple than that of the 1984 Corvette), but I still wouldn't take its skidpad figures as proof that it can outhandle a BMW in the real world.
  • grbeckgrbeck Member Posts: 2,358
    Will Ford replace most of those departing workers? I'm sure that a fair number won't take the buyout offer.

    I thought the whole point of the original Way Forward plan and this new, accelerated version is to shrink the company to reflect a permanently diminished market share. Ford will never have even 20 percent of the market again.

    I've also read that with the cost of this buyout and other changes, Ford's losses this year will be in the $6 billion range.

    Let's hope the company's way forward doesn't take it right over a cliff.
  • douglasrdouglasr Member Posts: 191
    The sad truth is that Ford Motor was worth more in 1954, before it went public ($3.5Bn in 1954$, 35Bn 2006$) and spending more money on factories, designs, and engineering, in the words of then Ford Executive J. Emmet Judge: "just to catch up", than it is today---with its 2006 market capitalisation at $13.64Bn. Mr. Mulally (ARM) will have to compete not only with his competitors as Nissan-Renault, Honda, and Toyota, but also the Ford Motor that once was.

    The echoes heard around the halls of the Glass House must not only reverberate with a "can-do" attitude, they must also resurrect the words of Mark II designer John Reinhardt: "It was one of those once-in-a-while things, when the men around a car beleive in it so implicitly that they'd work at anything for anytime to insure its success...". The sounds of the exhaust coming from the engineering garages must also twang with the same spirit that Benson Ford and Bill Stroppe applied to Lincoln in 1952: thus winning the Carrara-Pan-America race that year, often surpassing Ferraris and Porsches with an average speed of 90.98mph! Lincoln would win again in 1953 and 1954. And the design centers must also see the cascades of light revealing stunning designs, even if, in the words of Elwood Engel: "You're lucky you don't have to pay the overtime for this..." when his team worked all night July 26-27, 1958 to create the final '61 Lincoln full scale clay model---making last second corrections. And ARM must empower his team to create something new and exciting, if not for Lincoln than for the whole of Ford Motor.

    So it would seem that what the new "Plan" relies upon now is a restructuring of Ford Motor back to the days when it was a privately owned firm. January 17, 1956 when 3,452,900 Ford shares first traded, and closed at $64.50, raising $656Mn for the company's cophers, seems a distant high point for Ford---having revived itself back from third place, and avoiding near ruin and bankrupcty under HFII. Ford Motor does not merely want to eliminate 34,000 workers, it will seek to eliminate 65,000 workers and bring its employment levels in line with Toyota---at roughly 275,000 employees worldwide. And as stated previously, it should be no surprise if Ford wants to eliminate UAW representation altogether. Ford Motor currently has 103 plants worldwide, but it is clear that 75 will do in a pinch...thus the reductions, and allowing $3.5Bn in write-downs for this year to eliminate those jobs. It will seek to bring Ford Motor out of Wall-Street, most-likely, so that it can speed up investments in product and doing so without having to pay dividends. The Ford Foundation's shares no longer having the clout to drive the company into the stock-market as it once did in 1954---and the shares selling far below par value for an automotive stock. The holdings of the Ford Family preventing a leveraged buy-out of the company in an imagined hostile take-over by Toyota---the company now worth more to the Ford's without Wall-Street.

    Executives who wrote the previous "Way Forward Plan", as Ann Stevens, (also co-author of Lincoln's current predicament), are gone along with others who will not agree with the future direction of the company, or who's career's are checkmated. Only the stalwarts will remain---and they had better be good at their jobs---far better than those of the competition. In short, Ford is returning to its roots---those of the Henry Ford. Where corporate decisions are made within a nimble group of executives, engineers, and designers---away from the baying light of Wall Street. Far more than just a 'Plan', but more-than-likely---a radical shake-up of Ford.

    This is what ARM confronts within the corporation that he now presides over under the aegis of the Ford Family. The losses this year expected to clear $9Bn---the majority of that restructuring costs and write-offs as unprofitable divisions like Jaguar are sold off. The cash raised by selling Jaguar-Astons-Land-Rover used as leverage to remove the burden of Wall Street. The glamor of Ford stock appears from another age and time---cowering now amidst an ocean of red ink and "plastique" instead of profits and the gleam of "chrome". The harsh realities seem now to demand the changes.

    At the end of the day, Ford will return to what it very much was in the 1920's---privately held, and perhaps able to answer at a faster pace to market, leaving Lincoln astride the product line-up as its highest peak. With Mazda's, Volvo's, Mercury's, and the many Ford's beneath the old "greyhound". Amidst the rubble ARM must build a wholly new company---he is in the same position as Henry Ford II was when he took over in September of 1945. Prior to that in May 1943, when a young HFII had been dispatched from the U.S. Navy to return to Detroit upon the death of Edsel, by direct order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ford Motor was in a state that: "...when young Henry came in here, the company was not only dying, it was already dead and rigor mortis was setting in..." then Ford Executive John R. Davis recalled. FDR had considered nationalising Ford in order to garanttee war contracts after the death of Edsel. Prudence demanded the return of Henry II to Fords...ARM does not have the threat of nationalisation to worry about by President Bush amidst our current war---Ford having lost its pre-eminent position, and perilously awash in declining market share. Rigor Mortis has not set in yet, but like HF II, that is what ARM must now do: restore Ford Motor.

    At ARM's length, amidst a wholly reorganised Ford Motor, Lincoln sits waiting---for it must become the talismen of the revival. Unless a new Continental will strike the roads to surpass, and replace the Lexus ARM must quit driving, Lincoln remains.

    With only hours to spare, as Lincoln goes, so goes the nation....

    DouglasR

    (Sources: Ford Motor Company; Automotive News; Bloomberg Report; 'Wheels for the World', Douglas Brinkley, Viking, NY 2003; 'The Lincoln Motorcar', Thomas E. Bonsall, Bookman Publishing, Baltimore MD, 1981)
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    I still wouldn't take its skidpad figures as proof that it can outhandle a BMW in the real world.

    Perhaps true, but regardless SH-AWD isn't a lincoln thing like I read on a earlier post, but an Acura thing and it does its job very well if I must say. ;)

    Rocky
  • ehaaseehaase Member Posts: 328
    I am surprised that no one has commented that the Town Car will survive, at least for 3 to 5 more years, as production is moved to St Thomas.

    Also, the MKS will get its own 3.7L V6.
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    Also, the MKS will get its own 3.7L V6.

    Is that a guess ? What will be the top engine ?

    Rocky
  • euphoniumeuphonium Member Posts: 3,425
    St. Thomas Town Car? Good Grief - I may buy a foreign car after all! Especially if there is a 300+ "Power Option" available in the style and design I've seen that has suicide doors. ;)
  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    I guess Canada, is so much like us and better in some ways I don't consider them to be really all that foreign. ;)

    Rocky
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