Ford posts $8.7 billion loss
Troubled automaker unveils plans to shift product line, bringing European-made vehicles to North America.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Ford Motor Co. announced plans to transform its vehicle lineup and reported a massive second-quarter loss Thursday.

Shares of the company slipped 5% in premarket trading.

The company said it will make big changes to the vehicles it sells domestically - bringing six small cars made in Europe to the North American market.

Ford said that three large truck and SUV plants in Wayne, Mich., Louisville, Ky., and Cuautitlan, Mexico would be switched over for the manufacture of small cars. Re-tooling will begin in December, the company said.

 

At least the Ranger will stick around another two years...

Eric

 

Interesting. If you go to Media.Ford.com: , you'll notice the graphic they use to illustrate their future product mix doesn't include the new F150. Even though it hasn't been released yet.

I think you can use today's date as a milestone for the time Ford stopped investing the lion's share of their North American resources on F150 development.

 

dun dun dunnn.........

 

The Superduty plant here in Louisville is also going to start producing Expys and Navi's too.

The Ranger/Sport-Trac plant here is converting to a small car.

 

Its only the largest drop in history and they will have a new Pinto out by 2012 to save the company.
Ford's future is bright for sure

 

I'm surprised the big 3 haven't pulled out of the North American market by now. they all (well, maybe except chrysler) seem to be doing much better overseas than here...

Give the american public 10 years of Yaris and Honda Element for transportation, and i can guarantee you people would beg for ford/gm/dodge to come back... I love seeing people who have no clue about cars tell me Toyotas are good cars... meanwhile they're leading the world in number of recalls...

Go figure...
http://www.leftlanenews.com/toyota-t...alf-sales.html

 

The American public has had about 30 years of Toyota, Nissan (Datsun) and Honda and the Big 2.5 market share has been dropping for about that long. My dad switched from Oldsmobile to Toyota in 1980 and never looked back. That has repeated itself millions of times since. It is much better to recall than deny there is a problem (cruise control fires, intake manifold leaks, etc.).

If Alan just expects to "wait it out" a decade for customers to return, Ford will be finished for sure. I think that is what the morons running GM and Chrysler are doing.

Jim

 

I am of the opinion that when the 2009 F150 is finally released it will likely do more harm than good for ford's future. Fuel economy is not good enough and the price is too high to take advantage of all those differnent trim levels when you consider how many potential customers could be loosing their jobs and homes in the USA. Times are changing and I hate to say I told you so, but the F150 is way more truck than what should be put in a 1/2 ton pickup platform.

Just as the land boats faded away in the late 70s, so too will these large overgrown ligh duty pickups. They may not fade away completely becuase unlike landboats, they do still serve a practical purpose, but you will see far fewer of them on the roads in the years ahead as they will probably be mainly limited to people that actually need a truck of that size.

Ford will attempt to reintroduce the fiesta in the next few years to this market, but it may be too late by then. The fiesta sells like crazy in the EU right now and is a far cry from the fiesta that we have seen here many years ago. Its a good little car.

 

I'm not anti Toyota but I'm not going to buy one either. But, when you put more vehicles on the road than any other car maker, your bound to have defects. God knows we forgive Ford for all of it's blunders.

Tim

 

they were way ahead of GM in recalls last year as well, when GM was still #1. How do you explain dem apples?

 

1. Recalls include vehicles from prior years, not just one year.
2. Recalls have very little to to with the long term dependability of a vehicle. Price a 1998 Camry or Accord compared to a 1998 Taurus or Contour, then go drive one of each and tell us about your experience.
3. Per this article, Ford recalled 3.6 million vehicles for the cruise switch alone in 2007 and 5.5 million total, compared to Toyota's total recalls at 600,000. Which of the two numbers is higher? http://ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/1...-2007-u-s.html

Your tendency to "make up" statistics like the weight of Smart Cars to suit your purposes is amazing. Do some research before you post....let's see your numbers on recalls and Smart Car weights, for a starter.

By the way, I don't like Toyotas, but have to admit that they make some long-lasting, decent cars and trucks--which is why people buy them. People who have a clue about cars even buy them...

 

The Toyota Tacoma was the only small truck to earn the agency's highest rating, Good, in side tests. The Dodge Dakota, Nissan Frontier and Ford Ranger were rated Marginal, while the Chevy Colorado earned the lowest rating, Poor.

This tells the story

 

1. That's great. However, I don't remember saying vehicles from one year. Recalls last year means recalls issued last year. Learn how to read
2. Really? Do yourself a favor. Fire up www.autotrader.com , do a search by manufacturer and select first cars with over 100k miles and then all cars; do some analysis and report back and tell us all which manufacturer has a higher percentage cars out there with over 100k miles...
3. That's nice, but I compared it with GM, not Ford. If you do wanna get into it though, I'd gladly rip your case apart. The cruise control issue has not caused any accidents or injuries yet. They burst into flames typically after the vehicle has been turned off; and it is a 21 dollar part that needs to be replaced.
Attention Atlanta & Georgia Car Owners: Ford Issues Safety Recall of 3.6 million Vehicles. No Reported Auto Accidents, Deaths, or Injuries To Date :: Georgia Law Blog
Let's take a look at toyota recalls:

1 million may lose control of steering wheel:
Toyota recalls nearly 1 million cars worldwide - Autos - MSNBC.com

533,000 may lose a wheel (accidents reported):
Toyota Recalls, Toyota recall, ball joint, Tundra, Sequoia, Toyota Recalls For Safety, Toyota Vehicle Recalls, Tundra Recalls, Sequoia recall, Tundra Recalls For Safety, Sequoia Vehicle Recalls

90,000 highlanders with deffective seatbelts:
Toyota Recalls 90,000 2008 Highlander and Highlander Hybrid SUVs Because of Child Safety Seat Belt Problems :: Product Liability Law Blog

540,000 power windows shatter (1 accident 15 injuries):
wcco.com - Toyota Recalls Model Year 2003-2004 Corolla, Matrix Cars For Power Window Problem

I'd rather push a ford than drive a toylet. Furthermore, from the autotrader research (which I'm pretty sure you won't bother with) percentage wise I'd say I have a 2x greater chance of having a reliable Ford past 100k miles than a Toyota. (to save the rest of you 20 clicks: Ford came in at 10.88% of the cars listed (50734/466124), toyota at 5.52% (14447/261521).)

Just for the fun of it:
Chevy came in at 9.43% (41152/436616)
Dodge came in at 8.27% (20085/242623)

Safe to say, we're driving the longest lasting cars and trucks on the road.


and as for the smart car:
http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/~cu...ufacturing.pdf
page 11: 1500 lbs for the european version

2008 Smart fortwo Exterior - MSN Autos
1808lbs for the US version.

Explain the 300 lbs/20% weight gain? Maybe you should do some research.

Your tendancy to claim theories like "a 300 I6 with fuel injection would get 25mpg and have 100more hp" without backup is tiresome.

 

While the tundra is the only half ton that doesn't get 5 stars front crash tests rating:
PickupTruck.Com - Updated - Tundra Falls Short in NHTSA Crash Test Ratings

I can somewhat understand the side tests in small trucks, but there should be no reason for a 5000-6000 lb truck to do poorly in a front crash test...

Safety is a big part of the reason Ford wants to shut down the Ranger... being that it's been the same since what, 1993 (?), it doesn't fair very well at all in those tests...