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....And to this day Ford still neglects their passenger car line-up with the current Focus being an example. The Focus hasn't still been redesigned since it debut for the 2000 model year. I think the car is still rank near the top of its class in CR maybe but it needs a redesign ASAP.
The car has been sold basically unchanged for 7 years. Meanwhile the rest of the world already got an excellent all-new one.
The wizards in Dearborn said the new one is too expensive to sell here. Americans don't need a sophisticated small car. So they spent more money rehashing the old one for 2008 than it would have cost to sell the better one here.
And in Europe, they are soon getting yet another all-new one, so while they are on the third generation, we'll get a restyled 1st generation model, which ended up being a money pit to re-style.
Oh yeah, remember how the new design ethic for Ford is the 3 bar chrome grille? Not on the Focus.
Brilliant.
I agree with you the 08 Focus is sort of weird looking. I like the current bodystyle better than the 08 model.
Rocky
DETROIT (AP) -- Cash-strapped Ford Motor Co. has sold a controlling stake in the Aston Martin brand, made famous by its exotic sports cars appearing in James Bond movies, raising $848 million to help fund its turnaround plan.
Aston Martin now will be run by a consortium of investors, including racing mogul David Richards, car collector John Sinders and Kuwaiti firms of Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co.
Lincoln suffered from gross neglect under Nasser's watch as he played around with his precious PAG. Mercury might as well have been non-existent.
Hindsight is perfect, but not many people disputed Ford's vision back then? Remember Ford's not the only one to get burned by acquiring too much at that time. GM acquired Saab, Subaru and Fiat (sort of). MB acquired Chrysler. Even BMW got burned by Rover. Among the successful companies, only Toyota and Honda didn't bother with anybody.
BTW, GM paid Fiat $1B to walk away. After several successful car launches, Fiat is red hot. I guess that $1B did some useful work, only for Fiat though.
The WSJ noted that "deep-pocketed investors are taking increasing interest in the automotive sector," buying up distressed parts makers and a controlling stake in General Motors's GMAC lending arm. Also, at least three private firms are lining up to make a play for DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group.
Spinning off Jaguar and Land Rover would effectively dismantle the Premier Automotive Group, which Ford launched in 1999 to take advantage of rising luxury-car demand. PAG, which has posted $925 million in losses dating back to 2003, also includes Volvo, which Ford isn't considering selling.
Ford is in the midst of overhauling its North American operation after posting a $12.6 billion loss in 2006, and PAG's losses are often seen as a drag on Ford's more important domestic restructuring. However, the luxury group is expected in 2007 to post its first profit in four years, the WSJ said.
Ford should put Lincoln back in PAG
Thats true everything to turn to gold for Ford mainly with their SUV sales though that allowed them to buy Volvo.
Its weird though Ford's main problem child used to be Mazda(when Ford upped their share in Mazda in 1996 from 25% to 33%)but now its Ford's best company probably.
Ford looking back on it did buy too many companies although the Volvo aqquisition was good as was upping their stake in Mazda. Land Rover hasn;t been too bad but Aston and now Jag looks like a mistake.
Rocky
Rocky
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/AutoshowArticles/articleId=120296
Can anyone say a limo-like Scion xB :surprise: Yuk !!!!
Rocky
I'm busy painting a bleak picture for The Blue Oval, and here you guys are, tryin' to give them a profit? What's that all about?
The Ford Flex is just like a Scion xB.
Without the style or anything nice. :sick:
DrFill
Positives to this point:
Killing fleet sales
Improved reliability
Exciting new models (Fusion, Edge).
They need to continue that track (A dicey proposition) as well as replace the Focus and Escape (Small cars and compact SUVs are good markets right now). They're trucks are probably OK for now. Might want to consider some sort of police package for the Taurus/500, as the Vic has some serious competition now.
If they insist on not updating the Focus they should at least throw in an optional AWD system. Makes sense now that their other cars also have optional AWD.
Get ready to be impressed:
http://www.leftlanenews.com/wp-content/plugins/iimage-gallery.php?idpost=4631&id- g=1&idi=1
Sweet!
DrFill
Looking at the Ford Focus makes me lose my lunch, nor my marbles. :sick:
DrFill
Both companies may end up in the tank. But the loss issue is much more dire for GM than Ford at this point. IF you remember the similar scenerio in the early 80s, Ford pulled out into high profitability for the next 20 years while GM languished the entire 80s and first part of the 90s.
This doesn't mean their will be a repeat, but its beggining to look like it; with GM putting all its emphasis into sales now, while Ford is revamping the whole corporate sructure.
But keep hope alive!
You want to see tanked, see the Ford Exploder for more information.
