Ouch, baby, very ouch.

That’s a lot of money…

Find out what’s working in South America and Europe, guys! I don’t think it’s even the product itself so much as it is the product filling the needs of its consumers. Ecosport in Brazil is the perfect example of this.

Henry Ford is rolling in his grave right now.
This is just the beginning of their end.
Hey FORD! Bring back your best selling car, the Model T. LoL, jk.
Keep up the good work guys, looking Bold.

I still reckon they can make better cars then GM. All they need to do is take the euro cars to america and maybe give (in limited numbers)the mustang to the europeans. Still a bit much though

A lot of money to us but not that much when you’re playing the big money Ford is in. They’ll be able to recover if they can do what their new CEO says. Get the gas efficient cars out and regain marketshare…

veda- if it was that easy im sure it would have been done already.

I know that Fields is working on growing the top line revenue by developing and introducing highly attractive and highly appealing vehicles. The Edge, the others, we’ll see how that goes.

However, knowing that Mullaly was a Boeing guy and that the general look of planes hasn’t changed for 70+ years, his expertise will be best spent on taking the cost out of the business through mfg efficiency, operations expense decrease, and labor reconfiguration.

These two guys, if successful, can make this happen but please let Ford work on their efficiencies with equal effort as they do on their design b/c the flow to the bottom line can occur much faster and have more effect on the near term balance sheet than developing, marketing, and launching new vehicles… This is where Mullaly should spend his time.

ive given up on ford

hey ford maybe you should pull out of the US market and give Mitsubishi the money to stick around

They’ve neglected the Focus (and Taurus) for too long, while concentrating on pick-ups/SUV’s. Since the sedan market is huge and is the bread and butter of most auto companies, it makes sense to revive that part of their strategy. Or, Ford could think of being a pick-up/SUV maker only, but I don’t know how that would go down with the Mustang folks.

It only reasons that a freight train sized organization like Ford will take a lot of time to slow its course. Ford is not going anywhere. They may crash but they most certainly will not burn. Nonetheless… I wouldn’t want to be in its path!

Amazing – Only Mazda made any profit for the company.

Anyone notice that PAG had 1/3 the income of Ford North America, but only 1/4 the operating losses?  So in real numbers, PAG is doing better than Ford N.A., but of course Ford isn’t looking at selling Lincoln or Mercury – they’d rather sell Jag/Land Rover or Aston.

At the current rate of cash-burn, the $1Billion that they’d optomisitcally get from the sale of Aston works out to only 4-5 weeks of operating losses this past quarter.  Wow, what a great deal…

Maybe it’s time to close the doors, sell off the assets, write a bunch of checks to all the employees and shareholders and thank everyone for the past 100+ years.

Bold Moves.

Ford doesnt just have to bring fuel efficient cars to market, they have to bring good fuel efficient cars to market. Ford cant just slap together a fuel sipper thats just a hackjob.

I think that Ford’s bold moves arent very bold, but very poorly executed conservative ****ty creations. Ford needs to understand that making a ****ty car that no one wants is not the way to go…you too GM!

if they listen to the market and can turn itself around fast enough (only IF) they MIGHT get out of the toilet yet. If they can;t change things fast enough and take another loss year like this one or worse they are gonna get flushed down the toilet and not just in it like they are now. Frankly i don’t think ford has built anything worth buying for at least 10 years now. This is Fords VERY LAST MINUTE wake up call. Lets just see if they are versitile enough to turn on a dime now and fix this. Time will tell…

I hope they realise soon that they need to make a lot of dreastic changes to the ford focus and ford taurus just as 1c3d0g mentioned.

…and if one looks at Ford’s cash balance (Assets minus Liabilities) they were worth over 12.8 billion at the end of last year – now with this loss, looks like Ford is now worth only 7 Billion?

They keep saying that they’re gonna be turning things around in 2008, but at this rate (and they say the numbers will be WORSE this next quarter) they’re not gonna be around in ‘08 w/out declaring bankruptcy…

…and I doubt that the US Government is in any position to be guaranteeing any loans for Ford like they did for Chrysler back in the 70’s – not with their own massive deficit for the war.

these slow news days make me sad…

SO Ford is in the GM deathspiral now as well? It’s a shame because I have always felt that Ford (when they really try hard and put the effort in) builds a much more desirable product than the General.

Prime example is that my 300hp V8 powered SRX, while quick and powerful is rated to tow 1000lbs. I paid almost 60 thousand dollars for this thing and I get about 14mpg on a good day.

By comparison, a 26 thousand dollar Ford Freestyle with a weezing 3.0l V6, rated at 20/27mpg will also tow 1000 lbs, while offering a better executed interior, WAY better interior materials and similar interior volume. Both are 7 passenger and Ford matches the features found in my “supposed” upscale ride.

This either makes the Freestyle an absolute bargain or it makes my Caddy look like a ripoff

Here’s the kicker. A Toyota RAV4 with a V6 tows 3500lbs and scoots to 60 in about 6 seconds. Right on par with my Caddy. Even better, the CRV with a freaking 4 cylinder tows more than my V8 powered Caddy. Not that I would ever buy something this small but still.

ford’s had a loss??? shoulda brought that AWD turbo Focus over…

how about a retro model t that would sell
not

na-na-na-na……na-na-na-na…..hey hey hey goodbye! A few more lossed like this and they’ll be in the ****ter, oh wait….they already are.

