Comments on: Ford reports biggest loss in company history

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:51:45 +0000

Well, that’s what you get for ignoring Diesels, not to mention the lack of quality on some of your best-selling vehicles. I really hope Alan Mulally can turn this company around, because if he can’t, I doubt someone else can.

By: 90Z

90Z — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 16:55:53 +0000

For those of you who think the main/only reason the Detroit 3 are suffering is inferior product, you might want to read this article:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/26/news/companies/pluggedin_taylor_ford.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007012611

The playing field is definitely NOT level when it comes to the NA auto market.

By: Adrio

Adrio — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 09:14:43 +0000

I agree with the deanTJ on this. Ford took the mustang redesign, and absolutely hit it out of the ball park. They should base their whole line up around it. Everything else they offer in the US needs to be scrapped. That includes Mercury and Lincoln.

They need to show the American market some respect and bring some of the Euro Fords over. Stop treating us like we cant tell the difference between well designed cars and watered down crap. Maybe then you’ll stop loosing money.

By: Blakkarr

Blakkarr — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:10:52 +0000

Bold Moves? More like timid cowardly attempts to pick up the crumbs from the Japanese table.

American cars companies should make American cars (not just trucks) to the standards expected of their import competitors. Time and again FORD has shown us some kick ass showcars that they could bring to market within a few years. They have been trying to come up with a permanent sports car for a couple of decades now… NOne of which has happened aside from the Mustang and the Thunderbird (which flopped).

FORD has proven before that they can outperform anyone when they want to. But even as a FORD fan I can not cheer for my team if they aren’t going to play to the level I know they can.

The easiest fix, as some have pointed out, is to clear the boards, expect the Mustang, and start bringing in cars from other markets, like Europe and Australia. Also, Let Jaguar run free and stop laying the onus on Aston Martin. Check out the competition and re-tool AM the be more like Porsche on the business end. A minimum tag of over 120K USD isn’t helping a car company that isn’t holding up against often less costly competitors in all areas save luxury. Jag was looking good for a while. I don’t know what happened there. But everything else seems pretty much okay.

Give the Edge over to a re-established SVT for some tuning and technical improvement… give all their model over for a once over and let SVT make their own cars (I could see a Vette-fighting Thunderbird being a first project), share notes with Jag, AM, Volvo and others for anything FORD itself is lacking (which seems to be a lot), and they will be fine in a decade or so.

FORD make some really BOLD MOVES already! Play smart not merely safe.

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:40:52 +0000

deantj is right, Ford has heart the call, make better vehicles, stop letting your cars get outclassed and outdated, they didn’t listen and now the company is in moderate ruins, I mean this is the worst it’s ever been in their long history, and the thing is, they deserve it if they are going to not step it up.

Veda is right too, the Edge has had AWFUL reviews, it has been described as having a thrashy V6 and terrible handling, even for a crossover. Doesn’t look like Ford’s saving grace…a “pretty” modern looking face doesn’t make a car necessarily GOOD, something Ford should know by now

By: Sharif

Sharif — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:36:08 +0000

thats funny, i recall stating that Ford would go bankrupt in three years. This is all bad news and they didn’t even calculate “special items”

By: younggun

younggun — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:58:43 +0000

bring the fiesta over here! give us tuners something to play with!

By: Veda

Veda — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 03:31:41 +0000

I haven’t seen the sales numbers but the new Edge, Fusion, and the redesigned Escape don’t seem to be doing much good to them. In fact, the review on the Edge has been horrible which isn’t good if it’s part of the revival plan they wanted to show us. Bad reputation, poor planning, useless sub-brands, and bigger competitions… I don’t know how long they’ll be able to hold up.

By: chevy490

chevy490 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:34:43 +0000

hey mc gm is still ganna sell 2 billion motre vechicles world wide!

By: MC

MC — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:32:28 +0000

I guess the only place they can go now is up.

