This is because people are getting wiser and not buying fords. Why would someone spend their hard earned money on an inferior product. And with the way ford scammed those victims of rollovers with a miserable $500 voucher to buy another explorer has pissed off enough people to never set foot in a ford dealership again. Next year ford will trim even more of its production.

I wonder which psychic hotline Mulally subcribes to?

I disagree with planet-drive. Ford customers at this point are habitual Ford customers. They will always buy Ford products. Ford is very safe with them. To boot Ford did improve quality of its boring lot, so Ford is safe from any further defection (if it did not happen by now I think they were safe anyway). I doubt there will be any more customer base erosion. The problem for Ford that the base will not get larger unless the original base will not spawn new offspring in large quantity (which may happen drunk and stupid do **** more).

johnycanuck, whatever psychic Mulaly questioned is an excellent one: just look at his compensation

Smart move. They could be pushing incentives.

This is what they should be doing. Companies do it all the time. It’s called Pro Forma. Why have inventory rotting on the lots when the demand isn’t there? Do you think Toys R Us has 14 billion Elmo dolls throughout the year? This is just another smart step Ford is taking to stave off bankruptcy. They should have been doing this years ago though lol.

half the problem with a lot of car manufacturers is the fact that they already overproduce vehicles at an alarming rate. the big 3 are a big part of this problem because of impatient americans wanting what they want immediately instead of waiting and ordering a special vehicle. if car makers would cut back on production, instead of letting vehicles sit in lots for years, the makers would be out less money and the consumer would be helped by higher resale value because the market hasn’t been flooded. it’s a win-win situation….no one could possibly lose!

good to see that planet drive is an expert on not only car sales but also modern legal practices. perhaps you should have read the previous post about ford reporting an increase in nov. sales.

autonut, not all ford customers are “habitual”, having worked in a ford store and seen many conquest sales, I would say that there are more and more people not only looking at ford but buying as well. On the fusion alone, we have taken in a mini, a 1yr old accord, many gm products(malibu, implala, etc). trying not to be too biased here

Lawsuits are settled out of court when one of the parties knows it cannot win but the cost of proving or defending it could be high. Ford did a bang-up store management job with that settlement – give every person (most of them completely unaware that they are being represented) a discount to buy a Ford. The total cost to Ford? Maybe $250 million towards new FLM vehicles.

The truth is that the Explorer is no more prone to rollovers than the 4Runner or the Blazer, especially after the tire recall. The perception still exists, though. The lawsuit was over that perception of rollover and the decrease in resale value in their vehicle. Why? Because no one has been ableto prove that the Explorer was legally unsafe. Juries have awarded settlements to people involved in rollovers, but most have been severely reduced or eliminated completely and many have been not about rollover risk, but about other perceived issues (which often also cannot be proven).

Ford didn’t screw anyone over in that settlement. They could have taken it to trial and probably saved themselves a few million bucks at the end of the day when the class failed to get Ford’s money – but they probably would have faced more bad press about the Explorer and instead chose to try and earn some sales and money out of it while shutting down this last major lawsuit related to the Explorer. Good for them. Most class-action lawsuits are completely stupid in almost every way.

1115, stop making new accounts and posting the same **** under different names.

Ford has made progress in quality, and now they are trimming inventories so they don’t make more cars than people will buy. The 2008 car market is smaller than 2007 because of a worsening economy, all automakers will sell less cars, and Ford is simply adjusting to that. Idiots like planet_drive are not even reading the article and just assume that Ford is making less cars because everyone hates Ford like he does because if that were true it would conform to his own bias.

Well, the economy is slowing down. There may just be a recession around the corner. Ford is wise to trim production, regardless of the quality of their products. This will happen to Imports too. Ford may be selling the two British brands to get slim at the right time.

Why not just kill everything but the Mustang and F series? We all know Ford survives off those sales.

Fords are just crap period! I have rarely met someone with a ford that actually loves their car. I have never met someone with a ford that said it was the most trouble free car they ever owned. Usually its the opposite.

planet_drive: “people are getting wiser and not buying fords.” What’s ford’s market share?

“Why would someone spend their hard earned money on an inferior product?” Maybe because they like it. I think even the POS of today is a lot better than mod-quality of 20 years ago.

“the way ford scammed those victims of rollovers …” You’re a dumbass. SUVs roll over, give it up. Ford gave — yes, gave — people those vouchers as a PR move.

HoosierHero: good perspective.

hbcbob3: I’m mad but happy about GM’s Lambda production controls. Yeah, I want what I want now, but I also understand the company’s desire not to flood the market.

Robert: “The truth is that the Explorer is no more prone to rollovers than the 4Runner or the Blazer.” Exactly. Has more to do with the driver than any real or imagined design flaw.