It's fairly frustrating having to work around a group of people that are "Chevy Guys." My frustration lies in the fact that my XO keeps telling me that Ford cannot compete in today's market. That you cannot run a corporation that is bleeding billions each year, and not offer a product that people want to buy. He is predicting that Ford will either be shut down or bought out by a Japanese competitor, at which time it will be broken up into pieces and sold off, or just closed down. Now, he's made several predictions in the short time that I've known him that have been correct. I don't really have any ammunition to offer by way of argument, other than "Let's wait and see what the new leadership will be able to do."

Another officer I work with was speaking to an Army Capt (O3) who happens to be an engineer for GM. What they (GM) are doing is cutting away a lot of the dead weight of the company. Just getting rid of people that are not producing, thus reducing the number of people that will eventually be looking for pensions. I see this as a great idea for Ford, as well. You need to cut away the diseased portion of the company, so the rest can operate in a healthier manner. Is Ford doing this? Does any one have any sound information to the contrary? Will the federal government bail out Ford, if necessary, like they did Chrysler? These are important issues to me, and I would live to be able to argue with the XO, but much of what he says makes a lot of sense (much as I hate to admit it).

So, aside from just being a Ford fan, what is the answer, and what is actually happening at the corporate level? Can Ford survive and what are they doing to ensure their survival.

The one thing I think they need to do is to get rid of the burden created by all the pensioners. Cruel? yes. But what will those people collect if the company fails? Zip...

 

Fords Survival? I wont worry about that chevys got more on the line right now then for with the new 900 Trucks fords the leader there are tons of ford vechles on the road nobody wants to see it fords are actully the best brand money can buy Ford Trucks are King Of The Hill leading to way for to many years to count Chevy playing big time catch up fords just keep going

 

Get home in one piece. Ford will be here when you get back. Thanks for serving our country.

 

Thanks for the sentiment. (My wife appreciates it, too ) I was hoping to start a meaningful discussion, though. These are things that need to be addressed at the corporate level, and if there is one thing I know about the folks at this site, it is that we love to play armchair quarterback.

 

Did you see this thread? Encouraging I think!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...-bad-news.html

 

CR names Ford Fusion best car in its class, outpointing Camry and Accord.

That's a start.

The name game...Why change the brand names of successful vehicles? The latest gaffe, in my opinion affects the Lincoln Zephyr....why drop Zephyr after only one year...replacing it with meaningless letters?

The new 500...nice car...I like the high seating position...so why didn't Ford just call it Taurus....continuing the line?

Several historians that I know said the GM name game killed Oldsmobile...after years of Cutlass Supreme's, 88's, etc...Olds comes out with Intrigue (simply awful) and Alero. People vising showrooms had no idea what they were looking at...sales plummet to the toilet, the oldest US company (1897) is gone.

Since introduction...the names Camry and Accord have been used throughout the model run...people are familiar with them, so why change?

Ford is hurting, yes...but still makes a quality product...it's convincing the American public of the fact the company is here to stay.

 

GM is also bleeding money. Change can not be made over night. The restructuring plans in place at both will take years to complete. Next year is the test. The UAW contracts are up and will see if Ford and Chevy have what it takes to compete. They can not afford to pay there works 20% more than Toyota pays there US workers and continue to compete.

 

I have heard that GM would have actually made a healthy profit last year if it wasn't busy pay back billions of dollars of debt.

 

Thanks again for serving.....


I kinda agree with your XO's.....and by the recent talks with both Nissan and GM, I think Ford is not oblivious to the fact the boat is sinking.

Regardless of what our resident run on sentence champion thinks, Ford cannot live on trucks alone.....ESPECIALLY after Toy releases their real full size truck which will no doubt eat into Ford's market share.

This topic has been hashed out a couple times one way or another....one thread I started.

IMO, Ford needs to be class leaders again....have products that not only equal the competition but with options Ford cars (and trucks) need to BEAT the competition.

It's been brought up all of Ford's good stuff is in Europe/Australia.....doesn't help the N.American market much; does it?

Case(s) in point:

EVERY review of Ford's DOHC V6 (both in 3.0 and 3.5 form) has it being raspy at higher revs.......does not have the smoothness of the Honda/Toy motors.
This is the same motor that Ford is using in the new Lincolns and trying to get $12,000 more for!!!! (Fusion vs Zephyer/MK?????)

Look up the specs of the GM SUV's and compare them to Ford/Lincoln....100 horsepower more in the top offerings for the GM!!!


