Very interesting indeed.

 

Everyone take a deep breath............ahhhhhh

Remember that Ford was nearly bankrupt in 1949 and they came back with the new innovative Ford models.
Remember that Ford was again nearly bankrupt in 1986 and they brought out the hugely sucessful Taurus.

Remember that Chrysler was bankrupt and came out with the very successful K-cars.

What this tells me is that being on the ropes can lead to a tighter, leaner company. Desperation can lead to innovation....out of necessity.

And wasn't Mulally's previous gig at Boeing? They've had some tough times and restructuring too.

 

And guess who was responsible for bringing Chrysler out of bankruptcy ? The father of the original Mustang along with both the K-car, and Caravan. Lee Iacocca.

I can just imagine how dumb Henry Ford II must have felt afterwards, for ever letting him go in the first place.


At any rate, I'm sure he regretted that decision after discovering how Iacocca was able to turn Chrysler around !

 

'Cept the K car was one of the worst POS' to ever roll down the road.

 

There has been a lot of POS that have sold well or got a company out of hard times such as our "beloved" Mustang II (and the Pinto that it was based on). It seems like it's more the idea behind the car being right for the times than the actual car that matters.

Look at the first Neons...one of the biggest lemons there ever was. What other car do you know of where the paint regularly peeled off in sheets after a few years, but it did very well.

 

And when the Neon turned SRT-4 started wooping some Stang butt... depending on which side of the story you got of course! Nonetheless, we all know they were good cars when givin' the oppertunity. I'm not afraid of Ford closing the history book on the Mustang. We are in rough times, no doubt, but that's like saying McDonalds is going to close. Yeah right!

 

To bad that's the root of the problem this time around, even with great products coming down the line people aren't going to give them a chance and now that the economy is tight (more stringent lending practices aside) I suspect people are even less willing to take chance on Ford, GM or Chrysler fearing that they will get burned like the time they bought that shiny new K-car and had to deal with its plethora of bean counter induced problems.

Of course this also doesn't count the domestic knuckleheads who want to see Detroit go away anyways.

 

Its tough times for all of us in the global economy. Time will tell and panic speculations are not helping any of us.
Lets play it cool as much as possible and lets not get too much sucked into the financial black hole.

 

What do you think is the best course? Most of Detroit is stuck with thier unions and can't really cut what is costing them the most.

 

+1

 

The big 3 did renegotiate the labor contracts recently, it will just take some time in order for them to see the light at the end of the tunnel.