Little question for – GMnumberone4ever,

When Toyota do take over GM, (Most likely by the end of the year)will you change your name to GMnumberTWO4ever,

LOL He might as well change his name now then. Thats all GMnumberTWO4ever does is brag.

By: The Stig

The Stig — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:51:01 +0000

@ chuckles,

No doubt that Mark Fields has talent. He’s got to be one of the best bull**** artists/spin doctors I’ve yet seen ooze from the auto industry. Fields talks a superb game – the problem is that the consumer no longer believes him or anyone else selling the antiquated products from FoMoCo.

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:18:51 +0000

It’s time for me to tell some of you “I told you so”. Ford blows.

By: Adrio

Adrio — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:44:02 +0000

The Mustang and the Fusion are pretty much THE ONLY likeable cars sold by ford in the US. (I’m not including the GT because nobody can afford that). A lineup of dozens of cars with only 2-3 winners.

The 500 is a boring abomination. The Freestyle is a joke. The focus used to be cutting edge looks wise, then they watered it down for no reason. I really don’t understand Ford. I really think they’re under-estimating the American market. They keep selling us garbage because they think nobody will notice. They better get their act together before they go down and take the Mustang with them. That will be the death of a classic.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:19:05 +0000

I’m not supprised…I think if they drop the razor blade grilles, something would go right

By: LJ

LJ — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:55:28 +0000

——–QUOTE:Make alliance with Toyota and develop a small compact, for those looking great mileage.

Comment by SevereSpeed, posted on January25 at 2:08 pm ”

——————————————–

About the compact. We have a Scion tC. 0-60 around 8 seconds, loaded to the gills, and alittle over 17K msrp. 160HP, 32-34 MPG.
Nearly 73,000 miles in 29 months.
If Ford and Toyota Hooked Up on some projects, maybe a 3 door- akin to the tC -would not hurt Ford sales? I know I’d look!
Liek the Prism was also a Corolla, but slightly less costly, at Chevy, years ago.
Maybe throw in( didn’t they have this once)…the Focus 5/100 K drivetrain warranty… then you really would have a reason to buy a (rebadged?) Toyota from Ford!

example; If Ford had a “tC” of their own, but say ,16,500 loaded like today’s atuomaitc tC of 17,499(say 800-1000 dollars less, maybe build/assemble it in a Mexican plant) and have that warranty(that Scion/Toyota does not have)…. it’s be a hit at Ford( 80,000 tC’s sold in 06, or a fewe hundred short, i should say, but that’s Excellent for a 3 door sporty little car).

Also, I would SERIOUSLY consider a 5 door Mondeo , even as a Mercury(say base price 20K msrp, to start, sort of like the Milan prices are now).

I buy cars I like , not by nationality of the makers.
Sorry.
take care/not offense.

By: YourNameHere

YourNameHere — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:27:45 +0000

my girl friend works at a Toyota – Ford Dealership. she says for every 1 ford customer there are 5 Toyota customers. and then 2 of the 5 ford customers ends up buying the Toyota opponent of the Ford car. its sad. they are almost giving away Focus. Even with a few thousand off the sticker it cant compete with the Carolla.

By: SevereSpeed

SevereSpeed — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:08:16 +0000

Upgrade the mustang V8 to 5.0L and the giugiaro styling but keep V6’s.
Make the Focus AWD.
The Edge looks hot, keep it that way.
Get rid of the 500, it’s a piece of crap.
Get a nice looking coupe that competes with accords and altimas, but make it RWD.
Make alliance with Toyota and develop a small compact, for those looking great mileage.

