Patience

based on the announcement s of today, what are your thoughts on the survival of Ford Motor Company? and the future of our beloved stang'? what do you think Ford should do to revive its customer base?

kevinb120

I dont think any of it is a bad thing. Running a company at 75% is rediculous. Why anyone is worried about whos '#1' because of numbers is stupid to start with. This makes for a fiscally responsable future with proffit and stability possible. Making 300,000 rental cars that you give away at no proffit and kill resale value on retail customer cars so you can say '#1' is very Nasser-ish. GM is still stuck in that idea. If you look at it, GM under Lutz is very simillar to Ford under Nasser. The company is supposed to OPPERATE AT A PROFFIT as its number one goal. It makes total sense for a change. You don't keep making Freestars because you CAN, if it sucks, get rid of it. Its not loosing market share, it has NONE, not even enough to pay the bill of making it. So let the consumer forget about it for a little while and move on. Look at toyota, as soon as Celica and MR2 showed no fiscal gains, they slashed them so fast they left a vapor trail. Being based on other existing platforms, they simply made more of the 'sellers' at the plants. Ruthlessly efficient.

Focus on expandable paltforms, build vehicles the market is BUYING, cut ones that don't, stop wasting time, effort, and resources to build excess vehicle so you can say you did for numbers. If the ranger is not turning a proffit and redoing the platform costs too much to capture too little market-DUMP IT FOR NOW! Why do you think Toy does not do heavy diesel trucks? It would cost too much to 'catch up' to superduty so they don't bother. It would cost us too much to catch up to Tacoma right now.

The money wasted paying workers to build rental taurus's and crappy windstars could of payed for us to adopt the European focus or redone all of Lincolns cars a long time ago. Ford has a good future as they try to fall into the efficient mold of Toyota, GM is still the 'good ol' style of making numbers so the commercial sounds good. Build only vehicles that sell and the numbers will fix themselves over time. If Ford can get into a Toyota-type structure AND make exciting product as well, the company can soar. Wasting money on cruddy models so we can brag that they made em is how Ford got here to start with.

slammer223

I agree 100%. AND....the US car companies need to get labor (and benefits) costs under control too. The price of labor has been putting themselves out of the market for years.

kevinb120

Its 'cute' that Toyota gets credit for building AMERICAN factories, when the taxpayer pays most the bills for the facility(up to $80,000 PER JOB CREATED) and they get loopholes to pay the workers less with less benifits from the local polliticians that sold out for the good publicity of 'job creation'. I can not believe that no one in the media has made any effort to exploit one of the biggest scams in modern business history. Maybe they don't want to loose the Toyota ad account at the network.....But everytime I hear someone say HEY BUDDY MY TOYOTA WAS BUILT IN ALABAMA I wanna smack em in the mouth. They get virtually the same pluses of building in the third world but with less shipping costs....

Patience

scalable platforms are a must----i think they are on the right track with the fusion and the edge--scrap the 500 for sure----i'd also like to see them stop p-footing around with the mustang GT---that 5.4 litre engine is a start---build a bullitt edition with that base engine---i am sick of gm dropping the 6.1 in everything to beat us on performance, lets crush those bastards now before they come out with a 2009 muscle car, fyi, went to the auto show to see the OVER hyped camaro--what a piece of poo--------------gm'ers were trying to say how retro it was, i nearly pissed my pants-- ---and as for the HHR, don't even get me started----the lumina, impala---crap---:sorry about the GM rant here but its deserved:

ISELLFORD

I am excited yet cautiously optimistic about todays announcement. If Bill does implement the changes from business as usual than I am on board and behind it 100%.
Having been involved on the front line with consumers for almost 25 years, here is my input.

