The whole company must be managed by the most incompetent morons. Everything they touched shows red ink... "18.9% slip to 166,835 cars and trucks from 205,671 a year ago also illustrated what many industry observers see as a product lull for the Dearborn, Mich. manufacturer as it pushes through its sweeping restructuring efforts. "All of us at Ford are focused on restructuring our business to be profitable at lower volumes and offering more of the products people want, including more cars and more crossovers," said Mark Fields, president of The Americas division, in a statement. The car side took the biggest hit, cut by a third to 55,842 vehicles with the Fusion and Crown Victoria the only Ford brands posting gains. The absence of the Taurus, a fleet favorite and top seller that Ford discontinued, took its toll as did steep declines for the Focus and Five Hundred sedans. Ford said it cut its rental car sales by 65% compared to a year ago. Trucks fared slightly better but still slipped 9.7% to 110,993 vehicles. The F-Series truck, long the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., saw its sales fall 14.9% to 44,919 units as the competition heats up with new pickup offerings from GM and Toyota. Ford said it expects softness in new home construction to negatively impact full-size pickup sales through the first half of 2007. Losses also washed over the high-end Premier Auto Group division with Jaguar down 12.6%, Volvo off 11.7% and Land Rover slipping 7%."
Jaguar used to be something...People would rather drive BMW, Mercedes and Lexus before a nice Ford Jaguar.
i bought a xk last year. 5 recall notices so far... the motion sensor goes off every time it snows - drives me up a wall. the dealer knew nothing about the car. service is terrible. honeslty - wish i had bought a honda accord. could have used the remaining 70k to buy lap dances... my girlfriend has a 1993 bmw - runs like a dream. change the oil a few times a year.
ford would make a nice merge with honda-let honda do the small stuff and ford do trucks, suvs, lincolns etc. ford shouldn't chase small with china and the likes coming in. to my eye they usually trail gm in styling except for the towncar.
My question is why do the styling of the Detriot Three manufacturers suck so much? German and Japanese styling have always led. Nowadays, Japanese cars still lead in least number of defects but modern engineering has pretty much closed the gap. It's styling that will determine who sells the most cars. I propose Ford or GM hire Steve Jobs. Bet Jobs and his team would be able to design a kick ass car.
The only way for Ford to survive IMO is to merge with GM and bring back the old name of: American Motors (Especially for all the patriotic rah rah) If they don't merge, bye bye Ford...It was fun while it lasted. ( at least for the F-150 and for the Ranger 4x4)
Rename all the slow sellers with top seller names... Ford to rename "Five Hundred" to "Taurus" DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. will rename its slow-selling Five Hundred model the Taurus, a name Ford previously used for a car that became the nationâs top-seller, two company officials said Tuesday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17003763
Now I know they have totally lost their minds and have no clue as to how to save the company. Rename the slow ass selling Five Hundred to Taurus???..OMG, are they freaking desperate or what? Bye, bye Ford.