Ya know BrokenCadillac, one more reference to ‘your’ SRX and I think I am gonna puke. Get rid of it already or live with it. All carmakers make the occasional lemon. Perhaps you got one. Thats what lemon law lawyers are for.
To those of you wishing/hoping for the end to GM/Ford, you need a bite of reality sandwich. You have no idea what you are saying. IF it was the reality of the situation it would certainly be a terrible economic event for tens of thousands around the world. Not exactly something to make light of.
In reality, both companies are huge and by nature ponderous. Takes time to change the direction of a ocean freighter. They both are working on it. You all remind me of the yippy dogs people leave in their cars at the mall that go nuts whenever anyone walks by.

lol same BAMF. its a cold day w/o many LLN updates

I said nothing about the problems I am having with my ride. I haven’t mentioned the problems with my neighbors Northbomb STS either.

Puke away.

I wonder how many of you in here are Americans Anymore.
I hate the fact that you all hate on ford. You We are the reasons they are partly were they are. We quite caring about how to buy Cars a long time ago. We focus to much on the price.We dont look at how good is the car we dont care its about the price. We dont want to pay for better quality we want it for free. So Ford and Chevy have been meeting are buying needs for ever. Now we turn are backs and say give me quality. Hell The Accord is more than a Fusion and the Fusion has a better fit and finsh. But I read on and on what you people say that ford sucks. Have any of you gone down to look at this cars in person and really have an open mind. Look Again and maby show a little insight on what your really want in a car. Not planketed statements like I want a better car. Well how better what makes a car for you better than another. What do you want more cup holders. Bigger radio nobs. More power . Safer get to the point.

I’m just one consumer…

…and Ford doesn’t make a single vehicle that is in the market segment I’m interested in.

There is no Ford made that is a ‘hot-hatch’ like the Mazdaspeed 3 or VW GTI.

They used to have a tamed version of the Focus (with a 150 hp), but that stopped in 2004.

Until Ford ponies up a GTI killer, Ford isn’t going to make $25,000 from me.

But hey, Ford’s doing a bang-up job meeting the wants and needs of the consumer. After all, they lost $5.8 billion dollars. So they must be doing a great job for all the rest, yes?

1c3d0g: I agree. They really need to start working on making better sedans that can compete with the Japanese.

If only Ford made a quality, innovative, reliable, desirable product, this might not be happening. And dead weights like Mercury don’t help.

Foster, every time i read your posts, which is hard to do because you know next to nothing about cars, i feel like i lose an IQ point or two. I think the little things in your stupidity stick out, like saying the Ford Fusion has better fit and finish than the Honda Accord. Are you smoking crack, are you kidding, or have you just never seen the interior on either of these cars to make such a completely incorrect, dumbass statement like that. And that’s just one of your sentences, I could write a novel critiquing your ignorant comments about something you know nothing about ,cars

Who’s laughing at this mess that Ford (and GM) have created for themselves, their suppliers, employees, shareholders and dealers?  It’s incredibly sad.  It’s pathetic how arrogantly they’ve managed themselves for the past umpteen years, selling “The Deal” or “Patriotism” instead of bringing dependable & desirable products to the marketplace – and now they wonder why they’re hemmoraging cash in the neighborhood of 64 Million Dollars A Day this past quarter (and it’s gonna be WORSE next quarter???)

Even now, their arrogance in turning away joint-ventures or alliances with successful French and Japanese companies simply amazes me.  And in typical Ford fashion, instead of hiring a guy who knows a thing of two about cars to help turn the place around, they hire a bean-counter from Boeing.  Oh wow, cutting more costs should make the product LOTS better…

They’ve been painting themselves into corners for years and now it looks like it’s  too little, too late.  The weak will be eliminated and the strong will survive.  FoMoCo deserve what they have coming to them…

I would point out that 4.6 billion of that was restructuring charges – much like GM’s 10.9 billion loss last year, most of the loss is related to restructuring. Anyone who actually knows anything about the auto industry would know that this magnitude loss was expected.

Second, LamborghiniZ, I would note that the fit and finish in the Fusion is not that far from the Accord. Have you ever been in the Fusion? My neighbor has a Fusion and an Accord, and I haven’t seen him drive the Accord since that Fusion parked itself in his garage. He has nothing but praise for it. The Fusion’s features, quality and price make it a great value if people were not so adverse to anything designed by a U.S. company.

That said, Ford has made some recent blunders: Explorer, Expedition, (probably) Escape redesigns. Not that the improvements they made weren’t good, but that they didn’t change the exterior. The Explorer and Expedition both drive very well – better than any SUV in their class, but they don’t look interesting or new! Why would you waste all your money when people won’t recognize it as new or different and, therefore, not buy it? The Escape, if the Mariner is any indication, will be the worst “upgrade” Ford ever made.