1. Build cars/trucks that the customer wants, not what is convenient or cost effective for the company.
2. Involve field personel in product development, find out what the customers are telling us. I have only been involved in 1 such group for Econoline Vans quite a few years ago and you can see where that led. We are still selling basically the same product we were a decade ago.
3. Put your money where your mouth is; specifically better warranties. 5 years or 60,000 miles should be the standard.
4. Stop all of the duplicate and complicated marketing programs. No wonder dealers are frustrated. At time there are no less than 2-3 dozen programs and qualifications. SIMPLIFY them or better yet, give the $$ to the dealers and let the, do what we do best as far as marketing and selling goes. Don't mirror GM all the time, be your own innovator. We have some really good minds at Ford, use them.
5. Remember we are all on the same team with the same goals. We both have a vested interest in Fords success and survival. Treat us as partners instead of adversaries and lewts work as a team to turn this thing around.

I am proud to be a Ford sales and marketing professional. I bleed blue. Let's "Do whatever it takes" to make us a force once again in the automotive industry.

max2000jp

Thank the UAW for that!!

I think that Ford's plan is solid. Ford needs to exceed the demands of the customer and competition. This is the only way that consumers will gain confidence in Ford products.

Patience

fyi---i visited the toyota display too---poo, poo, poo---i do not see what the american public sees in theor designs, and the camry, ridgeline---give me an f'in break----and as for performance vehicles---light years behind--the problem is that middle america has yet to realize it---they are single handedly contributing to the partial demise of US automotive companies---outside Detroit (where i live) what in the heck is wron gwith you folks---any city, especially the south and west, foreign crap is outselling 3-1 american vehicles--and for the life of me, i cannot understand it--that entire toyota auto show display was a bunch of bland crap----- :scratch:

kevinb120

The platform the 500/Freestyle is built on is one of the best Ford has ever come up with, and will see multiple vehicles spawn from it. The D35 will bring new life to the 500 and many other models, its a crucial piece of our future. Don't focus too much on 'hemi' cars-the entire company is an engine with a 5 cars shoehorned around it. But it is not a huge market share like trucks, suv's, and compact/midsize cars. The next mustang's possibly D35 mustang V6 would really make more of an impact then any super hi-po gt. If you think the flashiest cars make the most money for a company, look at Toyota's books.

kevinb120

I'm telling you, Toyota pays virtually nothing for its US facilities, and they get loopholes like 'temp worker' status that has no union nor requires benifits that makes their labor costs in the US a fraction of the Big 3's. It is a HUGE scam, allong the lines of when the US government turned every citizen's gold coins into paper paper money, by force. Do you think people would get upset at this information? No one has ever made any of it public. I think its our countries ignorance in what goes on is akin to how women have NO idea where diamonds come from(and would probably elect to not believe it if you told them). As usual, our politicians completely selling out the country for a little buttered campaign bread from toyota and honda. And this country is so brainwashed by marketing there are acutally ww2 vets driving Avalons around.

And here is the SHEER GENIUS of Toyota's abillity to BUY our polliticians-The plants build the politicans constituency to gain votes. If congress wanted to help the american auto companies, they would simply tarrif every japaneese vehicle $5000. WHY DO WE CARE IF THE JAPANESE DO NOT LIKE IT?? Well, the people stuck working at Toyota plants surely would not vote for that fellow to continue his lucrative career as a 'public servant ', and obviously the cash would stop as well. Meanwhile Japan does not 'tarrif' American products, but they tweak to 'exchange rate' to effectively make imports from the US extremely expensive(its a ghost tarrif). This also happens with EVERY corporation that makes ungodly proffit, oil companies, tobacco, drug companies-they all pay pennies on the dollar to make billions. And no one though campaign reform or term limits were important.....The USA is for sale to the highest bidder. Charging Toyota and Honda $5000 per unit would surely help the defficit, not to mention pay for health care for the American auto worker. If they don't like it, don't sell cars here.

