The beleaguered Ford Motor Company is expected to announce losses for the eighth consecutive quarter on Thursday. Already this year, Ford has lost $282 million in the first quarter. The carmaker has already announced that it doesn’t forsee a profitable quarter in 2007.
Ford blames part of the expected loss on significantly decreased sales to rental fleets. Overall, Ford’s sales picture looks very bleak, but rental fleet sales, which had a very small profit margin, accounted for a lot of the sales drop.
According to industry journal Automotive News, Ford doesn’t seem to have much interest in Land Rover or Jaguar . Last week, Ford said that it is in contact with two potential buyers for the two British brands, one of which (Land Rover) was profitable in the first quarter of ’07. Ford declined to say who the buyers are.