By: Kenny W

Kenny W — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:54:57 +0000

As a Ford fan it’s disappointing to see, but not at all unexpected. The way I see it Ford doesn’t know how to maintain any sort of momentum. For instance the Focus when it first came out was a POS, but Ford stuck with it & continually improved it until it was one of the best compacts in the market. As soon as it become a success Ford dropped the ball & left it stagnant until it became the outclassed car it is today. Rumor has it that the refresh of the new Focus actually cost more than predicted, making it more expensive than importing the C1 platform Focus from Europe. The same thing happened with the Taurus. It was a revolutionary vehicle when it first came out, but Ford quickly dropped the ball on it (especially after the 3rd generation) and let it die a painful and unfortunate death. Crown Victoria….same story, Contour….same story still (although to a much lesser extent). To add insult to injury Ford started focusing on trucks & SUV’s, not a bad idea in the short term, but it proved disastrous for the long term (this is something that GM did as well). The Mustang, F-150, and Expedition are the only vehicles Ford has managed to not screw up over the year. Ford could have a kick ass lineup right now if they didn’t give up on their cars after they finally get them right.

[angry]Oh yea, they also screwed up with SVT[/angry]

By: Impulsive

Impulsive — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:54:14 +0000

DESERVED.

By: British_Rover

British_Rover — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:47:18 +0000

Interesting the market must have already adjusted the stock price for the anticipated loss.

As of this posting ford stock is up 4 cents compared to the closing price yesterday.

Darn no bargains to be found then.

By: nwmike

nwmike — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:33:58 +0000

To mujician

“nwmike, I must say that mygodbeatsyourgod made a good point.”

He didn’t make a point. He gave his opinion on Bush, which is unrelated to this article. And I never said politics didn’t make an impact on the economy, I merely stated that the current parties are broken and switching them was not going to be the “answer.’ An answer but not THE answer.

By: chuckles

chuckles — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:29:21 +0000

Alan Mulally has stated that Mark Fields is extremely talanted and was a key player in the success of guiding Mazda and other European/Eastern operations to profitability for FoMoCo. Even though no-one likes his hair, Al and Ford are behind Fields.
Again, as I said before, this was predicted long ago by Ford. They knew where they were in this plan.

By: Kaptain75329

Kaptain75329 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:50:59 +0000

Chuckles – I was feeling a little dismayed, almost as though the wind was knocked out me when I heard this news on the radio driving into the office this morning. I kept telling myself this had to be rock bottom for Ford – I knew with the buyouts and the plant closings that Ford was going to post some painful losses but I had no idea how drastic the financial report was going to be. In watching the “Fordbolmoves.com” videos, I’m not all that surprised – I saw something like this coming, I just didn’t know it would hurt this much. What I didn’t think about (and I don’t know know why) is that these losses and huge expenses were 2006 sacrifices – they won’t have to make such dire cuts going forward for a while. Assuming, of course, things that can go wrong go right instead.
.
Brendino – agree with your post for the most part, and I do find comforting your optimism. That being the case, it has not yet been pointed out that Ford is having to do something Toyota didn’t: *reverse* a trend and a long-established history that’s not exactly flattering and mixed-messaged at best. It’s tough enough to build a reputation when you don’t have one, far more difficult to rebuild one that is badly tarnished. I believe Ford can do it, but they have precious little time. Mercury needs to be reinvented: keeping it as a more expensive clone of exactly the same machines as Ford isn’t going to cut it, and it hasn’t for quite some time. There are relevant euro-vehicles Ford can put under that name plate while they work to fix the Ford brand in the states. GM’s doing this with Saturn and it’s working. I’ve suggested Ford try this tack before, and I can only hope they do it one way or the other. The Fusion and Edge are great entries, and along with the F-150 and Mustang, the case is real that Ford is still in the game. But that won’t be enough if they don’t fix the rest of their lineup, and even then, they need to keep evolving and refining all the models once they are established. Ford just posted the most catastrophic losses in it’s entire history. They need an answer to that with the hardest work ever performed in the name of Ford Motor Company. I don’t think changing nameplates is going to work again like it did this time around.

By: The Stig

The Stig — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:43:31 +0000

Mark Fields should be gone as a result of Ford’s performance.

