I was watching the news and then reading the newspaper today and come to find out: Ford put their vehicle plants up as colateral for a huge loan to keep them afloat! I did a double take! Now I am wondering???? So if things don't look up and they can't make the payments and default they lose their vehicle plants?? It appears they may be in more trouble than everyone thinks. Ford is in deeper than the worst days GM had in the last 2 years according to all of the financial experts on cable TV! Unbelievable! The Ford Explorer has been the best selling small SUV for some 15 years and Toyota and Honda have taken away the top spot in sales in the small SUV market currently, WOW!! I can't believe they would ever let their truck market go but they may be considering dumping the cars in their lineups for small SUV's and trucks only....but if things get very bad they would supposedly keep the Mustang going.....Interesting stuff in the news today!

OOPS sorry I put this into the General Diesel discussion category...
DUH!

 

To get a loan you have to put up some form of collateral. What else do they have to put up that anyone would really want. I dont see Ford going into the tank anytime soon. The govt would probably come to thier aid like they did for Chrysler in the 80s or Ford will sell off one of thier divisions or other stock interests.

 

I think management has gone south for the winter.
Here in Norfolk where they are closing one of the F-150 plants next year, 80% of the employees took the one of the three early out offers. The next day, they were talking about hiring temporary workers to fill in.
Overall, they said that 48% of the employees nationwide took the offers. Talk about cutting the work force!

 

Maybe it's just me.........but having just bought a 2nd hand 60 k mile F250 2004 4wd 7.3 PSD dual cab - for the best part of Aus $85,000 downunder...... i can't help thinking Ford could sell a whiole lot more trucks like this downunder if they were an equivalent type price to what you pay stateside. Say Aus $36 - $45K for example!

Now - if your Dollar were to continue to weaken to a point where you were more competitive in export markets, maybe the likes of Ford etc wouldn't have to keep closing plants laying off workers and mortgaging their assets!

Really speaking the USA has record never before heard of debt levels, the foreign central banks in Asia and Europe are dropping the US dollar and running, scared!

Perhaps, if Gee Dubya were to pull his plunge protection team off the job and let things fall where they may - you might actually be a LOT more competitive with the rest of the world when it comes to exporting your products!

You are a nation of very well educated, clever, imaginative, and productive people who produce excellent products, the rest of the world wants!

If we could afford them - then likely you wouldn't be seeing the situation you do today, where - no one else in the world can afford those goods!

I can remember as a kid in the early 70's our Aus $ was second in strength in the world only to the $US and our $ bought 99c US.....since then I've seen ours plunge to 48c and now climb back toward 78 or 79 c maybe...

The stronger our $ gets the more US Boat product I see selling here!

It's getting almost affordable to buy US product with the free trade agreement... a weaker $US would further strengthen that position, and increased exports might well help the likes of Fords position maybe!

Cheers!

 

One of the reasons a Ford truck costs so much is the union labor.............medical costs have sky-rocketed..........Hey you know it's nice to install engines into a Ford Truck and make $40 dollars per hour seems like a good number to me LOL!!!

 

I remember seeing recently that the guy that cuts the grass at GM's Headquarters makes $64 an hour with pay and benefits!

 

Union jobs at auto plants are rediculous...those people make 60 G's a year to bolt parts onto cars. Union coal miners make half to two-thirds that amount and they work in a much more dangerous environment. Doesn't make sense.

 

Once upon a time, I would have agreed with you...about unions!

We had the unions political party running the country for a very long time!

Under the awards system it ended up as a public servant I was working 6 &2/3 months a year and had 5 &1/3 months ayear time off - and wages were high!

It nearly sent the country broke!

We threw them out of office - now we have the opposite!

No awards - it's all worplace agreements - trading off conditions in return for meagre wage increases eaten up by inflation.

Now there is No such thing as job security, people (employees) are just a commodity, to be thrown away on the scrap heap...

At 40 your unemployable!

The companys have had the best 10 years of your life out of you - they want some other young wannabee to give them the best 10 years of their lifes for pennies!

Only -
now - the Banks system etc is still geared to mortgages only being given to full time employed people....

