Your thoughts.
http://wardsauto.com/commentary/ford_ahead_gm/

(what I find kind of sad personally... today will be the official announcement of Tata buying Jaguar and LR)

 

here:
http://wardsauto.com/commentary/ford_ahead_gm/

I dunno, I'll wait and see what happens in the long run. Ford and GM both need to get on the ball with appealing, very economical cars and trucks for the US, like yesterday....GM is bringing over the Opels as Saturns, Ford is hopefully going to do the Fiesta and Transit Connect for the US....and I'd feel better if they were built here. I'm about 20 miles from Dearborn, and my son is going to the U of Mich campus in Dearborn...

Actually, a friend of ours, John McElroy, wrote the article...

Ford should have asked me before they bought Jaguar and Land Rover, though....why would they need British car companies with expensive products and terrible reliability? I just looked at the Sunday car ads and about 2/3 of the Land Rovers ever sold in Detroit are for sale used and cheap. I'm not at all sad to see them go, although their being bought by an Indian company making $2500 cars is weird.

 

Thanks, I updated my link.

I didn't think that other people douldn't be subscribers. WHOOPS!

I don't think they could feasibly be built in the US, nor do I think they should.

I think the US should concentrate on building export markets for what it does best.

Ford didn't look at that... They looked at brand image and goodwill, and admittedly underestimated the cost (and time) that it would take to restructure Jaguar in particular... Land Rover was never a seriously bad financial performer.
2nd hand Land Rovers are dicey, because of the bad image of quality more than anything else (although if you purchased a Freelander 1, it was a bit more than an image!)
I can understand your point of view from where you stand... even where the majority of the people on this site stand.

You care about Ford. NOW.
I am looking at the longer term economic picture here... Ford cannot, and should not rely on the US market for long term financial stability (as this article discusses)
Ford, fortunately has always had a stronger international focus than the "other 2"... however that isn't everything.
GM is desperately trying to crack the very lucrative European luxury car market with Cadillac, and they are going to learn how hard it is to do that... even Lexus can't. You only need to look at the financial results for BMW to see how important, money wise, such a market is.
Jaguar already had 2 feet in the door...
Not to mention, Ford now doesn't have a luxury car brand outside of NA. Lincoln or Mercury don't mean anything outside of NA. Jaguar on the otherhand was a world wide brand... and as Cadillac are going to discover in Europe, brand cache means a LOT.

Selling Land Rover I think was an even stupider move. That brand was the only one capable of taking it to Toyota and Jeep (even though Jeep is marketed, and distributed very poorly outside of NA. Chrysler couldn't do an international market if it tried) and to a very vague extent Hummer in emerging markets.
Ford now has NO genuine 4x4 SUV's (if you discount the Ford Everest sold in a couple of markets) which are absolutely critical in emerging market where roads may not be as well made.
An interesting statistic is that the first vehicle seen by 50% of the worlds population is/was a Land Rover. Such brand exposure can't be bought for a dollar.
I think not so wierd...
Tata has cash. Lots of it. They also have susbstantial ties with Fiat.
They are buying brands that have significant market presence (and now, thanks to Fords hard work have product worth of the badge) which is the one thing an Indian Automotive manufacturer lacks.
Not to mention the technology and intellectual property they are gaining with it.

 

It seems like on the business side of things ford is starting to turn things around. But their design and engineering is still behind. GM is turning it around in all of the areas, but only time will tell us how things end up.

Seems like alot of the cars in north america are pretty boring though, we need the designs from europe and australia over here to kick start things again.

 

I dunno, If GM can hit a home run with the Impala, and the new Camaro, They should be sitting in better shape. The Impala seems to be getting a pretty good ad campaign. A pretty good looking 30 MPG Sedan starting @$19K will get a lot of Americans into their showrooms, in these cash strapped times.

As for Ford. I don't see anything new. I have yet to see an ad for the Taurus on TV.
The new F150 ad campaign is non existent. And if it doesn't improve on MPG they won't sell many with fuel prices the way they are.

 

Volvo is still a Ford-owned luxury (or near-luxury) brand in Europe, so its not like Ford is out of that market. Volvo makes money, the British brands were a money pit that Ford could ill afford. I hope Alan takes the money to make Lincoln into a real luxury brand instead of what is has become due to corporate neglect. With the death of the Panther platform, he had better move fast. Rebadged Fords wont do it.

Jim