Ford's flagship car, the Shelby GT500... IF you can find one for MSRP, the performance is aprox. the same as the previous Cobra which had 100 HP less and cost aprox. $7000 less. Where's the progress???? (If it matters, I LOVE the new Shelby but would still buy a C6 Corvette if I had to make a choice)


There's more.


Ford most certainly needs to trim the disease.....but they also need to make products that win shootouts, that people want to DRIVE, and somehow regain a reputation for reliability.

No more 6.0 PSD fiascos, no more Focus recalls, no more burning up cruise control connectors.....etc.

I want Ford to prosper as much as anyone....heck, 6 out of my 8 cars are Fords, but they need to get back an image. Instead of people saying I bought a Ford because of the great financing, they need to get people saying I bought a Ford 'cause it was a better car......faster, smoother, better economy etc.

Even if it's only one trim package for every model, Ford/Ford owners need to have bragging rights.

 

DOHCmarauder, Haven't seen you in a while.

 

...............

 

Now how does anybody what is going to happen in the future. GM could be out off business just as much as Ford. Ford has just won one battle it got consumer reports on there side for once saying that the Ford Fusion measures up to the Japnanese. Thats real big in my book. What a boost. A huge boost at that. Ford has products that out do the competition. Ford has a new SUV to compete with the Chevy suburban. The new Expedition. From what Ive read most critics praise it.

GM an Ford will always depend on trucks for there profits. When both companies sell close to 900,000 a year. You focus your energies on trucks.

All in all Ford is doing fine. Things take time but Ford will be around for another 100 years. With a few bumps along the way. Ford needs new product an they have it an it will sell.

 

IMO Though it looks and has been rough for Ford short-term, I believe they'll do just fine long-term!

For once, Ford actually got good pr on ABC's Nightly News!! I was amazed! If one actually does some digging around in the linky's under the article on CNNMoney.com for "worst reliability" per category they'd see that many of the worst are gm products.

I was kinda suprized to see the vette as 5th inline for worst/least reliable in the sport car category.

 

One of my fears is that Ford may have waited too long to start doing the right things. With the new leadership, maybe they have a chance, huh?

 

It's fairly frustrating having to work around a group of people that are "Chevy Guys." My frustration lies in the fact that my XO keeps telling me that Ford cannot compete in today's market. That you cannot run a corporation that is bleeding billions each year, and not offer a product that people want to buy. He is predicting that Ford will either be shut down or bought out by a Japanese competitor, at which time it will be broken up into pieces and sold off, or just closed down. Now, he's made several predictions in the short time that I've known him that have been correct. I don't really have any ammunition to offer by way of argument, other than "Let's wait and see what the new leadership will be able to do."

Another officer I work with was speaking to an Army Capt (O3) who happens to be an engineer for GM. What they (GM) are doing is cutting away a lot of the dead weight of the company. Just getting rid of people that are not producing, thus reducing the number of people that will eventually be looking for pensions. I see this as a great idea for Ford, as well. You need to cut away the diseased portion of the company, so the rest can operate in a healthier manner. Is Ford doing this? Does any one have any sound information to the contrary? Will the federal government bail out Ford, if necessary, like they did Chrysler? These are important issues to me, and I would live to be able to argue with the XO, but much of what he says makes a lot of sense (much as I hate to admit it).

So, aside from just being a Ford fan, what is the answer, and what is actually happening at the corporate level? Can Ford survive and what are they doing to ensure their survival.

The one thing I think they need to do is to get rid of the burden created by all the pensioners. Cruel? yes. But what will those people collect if the company fails? Zip...

My own take- Ford and GM have their own fair share of problems, but it's a different set of problems. Let's pull full-sized pickups out of the equation for a minute, since both Ford and GM do an admirable job selling those lines, at somewhere around a million units each.

Ford's guilty of letting good product lines languish without improvment until the competition passes them. How long since the Ranger got a redesign? The Panther platform (Crown Vic/GM)? Why was the Taurus allowed to languish for so long with a bodystyle that was almost saleproof, at least on a retail level? Why does Europe have the new Focus, and not the US?

GM, on the other hand, has brought out a lot of new product in the last few years. Question is, how much of it actually sells? And how much money do they make at it when they do hit a winner? If you look at the numbers, GM has some solid sales hits. The Impala is knocking on the Camry and Accords door, sales-wise, the Cobalt and malibu are solid hits. Ditto the HHR. Their problem is simple- profit per unit. Ford's primary problem is numbers- the 500/Freestyle generated so-so numbers, the Mustang is a hit, but the Focus/Ranger entry level product languishes. If they could get the numbers up, i think the profits would follow.