IMHO Ford needs to first sell the non-sellers.

Land Rover, Mercury, and Lincoln.

 

Only real non-seller is Jaguar.

 

I'm not saying there aren't other factors at play here. But there are factors even beyond the ones you guys are mentioning that you omitted.

Market share isn't necessarily relevant if you dominate the market, if you have a niche market, or if the demand for your vehicle - whatever it may be - meets or slightly exceeds your capacity.

On the other hand, if you have zero market share, then you have zero sales, which means you have zero profitability, agreed?

Ford has much wasted capacity and inefficiency; they're market share dwindling against a relative capacity born from a time when they were the number two automaker. Now that their market share is dwindling, they must either TAKE BACK the market share they lost, or reduce capacity.

But for a company like Ford to reduce capacity so fast will require them to increase prices to offset the costs of overhead that will inevitably result from downsizing. Anybody here think that Ford has the brand prestige right now to increase prices...?

This isn't even getting into the whole issue of product desireability or quality, either. It factors in, too, but that's the subject of another discussion.

 

Unfotunately no and I doubt they ever will depsite building some pretty good cars.

IMO they need to build exciting cars and quit playing it safe. If they are in dire straits, what do they have to lose other than prolonging the inevitable. Better to go out with a bang rather than a wimper!

Oh yeah, and I gotta admit all this stuff is painful to read. I really can't imagine life without mustangs if Ford should go belly up, or even worse, the mustang nameplate is aquired by say somebody like Toyota or Volkswagon (doomsday scenario I know, but Mercedes only really wanted Jeep and BMW only really wanted Mini).... Imagine that....shudders....

 

What ford needs in my opinion

A Turbo Focus to fight he GTI's
A 500 that doesent put the driver to sleep
A Hybrid F-Series and Ranger
RWD Sedan with a V8 that beats out the 300
A sub-compact sectioned below the Focus. Sorta like the new Yaris.
A mid-sized Sedan with relatively good gas mileage and performance
An Expansive SVT line that dwendles past ford

SVT Fusion
SVT Mountaineer(Grand Cherokee got an SRT8..it's only fair)
SVT Lightning
SVT COBRA

And, last buy not least we need another Ferrari killing 2 seater. Something like the GR-1.

Althought ford doesent have the $$$$ to do all this, I think that a line up like that would make it kick the *** of Toyota, and Nissan alike

 

Diesel would be better.

 

Yeah Hybrids can't tow much, so you'd only be able to sell hybrid pickups to cheerleaders and other "status-symbol" buyers. Flex-fuel Diesel makes more sense for pickups and large SUVs, leave Hybrids for cars/crossovers.

 

'05, I'm on board with you on this type of car. I would love for them to bring over the Fiesta. Its a great little car, and gets alot of praise by the U.K jornalists. They even have one called the ST150. It has 150 hp, and offers a Ford GT style stripe kit. It was on Top Gear a ways back, and it looked really killer in the blue/white stripe colors. This is my vote for a B-Segment car here in the states.

 

Heck, i think the Streetka would do good for all those that miss the days of the Metro. C segment for the really green type. Honda Insight, eat your heart out.