Patience

i agree, but the stang' is a winner. period. and i think its an anomalie in that it is flashy and can make the most money! the platform is good, but the product is not----as for the "hemi's"---i agree with you, they are cutting themselves in the same mold as GM and its GTO, Camaro, vette---shoehorn the largest engine you can, but the exterior is a piece of crap (aka the rebadged Grand Am--err GT)--i love spanking me some hemi, on a daily basis and thro the "gay " guys driving the cross fires too---"not that there is anything wrong with that" --lol

kevinb120

I know its a good car, but its only one of many. The TRUE trick is to be able to actually make a proffit on EVERY car, one of the most difficult things for an auto company to do. Toyota does not do one single thing to any product unless it starts loosing money, and then they only do the bare minimum to get it back into the black. And now, they're rich.

hi5.0

Sorry I cut you short, but I heard that's what Ford did with the Fusion - at least from what was said on a news program on the radio on my way to work this morning. Ford did listen to input from (potential) customers during the development of the car. Seems it turned out pretty well. They better do it some more. The article also said Ford lags in innovation - especially in the area of in-car electronics and similar features, since it is a now a factor for many people when making a car purchase. Finally, address the dealership "problem" - like it or not, they are the only interaction most people have with the company aside from the product itself. Based on my experiences... :notnice: let's just say I'm starting to look elsewhere since I no longer want anything to do with the local dealers here if it can be helped.

EleanorsMine

Get rid of those fugly station wagons for one........

1meanZ

Let's not forget full time (not temp) Toyota workers get $27+ per hour with full benefits. Toyota doesn't have the legacy costs the former big 3 have.

tomahawk

They are bleeding badly now and if the Chinese cars get into this country which I am sure they will then Ford(et al) will be in even more trouble.( i think the Malaysians refused to allow the import of the Chinese cars, we should also do that imo). This is truly sad! Frankly, I think the future is bleak.
This is from yahoo finance:
Total Cash (mrq): 17.00B
Total Cash Per Share (mrq): 9.149
Total Debt (mrq): 141.74B
Total Debt/Equity (mrq): 10.134
Current Ratio (mrq): 3.012
Book Value Per Share (mrq): 7.331

you dont have to be a CPA to know that 141 BILLION in debt with 17Billion cash on hand is NO good, especially when you are losing market share (nearly 1% loss in share this past year).

kevinb120

The Freestyle? We sell quite a few of them here. I think the idea is that that vehicle will go exclusively to Mercury and Ford will bring what was the Fairlane concept which is on the same platform but larger to replace it and the Freestar in one fell swoop and have a market-exclusive sized vehicle. If the rumors are true, its a brilliant idea. I wonder as well what will happen to the 500 in the next couple years with the much more powerful D35(will 'act' like 300+hp with the CVT) and a restyle to the 'new look' which has been rumored since the day it was introduced as happening in 2007. I am pretty avid finding out things well in advance but the fate of both vehicles is completely shrouded in mystery right now, Fords got that one big time under-cover. Lincoln is also looking to use a V8 sourced from Volvo in the new MKS based on the same platform.

kevinb120

The chineese cars shown at frankfurt were lambasted for being a decade behind the least developed cars sold in the US now(think Kia/Hyundai). One of the cars was shown as a camry 'competitor' and rumored to be sold in Europe starting at a price equivilant of $21,000 US. Thats a tall order for a crude vehicle with no proven history at all, selling at more then $3000 above a base Fusion??. It will be interesting as well considering that the Chineese coppied ALL of its technology from others without paying for permission to use any patents along the way. Something tells me its not a remote threat to ANY vehicle line currently sold in the US. Kia/Hyundai, no matter how much credit they have been given over the years, has never been a 'desired' vehicle and they've been here for nearly 2 decades now. Americans are still getting 'used' to the idea of Hyundai, and thats from a non-comunist ally country.

tomahawk

I seem to recall the head Chinese dude stating in an interview that at least one of their cars would sell for ~10K US. Did I hear that wrong? If not then I can imagine TONS of people buying a "new" car for 10K in this country, stolen technology or not. jmpo.

Angry Irishman

I'm going to get flamed for this but.....

Unions=Greed=No Job

Unions have served a purpose in this country but I believe they abuse their rights.

I'm from Pittsburgh originally and I can tell you that unions want more and more every time the contract is up. The same thing happened with steel is happening with the big American automakers. Companies need to make a profit to exist and to flourish. The unions cut them off at the knees after time. More pay, more medical, and more pentions mean less profit.

Understand this; it's not just the unions fault for this situation. Combined with poor marketing decisions and too much management this was destined to happen. I'm surprised it's taken this long. I truly hope the best for the autoworkers but none should be surprised at the current situation.