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Is Ford's End Right Behind Chrysler's?
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Why do you want people to think you worked for a company you hate so much. Do you think it justifies your opinion?
I am surprised that you don't say you also worked for Chrysler. Didn't you start out a Dodge Dealership?
link title
Look, the fact you could not make it in the car biz is nothing to be ashamed of, only about 30% who try it do. But please don't try to convince the average consumer here that you are an ex employee of Ford Motor Company and have this great knowledge of the behind the scenes operation. The average Greenpea or Drive Up don't know squat about how FMC runs. Hell I have been at it 15 years and I still have not figured it out.
I could make it a full time job surfing the internet finding people who had a cup of coffee in the car biz and claim to be subject matter experts :confuse:
Well, seems like Chrysler hit the ground running. Ford is still bleeding it sounds like, but all the sales figures aren't going to be very good for September.
The other issue of interest is how the UAW deals will shake out with these two, now that GM has worked their contract out pending vote of the union members.
In fairness, Toyota, GM and Chrysler will all post a decline for September. It seems like the housing recession is definitely spilling over to the automotive market.
Steve: if Chrysler is hitting the ground running, they are definitely on a treadmill. I don't see where they are going.
Joel: who cares if drfill worked for Ford or not? His bashing is getting old. I simply don't read his posts. It's a shame because he does seem to be pretty knowledgeable in the automotive field. You spend too much time giving valuable advice to waste energy on this.
I didn't care much for Nardelli's appointment, but grabbing Price about made up for it. Plus Cerberus is flush and can afford to fix stuff (when I notice car ads, they must be throwing money at publicity, and I noticed some Chrysler ads right after the sale).
Mulally is lying a bit low lately and I trust that means he's working hard on cutting where he can and building up product the rest of the time.
North America seems pretty saturated so it wouldn't surprise me to see international sales profits carrying a few of these companies for a few quarters or longer.
North America is so saturated that I wouldn't be surprised if some marques join Oldsmobile and Plymouth in that big garage in the sky.
Auto sales have been fairly strong these past few years, and we still have had too much capacity chasing too few customers. The slowdown in sales, triggered by the collapse in housing prices, will only make this worse.
So is Cerebus going to dump money into development and be in it for the long haul? Or do they make a bunch of cuts, make Chrysler profitable and sell off the brands?
Cerberus purchased Albertsons supermarket chain last year - they were founded in Boise and Cerberus did make a bunch of cuts and sold or closed lots of supermarkets. But they kept the headquarters here and refurbished the local stores.
Cerberus was thinking of selling GDX Automotive earlier this year since it was losing money (Detroit News link).
If Chrysler makes money, maybe Cerberus won't be inclined to sell their interest in it?
The North American market is a saturated one with everyone trying to find a niche to control in the market place. I always applaud Honda for there ability to do this.
Like I have said in other forums quite often. Ford does not have a quality problem right now, it is a reputation problem. Once the general buying public out side of our normal demographic finds out we make as fine a car as any one else we will begin to regain market share. the Edge, Fusion, and new Taurus will take us a long way in that department. We already trade for more imports in a month now then we used to in a 6 month period. That is a good sign.
Though our North America #'s are not what we would like them to be we are strong World Wide. From what I have been able to gather we are going to bring some European hits state side in the next couple of years.
Chrysler, like Ford is too dependent on SUV's,and in dodge's case minivans.
They have precious little in the way of sedan sales, esp small sedans.
Plus, they lack any niche vehicles that can improve the bottom line.
Does Chrysler have anything that gets better then 30 mpg?
Ya know, I don't think so.
Remember it wasn't that long ago when Renault took effective control of Nissan and many thought Nissan was dead. After they sold 100 percent of their financial division to Renault and all of management was put under Chosen, (sp) Yet they are still with us and they have no top selling trucks or number one cars and SUVs. But they keep plugging along. Kia is still with us after the Korean Government almost forced Hyundai to buy them in a bankruptcy sale. Ford my be with us a lot longer than we might think.
I think it is the only one.
Plus, the Toyota Tundra is eating into the F150's sales.
Nissan was a different deal. They aren't burdened w/ UAW contracts,job banks,outmoded factories,too many dealers, and no products.
Nisaan needed money for product development,which they got from Renault. They were able to produce an almost totally new lineup in a very short period of time.
Something Ford cannot seem to do.
I will freely admit that I didn't realize that the Tundra was anywhere near the sales figures of the Ford F series Trucks. Last time I looked Ford was selling something like 600k or 700k F-series and I didn't know Tundra had increased sales over 200k yet. But ever since I decided to retire I stopped subscribing to Morgan and Company because of the subscription fee. But anything is possible. Ford could go and take Volvo, Jag, and Land rover with it. GM could kill Saab. Many have predicted a world with maybe three auto manufacturers like GM, Toyota and VAG. I just doubt if the end is that near. Besides it Looks like GM may have negotiated a pretty good deal to get some UAW relief in their last contract. You and I may be paying for some of those union pensions before Ford has to close shop.
Carlos Ghosn has been berry berry good to Nissan
"James Farley, head of Toyota's luxury division, is leaving to head Ford marketing. He had also headed Toyota's Scion division, overseeing the launch of the trendy, youth-oriented car brand. He had been with Toyota for 17 years."
Ford lures Lexus chief away (CNN Money)
Ford stock is up 7% today as I post this.
Still Ford has a long way to go before we can close the lid on the box.
DrFill
At least the tooling is paid for on the US Focus, so Ford won't lose money on it.
Carlos Ghosn has been berry berry good to Nissan
I think the exterior designer at Nissan his exterior design ideas(Jerry Hirschbergs) got stale in the mid to late 90's and that led to Nissan's decline before Ghosn went in there and singlehandily solved Nissan;s exterioe designs problems. I mean the 2000 Maxima redesign or refresh(whatever you want to call it) was a terrible mistake I think. Its interseting Renault did buy into Nissan into 1999 but yet Renuault let the 2000 Maxima go as is into production. They should have just kept the whole interior of the 2000 Maxima as is because the interior was top of the line and redo the whole 2000 Maxima exterior body style before it went into production. I think Ghosn or Nissan for that matter did redo some of the 2001 Sentra exterior bodystyle before it was released in early 2000 because it was too conservative.
The 95 Sentra did get a little refresh in 99 I think and the Pathfinder(relased brand new as a 1997 model) did get a refresh and the refreshed model did get a unique model year name called the 99.5 Pathfinder I think.
Ford's results -- while weak compared with the profits announced by Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. -- outshone those of crosstown rival GM..."
WSJ (paid link most likely)