No one has a full time job anymore...everyone has about 5 or 6 careers now and lives off savings between times, when they don't have work...

Don't let anyone fool you that Unions are ruining the country, they are a necessary evil - otherwise you have the capitalists running the country and living conditions can get pretty harsh pretty quickly!

Thats been my experience anyway!

Unions are like Women - you can't live with em - coz they never know when to stop whining and wanting more, but you can't live without em either!

Cheers!

 

I RESPECTFULLY disagree with you Flywest, I think you are off a little bit, although I agree with the un-loyal throw away treatment of many employees. GM and Ford execs have even stated that the unions/health care costs have made it very difficult to profit and build more affordable cars. If GM and Ford is saying that then you gotta believe that is a problem.

Here is my take on the Ford loans and the plants as colateral............Ford is going to default on those loans and therefore lose some of their U.S. plants, BUT look down south into Mexico.............do you see where I am going with this!! I think they are going to stick it to the union by building even more vehicles in Mexico and this is the first step to outsourcing an even larger part of the labor needed to build Ford vehicles!! I hope I am not right but it is looking like Ford is going to be doing something very strategic and BIG to keep going. Ford is in no way going down, but they have to do whatever it takes to compete in the auto market!!
Not at all what I like, but sure seems like this is reality these days!!

 

So much for morality.

 

We can agree to disagree Scottman 70!

I've always voted against the Unions parties, downunder for 47 years..so I don't condone what they try to do, in the way of wages & conditions, when they go over the top at all.

That said i think we are missing the obvious problem.

Kwikkordead has summed it up most succinctly IMHO...Morality!

The REAL question is - why on earth are we TRYING to compete with nations LIKE Red China, who have such a dubsious human rights record?

We are selling out our friends, relatives and neigbours in terms of their Job security if they work for an auto maker, in order to prop up regimes responsible for the Tianenmen square massacre? We support child labor camps? We do so when we buy these cheap labor constructed "imports".

You seen what happens when your telco outsources it's helpline.....you ring for help and get some elephant jockey in India who doesnt even speak english!

You want the same treatement when you go to your GM or Ford dealer for service?

We are prepared to give up - everything our nations stand for - in return for mexican or chinese made inferior products, manufactured by enslaved peoples?

Frankly if thats the road we go down, we deserve what awaits us when we inexhorably end up at war with Red China, over Taiwan and their (China's) insatiable thirst for world oil!

When thru our propping these evil regimes up - they can OUTBID the USA for remaining world oil supplies and outmuscle you militarily to ensure they get it, well - then - you might as well kiss your sweet behind goodbye!

We will have outsourced, downsized, and got rod of al those 'expensie employees - put their kids below the poverty line, abandon education...

All to make China the next worlds super power!

Frankly - to be succinct, if you yanks don't grow some ***** in a hurry and take control of this downward slide, then we are ALL screwed, because, when you sneeze - we downunder catch a cold!

You need a leadership - who knows how to bake a bigger cake so there's enough to go round for everyone - at the moment all you seem to have is a leadership who know how to squabble over an ever diminishing resource!

Growing a nation is just like growing a small business...

Theres any number of wannabee manages can cut things back to improve the bottom line.........of a shinking business!

You need a few good ol boys who know HOW to grow a business & a nation - even if the bottom line is just barely staying above waterline!

It seems to be a skill the younger generation - who have never known adversity have lost!

Look after your own first!

Cheers!

 

They already are. They just have sent the memo yet.

 

Yeah, China has the world's largest standing army and a huge industrial base...today's equivalent to the former sovet union except much more powerful, IMO. Bad news.

 

I think a lot of China's military might is overhyped, faked or inadequate, much like the Soviets. I've heard that in some parts of the country that biplanes are still considered thier first line fighters.

In any case, I don't give shear numbers much credit. We can kill all they send at us. Look at previous wars like Vietnam where they sent thousands of troops onto hundreds of ours and we slaughtered them.

But who cares, we're allies remember. And without us buying up all thier crap, they run out of money quick.

Mike

 

Read Revelation 9:16
China is the only country in the world right now since the beginning of time that has been able to muster that many troops at once, armed with sophisticated or crude weapons or not armed at all.
Arms can be built.