“Keldon
You need a basket
Because you’re a basket case

Ford has very few competitive products, at least compared to companies like GM
They need to worry about competiting dynamically with the market, before worrying about how much money to throw on the hood

The next Taurus wil compete with cars like the Passat and Maxima, not Camry and Accord
The F-150 is still a year from being truly competitive
Ranger and no minivan show true failure
Escape and Focus haven’t improved in almost 10 years

Ford has a lot of work to do
But don’t they always?
DrFill”

@DrFill

I think we need to back up the proverbial truck and take another look at things here.

The first of which is that Ford has legitimate concerns about favoritism popping up with the government owning part of GM and the Chrylser group. I was listening to a public radio show here that made legitmate points about government contracts which are currently filled by Ford Motor Co. going to Chrysler or GM as it’s in the governments best interest for those two companies to succeed in business.

The second thing is what you’ve said about Ford catching up. Ford’s current lineup as of the beginning of this year was easily on par with what GM was producing at the same time and well above competing products from the Chrysler group. The difference is in the plan of attack. GM and Chrysler’s plans of attack at the moment seem scattered and unpreppared while Ford obviously seems to have a leg up on them — afterall they seem to have avoided bankruptcy pretty well.

I do agree with what you said about Taurus. Taurus will be a full sized vehicle. Fusion is the competitor to the later vehicles in your statement and while it’s not the top seller I can tell you first hand that the new Fusion is a fantastic vehicle that can easily hold its own.

Next, the truck market. If I remember correctly, Ford has a pretty good replacement for the Ranger in the works and it’s a good thing. If they’re as smart I think they are, they’ll start removing focus from the F-150 and other full sized trucks. Let’s face it, the large truck market is shrinking and I don’t see it growing any time soon.

No minivan? No problem. Aside from Honda, Toyota, the Hyundai/Kia group, and the Chrylser group, everyone is jumping off that ship. Why continue to produce minivans and SUVs when Crossovers are easily poised to replace both genres?

While I can’t speak for the Escape, I can speak for the Focus… Specifically that there’s a new one in the canon based off of a global platform and that’s where the trick lies. Watch for Ford in the near future to release much of it’s vehicle base based on global platforms which will lower costs and increase it’s ability to meet changing demands on a wider basis. How many years have I heard about people wanting Ford vehicles from Europe to be imported here? It looks like the time is finally coming.

The point of all of this being if “Ford has very few competitive products, at least compared to companies like GM. They need to worry about competiting dynamically with the market, before worrying about how much money to throw on the hood” were a true statement, then the financial woes here would be reversed and it would be Ford filing for chapter 11. Let’s face it, regardless of the recession, GM was headed “throttle to the floor” toward chapter 11. The recession may have just gotten them there a little quicker.

I will say though that I hope and pray that both Chrysler and GM come out of this much leaner and prepared for a new market. I look forward to seeing Mopar and the GM performance division rise from the ashes and prepared to start a new, and look forward to seeing the fantastic new products that will be on the streets from them.