Comments on: Ford turned down GM merger recently

By: idrinorbarsaku

idrinorbarsaku — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:46:52 +0000

i somewhat agree with jimmy8. if one company should stay, it should be ford. the military contract with gm is overdue. i also think ford has a better line up than gm because they don’t make 4 copies of each car! thats such a waste of money and they deserve to be in the position they are in right now.

By: DrFill

DrFill — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:21:05 +0000

Jimmy
GM is set to lose money to the point where they will reach their brass tax (minimum operating capital) of 14 billion dollars next year.
Ford doesn’t need as much, but they are bringing in far less revenue, and are losing money at a greater rate
That phone call may ring forever
Strike 1?
Ford can’t facelift there way out of this dire situation
The F-150 might be Strike 2
The next 18 months will make or break Ford
F-150
Mustang vs Camaro
EcoBoost
May not get to Fiesta
We’ll see.
DrFill

By: autonut

autonut — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:57:56 +0000

Ford does what Ford does best: waste cash like a drunken sailor. I doubt that GM would be the one looking to merge. They had very decent proposal from Renault/Nissan just 2 years ago (when their stock was shooting to $38/share).

By: monte

monte — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:01:15 +0000

Ford also has several hugh bonds coming to maturaty in the next year that cannot be paid and will have to be finaced, which gm does not have as many in the immediat future.

By: jimmy8

jimmy8 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:24:21 +0000

You know, everyone is so convinced Ford is the 1st of the BIG 3 that is going o go down. Ford has 26 billion of liquid cash in the bank and 15 billion in open credit lines available. It won’t be going anywhere. The thing about Ford is that it has assets worth something. Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Mazda, Volvo. These were/are worth something. Pontiac, Buick, Saturn, Hummer, GMC arent worth anything. The only thing Hummer has going for it is the military contract. With the vehicles Ford has in the pipeline and Alan as CEO I would much rather be in Ford’s shoes than either of the other 2. GM just has too much weight to carry with all of the bulk of its brands. At least Ford has valuable brands that it can sell off so it can streamline itself (Mercury aside). The other thing is that Ford owns Ford Credit, and minus the current lease problem, has always been a huge money maker for Ford. GM doesn’t have that advantage with GMAC, and Ford was smart enough not to get involved in the home mortgage mess unlike GMAC.

By: beatusmongous

beatusmongous — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:59:55 +0000

The old “crap in a burning bag on the doorstep” trick…

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:12:35 +0000

Upon Ford’s rejection of GM’s proposal, fire crews were called to extinguish a large paper bag which had been set on fire in front of GM corporate headquarters. Once the blaze was out, officials were somewhat baffled by their discovery of the mostly incinerated remains of a Ford Flex.

By: Z06ified

Z06ified — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:59:27 +0000

There wouldn’t be an synergies with a Ford/GM merger. It wouldn’t make any sense.

By: jayjc08

jayjc08 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:49:40 +0000

Nothing wrong with sharing some technologies, but when it comes down to every car being the same old thing with the same gear… that’s not what capitalism is about.