But, despite those, the Fusion is a remarkably good car. The Edge looks to be a very good car. The new Focus is about six or seven months away, and while it’s not the C1, analysts who have seen it are generally upbeat about it. The 500 and Freestyle are coming up with their updates – which I’ll wait to comment on later.

The MKS has the potential to be good. The new F-series has the potential. The new Fairlane has the potential. And those are all due in the next 12-18 months.

The loss is like what GM faced last year, and it will be interesting to see if Ford can, similarly, level its losses in the next year or two. There are compelling products in the pipe, but a couple years is a long time to wait, especially those on this board. In the meantime, we suffer with the “upgraded” Escape.

But at least I’m more optimistic than most.

Lots of potential abound. They’d better hope someone up there is aware of where the potential pockets are right now. Focus C1 (including the ST and upcoming RS), Aussie Falcon XR Turbo, Euro Mondeo AWD, Five Hundred and/or Fusion built as sturdy as a police crown vic (and kill the vic), KEEP the Lincoln LS, just rethink the powertrain a bit, MKS and MKZ sound good. Let’s see more.

… in fact, why not make the DEW Lincoln LS platform just replace the Crown Vic? If it’s cost.. okay but if not then it’s a wonder why it hasn’t been decided already.

One more thing… I don’t understand the whole “keeping the exclusivity” thing with the Ford GT. Why did you nincompoops kill it as soon as it got started?

You still don’t currently sell anything I want to aspire to… except that car. Now it’s gone and your other product lines aren’t revolutionized yet. Leaving it in the lineup would have only held together your remaining credibility as a purveyor of great cars of any type.

Plain and simple, they’re reaping what they sowed.

“bepsf”, you said it all.

Foster seems to be taking a lot of flak for not knowing much about cars, well I’m willing to do one better.

Foster, you are what’s wrong with America.

Have you even considered for one second that most of the people who criticise Ford and GM do so not because they want to see them wiped from the face of the earth, but because they’d actually rather they smarten the f@ck up and make a decent product. It may surprise you to learn that there are cars, past and present, from both companies that I do like, and would very seriously consider buying. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the overwhelming majority of the products from these lumbering behemoth American corporations are poorly-assembled, fantastically-uninspired ox carts. I would love to see Ford turn things around, but simply saying they have doesn’t make it so.

Amazingly, this is a microcosm of America and the attitudes of many Americans. America is great nation, but the refusal of many Americans to consider the possibility that there are things which could be improved.

Incidentally, the platform for the Fusion, which you’re so quick to offer as a trump card to Honda’s Accord, was designed by Mazda. In Japan. Furthermore, the Fusion is actually assembled in Hermosillo, Mexico, while the Honda Accord is assembled in Marysville, Ohio. So, it will actually be Mexicans losing jobs if no one buys a Fusion.

But then again, Ford and GM have been actively outsourcing their labour to save money (read: they’re finding ways not to employ Americans) for many years now. (This is not to say that asian manufacturers don’t also build cars in Mexico, but they have been investing like a gajillion dollars in American manufacturing facilities, as well.)

Finally, I’m curious as to exactly where you intend to move?

/no

I’m also going to take this opportunity to comment on the new commercial for the AWD Fusion.

While the car is driving down the side of the building, the woman pours out some water from the bottle, the water hovers about as the car continues downward, the guy taps the brake, and the water flies back upward towards the woman.

If they can’t grasp the physics in their own constructed reality, do I really want to be travelling down the highway at 120km/h in something they’ve built?

/no

Look how much better Europe’s results are… So, yes Ford does have cars to fit perfectly into the market, they just don’t take them out of Europe…

Focus ST is a GTi killer imho and the new RS will be an R32/34 killer methinks… time will tell…

The CEO’s wording ‘to operate profitably at lower volumes’ indicates that they have given up in their quest of owning a larger share of the automotive market.
They will settle for a smaller piece of the pie. SAD

Both Ford and GM lost me years ago. With their uninspired designs, poor quality and rip off dealerships I haven’t, wouldn’t consider products from either of these companies unless it was given to me for free. Does this make me “unpatriotic”? No it makes me a consumer who demands a product that can be counted upon to deliver good service. Unfortunately, Ford and GM have been too focused on their short term profits for way too long. As has often been said here on LL and elsewhere – both of these creaking, greedy behemouths are simply getting what they deserve. I have zero sympathy for either company but wish the best to the poor workers who trusted the corporate suits to do the right thing. Looks like you folks got screwed just like everyone else who bought a Ford or GM vehicle…

1. There is nothing wrong with the world voting with their dollars and saying they don’t like Ford products.
2. There IS something wrong when a company and its supporters think the rest of the world is awful.
3. There is something seriously wrong when the company making the products can’t be forward thinking enough to sustain their market share after being in the game for a 100+ years. Everyone has a downturn once in awhile but to get to this point is a travesty.

Bring over your best designs where ever they are in world. You have an entire engineering staff its what you do! There is no excuse for not getting it done!

And Z Really you guys what do you do for a living seat behind a computer and read all day about what other peoples opions are and throw them up all day on other people, learn your ****. I know more than you might think.

haha!