DrFill
very well said. Ford is, right now, at a crossroad. the steps they take in the next year or two will deterimin if they survive and prosper, or continue to decline. the problem is, they need some fresh thinking and ideas, and to take some drastic steps. They remind me a lot of Nissan back in '99. At that time, Nissan had lost money in 7 of the past 9 years, were 30 billion in debt (enormous for a company that size), sales had been declining for over 20 years, and of their 130 or so models, only 3 were profitable. Most "experts" had them in bankruptcy court in the next 12 months. So what did they do? sold a 40% stake to renalt and purchased a 15% stake in renault, fired almost all of their exec's, brought in new management and top officers, cut back production to match sales, layed off lots of unnecessary employees's (unheard of in japan), redesigned all their cars, discontinued unprofitable ones, and vastly improved their dealer networks and agrements with suppliers. The results were nothing short of incredible. payed off all their debt, returned to profitablity ahead of schedule, increased sales, profits and market share for 9 years straight.
There's no reason Ford can't do the same. They just have to be willing to take the steps necessary, and not just take a band-aid approach to things. But thats what Ford (and GM) always seem to do. That, and their inablility to look ahead is what kills them. Durring the '90's, everybody was buying SUV's and trucks. Ford was making HUGE profits off them. So what did ford do? They let all their passenger cars wither on the vine, and surrendered the car marked to toyanda. The same thing happened with the hybrids. to establish a market for them, toyanda sold hybrids at a loss for several years to get production and sales up. Now, there are waiting lists for them, and huge profits to go with that. ford, (at a time it was making record profits), decided to pass and is now 10yrs behind. in hybrid technology. Its that way of doing things, and thinking, that needs to change at Ford.
My local Ford dealer, after being a single-brand store for a quarter century, just picked up Lincoln and Mercury to go along with it.
And Ford had a profitable quarter recently right? They may just turn it around by '09. I believe they have announced they do not expect to be profitable in '08.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
"In the face of flagging sales, soaring gasoline prices and an increasingly cowed consumer, Ford Motor Co. threw down a first-quarter report card that showed a profit."
Mulally stuns Wall Street and raises lots of goodwill (MarketWatch)
The stock is up 24 percent this year while the S&P is down almost 5 percent.
I just knew it was the wrong move right after I did it but I thought I could put the money into something a little more profitable. When I originally bought into the stock my whole thesis was that Ford would pull out a great quarter and that combined with selling LR/Jag would push the stock much higher towards the summer. I just got bummed out over all the negative economic/automotive news.
Lesson here is when you believe in your thesis you should stick with it until you uncover some specific news that disproves it.
I didn't realize their profit margin was so thin, the $100 million profit was on revenues of like $43 billion or something?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Ford Motor Company Names Ken Czubay Head of U.S. Sales and Marketing
Guess this means that all new Fords will come with pinstriping, etching and every mop and glow product on the planet. :P
But all the cars you mention are essentially 20 mpg cars in town (except Ford Fusion 4-cylinder, and guess which one of these is the only one to show sales increases this year? Yeah, the 4-cyl Fusion), not good at all with the current gas prices.
And the market for large cars is in severe decline now these last 12 months or more, which has even impacted the Toyota entrant in that segment, the Avalon.
I know that Ford has already abandoned its goal of being profitable in 2009, but some "industry analysts" are now wondering if it has a future at all, what with the huge monthly cash burn it is now experiencing as a result of sales screeching to a halt. What was it, down 28% in June, 14% for the YTD? Both worse than average for the market, and the only one clearly doing worse than Ford this year (besides little ol' Mitsubishi) is Chrysler. :sick:
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
My prediction: Nissan buys Chrysler before the year end. They are planning a lot of collaboration in the near future. Ford continues to shut plants and layoff workers (that is an easy one); Kerkorian makes a push to takeover Ford. I would not be surprised to see Volvo back up for sale. GM is tougher to predict since they do have the cars and research to survive. The big question is whether they will make the big moves necessary to make them profitable (deep six Saturn and move that lineup to Pontiac; close more plants; layoff more workers, etc).
If he's not careful he'll wind up owning Ford and taking it private. Then what? Let Renault/Nissan buy both it and Chrysler?
He did make a pile when he made his run at Iacocca's Chrysler.
Heck, I would like to own GM if I had Kerkorian's money!
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
My biggest pet peeve with the domestics is they spent so much time and money on the pickups and SUVs in the 90's and gave us humdrum cars while the better cars were over in Europe. And they wonder how Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc. caught up and why people prefer their cars. You make your decisions and now you have to live with it.
Ford also makes money on the Fusion. Basing production in Mexico helps in this regard.