Following Ford ’s announcement that it had lost $8.7 billion in the second quarter, the Blue Oval has once again cut back its 2008 sales and production forecasts – marking the fourth such reversal this year.
Ford now predicts that U.S. auto sales will total between 13.7 million and 14.2 million units this year, according to Automotive News. Ford’s low end prediction of 13.7 million is the lowest in the industry.
General Motors has set a U.S. industry forecast of 14 million units, while Chrysler hasn’t publicly adjusted its figures. In March, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli said Chrysler was planning on a 15.5 million unit year.
Although things look bad now for Ford – as well as several other automakers — Ford CFO Don Leclair thinks that things will get worse before they get any better. “I would think of this year as strongest in the first quarter, a little bit less in the second and then going down in the second half and then the mirror image of that next year,” Leclair told Automotive News. “So as you come out of next year, from 2009 into 2010, that’s when we think things will be better.”
Ford’s new targets for the third and fourth quarters are off 35 and 22 percent, respectively, from the same periods last year.
