The problem with Ford is deep…bad management, bad decisions and a worn out product line. And also, the inability to be flexible..but that I know is diufficult when you don’t have the money to do so. And then we are brought bac kto the original problems..bad management, bad decisions, etc etc. This is a company that has lost touch with the buying public. They are trying to be all things to all people, and pleasing none. And with that, this is what Ford SHOULD do:

1) Kill off the Mercury Brand. I can guarantee that whatever Mercury sells there is a Ford counterpart. Why maintain this brand that has become irrelevant? Ditch it. If they are really ballsy about the “no cow is sacred” thing, then ditch Mercury.

2) REALLY do some serious rework and innovation with Lincoln. I myself don’t think it is too late to get Lincoln back on track…. and I do NOT think the Lincoln MKS is going to be the one to do it. It is way too generic and BLAH looking to make a statement, let alone reflect Lincoln’s proud heritage. Go back to the drawing board and finds some designers that REALLY know how to interpret the face of “Lincoln”, not “Lincoln-looks like an Acura-looks like a Mazda, etc etc”. For instance, Cadillac…you either like their cars or you don’t, but they look like nothing else out there…..and that’s the key. They (Cadillac) have made and are making a turnaround… Lincoln could, if they had the RIGHT Management! (BTW, WHY are they killing off the Town Car??? The car is a virtula cash cow for Lincoln for many years…the tooling was paid off many many years ago. So, if it has to move to a new plant, then move it! Revamp and give the car a major overhaul and keep it!! Why give the markets that it serves to the upcoming stretch 300 from Chrysler?? Doesn’t make good business sense! The Town Car simply suffers from neglect….money that was sunk into other dead-in-the-water projects could have gone into Lincoln…..and speaking of Dead in the water…….

3) Sell Jaguar! The Jaguar has not made Dollar One for FOMOCO since it was purchased, period. And does Jaguar share technology with any of the other vehicles in the FOMOCO Family? I don’t think enough to warrant putting more money into a brand that simply won’t fly. You know the old saying about “good money after bad”? Well, here’s proof positive!

And with that, I’ll sit back an watch what happens. It is a shame to see Ford in this position, but they truly have no one to blame but themselves at this point.

However, being an ex-stockholder I’m not nerarly as worried as I once was……

3) Ditch Jaguar.

The French, bless them, would be better custodians of these marques than any Asian prospective buyer.

Strategically, I believe Volvo is a good fit for Ford – a lot of the technologies get filtered down – especially those that relate to saftey. As we saw today with the recall, Ford needs all the help it can get in this area.

One option for Ford is to separately sell off Aston Martin, however, AML is really showing promise for PAG and provides Ford with a high-end sports car. From a retail perspective, they have 3 strong model lines and most of their retail stores are adjacent to a Rolls-Royce/Bentley retail store. This has not been a problem (surprisingly) since VW took Bentley and BMW took over R-R. Aston, however, is probably the only unit right now that would fetch any sort of a premium.

That leaves us with Jaguar and Land Rover. These two marques are inextricably tied together in the USA, and will likely remain so because of the synergy that this creates. Jaguar will likely never try to produce SUVS – it would do quite poorly, and Land Rover is clearly not a company interested in producing 2-door coupés. While Land Rover has shown some promise in the last couple of years, Jaguar has been hemorrhaging money for some time. This was evidenced when PAG opted to close the Coventry facility. At any rate, Jaguar has always faced stiff competition in the luxury car segment. R&D seem to lag compared to BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Because of this, PAG will have some difficulty getting the kind of offer they would like for Jaguar.

This all means that PAG will first look to keep the group together and probably look to reduce costs. This however, is a double-edged sword because cutting R&D is exactly what Jaguar does NOT need. Quite the opposite in fact! Ford also has other problems at home in the USA, which is fundamentally why we even bring up PAG in the first place. That, however, can be explored elsewhere.

Volvo and Land Rover, the two most valuable, are key to the development of new cars and SUV’s in the F/L/M brands.

I think a link up between a Nissan/Renault or a Japanese may be the most likely. It’s odd to see that now the Ford family may be willing to make these changes whereas 5 years ago when they were talking about buying/merging with BMW, the family had no desire to do so.