By: roadmaster96

roadmaster96 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:24:29 +0000

I knew that GM and Ford were going to report huge mid decade losses while they restuctured, thats just the way it is. i am more interested in their finacial health at the end of the decade. if it is still poor by then, then there shall be no doubt that their future is dark. We must wait for new, and about to be released products to reach their full potential in the marketplace before calling it curtains. They need to refresh the mustang and get a RWD AWD large sedan and QUICK.

By: mujician

mujician — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:21:07 +0000

nwmike, I must say that mygodbeatsyourgod made a good point. And politics play a very heavy role in the american auto industry.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:20:51 +0000

@edgarp–

Americans do not share the same tastes in cars as Europeans and Australians. Look around your local parking lot. The Japanese cars that you see are selected for the US market. Many are designed and built here. Consider the European brands. Very few are available in US. Those that are tend to be upmarket. Virtually no cars come to the US from France. Few cars come from Italy. Take away Rolls-Royce and Bentley, there are virtually no English cars sold the the US.

The point is that is all and fine to say that Ford should sell its European cars here. But, those cars have to be palattable to the US tastes. They aren’t now. Except for a limited number of German brands, few are from any European manufacturer.

By: chuckles

chuckles — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:14:56 +0000

Ford told investors and everyone else in the financial world early in 2006 that this would be the worst year for them in the turn around. I remember GM saying the same thing about their own business in 2005 and look at their improvement this year.
One does have to consider the huge buyouts and costs of plant closings for 2006. They won’t have those expenses again this year. Remove those items and it isn’t so bleak.
As far as NA goes, Edge and MKX are in dealerships, they have the new Superduty, Escape/Mariner and Focus this year. Lots of new product on the horizon.
Don’t worry about FoMoCo they, like GM, will be great again in the very near future.

By: mujician

mujician — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:13:19 +0000

I can’t wait till the day Toyota’s problems start to catch up to them. Just like what has already happened to Ford and Gm.
That’s right GMnumberone4ever, I included them as well.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:12:33 +0000

I guess the only place they can go now is up.

Little question for – GMnumberone4ever,

When Toyota do take over GM, (Most likely by the end of the year)will you change your name to GMnumberTWO4ever,

By: nwmike

nwmike — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:56:20 +0000

To MyGodBeatsYourGod

Keep your ideological crap to yourself, this is a car forum-not some place to put in your pathetic political jabs.

About Ford, this is a staggeringly huge loss. Part of the problem is no matter what they design or sell, a big hit against them is resale value. If you can’t get squat for the vehicle when you trade it in, it becomes a very un-compelling option. Also, those interiors are just bad. I have seen some of the work these design students do before they are hired by the domestic car manufactureres and I have to wonder what happened to their visions?

By: eam3

eam3 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:50:55 +0000

Ford’s product managers are to blame I would think. The Taurus came out and it was an immediate success so what does Ford do? They forget about it and don’t bother updating it throughout its product life. They then replace it with a model from the Humpty Dumpty design studios and it’s all downhill from there. The Lincoln LS was a great car when it came out and then, in typical Ford fashion, they let it rot. Say what you will about GM but at least they try to improve their products on a yearly basis, Ford seems content to release it and forget about it.

By: Xymox

Xymox — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:50:47 +0000

BOLD MOVES.

By: GMnumberone4ever

GMnumberone4ever — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:44:03 +0000

The American Revolution will do that to ya. Say goodbye to Ford Motors.

By: demio121

demio121 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:42:17 +0000

Ford is in a very good position to turn around but amaze me how they got themselves into such position.

Ford NA problem i figure is they only know how to sell truck. Now that consumer want more fuel efficient vehicle, Ford NA is caugh off guard (no thanks to Bush).

but there is Ford Europe and Mazda experience with more fuel efficient vehicle. Why don’t Ford NA just learn for them???