What Happened? With the dawn of the new century, legacy healthcare costs, higher fuel prices, and a faltering economy led to falling market shares, declining sales, and sliding profit margins. Most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through Ford Motor Credit Company. By 2005, corporate bond rating agencies had downgraded the bonds of both Ford and GM to junk status, citing high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce, soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and dependence on declining SUV sales for revenues. Profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased "incentives" (in the form of rebates or low interest financing) to offset declining demand. The automaker reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $12.7 billion, and estimated that it would not return to profitability until 2009. However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $750 million profit. Despite the gains, the company finished the year with a $2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo. What are they doing? In the face of falling truck and SUV sales, Ford moved to introduce a range of new vehicles, including "Crossover SUVs" built on unibody car platforms, rather than body-on-frame truck chassis. Ford also developed alternative fuel and high efficiency vehicles, such as the Escape Hybrid. Ford announced that it will team up with Southern California Edison (SCE) to examine the future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid. Under the multi-million-dollar, multi-year project, Ford will convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE will evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility's electrical grid. Some of the vehicles will be evaluated "in typical customer settings," according to Ford. In March 2008, Ford announced that it has reached agreement to sell its Jaguar Land Rover operations to Tata Motors for $2.3 billion. The sale is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008. It is understood that Ford Motor Company Ltd. will not retain any shareholding in either the Jaguar or Land-Rover companies, unlike Aston Martin where on its sale a small shareholding was retained; when the total sum to be paid in cash by Tata Motors of approximately US $ 2.3 billion, Ford will then contribute up to US $600 million to the Jaguar Land Rover pension plans. In January of 2008, Ford launched a website listing the 10 Built Ford Tough Rules as well as a series of webisodes that parodies the show COPS (TV Series). In the latter half of 2005, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly-appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the Plan, dubbed The Way Forward, at the December 7, 2005 board meeting of the company; and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2006. "The Way Forward" includes resizing the company to match current market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, and shutting fourteen factories and cutting 30,000 jobs. Above cited from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company (keeping in mind the fluid nature of this website and its propensity for "change") What would you do? I'll be honest and say that except for Mustangs, I have never been a big Ford (or for that matter the Big Three) fan, I have owned an Escort and it was of poor quality, I have seen a Probe and it was of poor quality. Having said that, it is my belief that Fords current push towards alternative fuel, flex fuel, and fuel cells may be their key (pushing away the image as being the 7th world corporate polluter [U of Mass study), plus cleaning up their standards in manufacturing and looking more "green" might be the way to go. Emphasis on their Truck line, Muscle Cars and perhaps less emphasis on Mercury (in fact get rid of it), push for tradition with the brand and try to hold on to "loyal" generational Ford owners, and hope that it captures the younger market (lets face it, except for Mustangs, its an older market with younger buyers more interested in cheaper cars or first time cheap cars). In a lot of countries, Ford has not fared well (overall) and perhaps learning to market their vehicles better to tailor the country they are in is in order
WHAT HAPPENED? To sum it up...poor engineering design, not staying on top of the competition and management shakeup. Ford was caught off guard by the quality and popularity of the Japanese import cars and the VW Bug. Poor engineering with the examples of: 1. Pinto: manufactured too quickly to compete, which left it with design flaws where the gas tank would explode upon rear end collision. 2. Mustang II: more design flaws which caused the gas tank to explode upon impact (more than the Pinto). This model was inferior to the former Mustang I model. 3. Ford Explorer: another engineering design flaw which caused tires to explode and cause rollover accidents. These were recalled in 2001 and 2003. 4. Ford's most profitable line (F150 truck, Expedition, Bronco and Lincoln Navigator) self-ignited while parked.
Ford denied there were any problems in any of these cases.
Ref: www.stolenthunder.blogspot.com
WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
Ford started to resize the company to compete with current market realities, stopped producing unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidated production lines, eliminated duplicate engineering and purchasing teams, reducing model complexity, shut down 14 factories, eliminated 30,000 jobs, sold Hertz Rent-A-Car, Jaguar and Land Rover, while retaining stake in Aston Martin, Volvo and Mazda. Keeping the umbrella of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lines.
Ref: www.wikipedia.com
Ford was the first to introduce two new features in the 2009 models of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury as standard equipment to aid driver's visibility: Blind Spot Mirror and Cross Traffic Alert with Blind Spot Monitoring (radar based to help with backing up).
Invested $130 million to improve quality and upgrades to introduce the new redesigned small car Focus with SYNCtm technology (hands-free, voice-activated-in-car communication which integrates Bluetooth enabled phones and digital music players. Increased fuel efficiency to 35 mpg.
Ford is using virtual manufacturing technology to improve quality 1) digital tools to predict/eliminate on-the-job injuries, 2) advanced motion capture technology to design jobs that are more ergonomic to workers, 3) program team builds the cards virtually before the parts are produced and the prototype is built, which impacts cost savings and quality improvements and less manufacturing feasibility issues.
Other things Ford is doing is investing $10 million to expand the Vietnam plant. Reducing to one-shift operations at 3 American plants. Offering hourly workforce early retirement packages and enhanced buyouts. They are reducing water and energy consumption. Ford introduced the Ford Shelby GT500KR to be on remake TV show Knight Rider. They have a new marketing campaign "Town-to-Town, Friend-to-Friend" asking competitive vehicle owners to drive the 2008 Edge for a week and then pass it on to a friend to drive. Ford is putting their 2008 Focus on the reality TV show "Car Wars with Funkmaster Flex" where the car will be customized. They have a goal of putting EcoBoost engines in 500,000 vehicles annually by 2013 to increase their competitiveness in the fuel efficiency market. Introduced the 2008 LE "Warriors in Pink" Mustang to raise money for breast cancer and will continue with a 2009 model. They offer incentives for College Students, Military, Expatriates, and Diplomats while giving cash back incentives from $1,500 to $3,000. Currently Ford offers 4 cars, 2 crossovers, 5 SUVs and 6 Trucks/Van. In 2009 they will offer 1 more crossover vehicle (FLEX) and 1 more truck (F-150-2).
Ref: www.ford.com
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
I think Ford should continue with the forward thinking and investment in the areas of design/engineering that they seem to have shown recently with the EcoBoost engines, blind spot mirrors, cross traffic alert, SYNC technology, but probably should accelerate their plan to more of their line. With the current global conditions, they need to make more of their vehicles, not just the cars, more fuel efficient and lower emissions to decrease CO2 levels. They need to target Generation Y, which have no loyalty to a specific brand, but are more environmentally conscious, but need a new look and name just for their generation. I would decrease the amount of SUV's in their line of products. Need to standardize truck features on all lines.
What happened? Ford has been making lemons for a while. Probably because of poor craftsmanship, but I didn’t find a lot on older Ford vehicles. During the mid to late 1990s, A large number of Ford Vehicles were sold, with Americas booming economy, soaring stock market, and low fuel prices. With the dawn of the new century, legacy healthcare costs, higher fuel prices, and a faltering economy led to falling market shares, declining sales, and sliding profit margins. Most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through Ford. By 2005, corporate bond rating agencies had downgraded the bonds of both Ford and General Motors to junk status, citing high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce, soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and dependence on declining SUV sales for revenues. Profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased "incentives" (in the form of rebates or low interest financing) to offset declining demand.
What they are doing: In the latter half of 2005, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly-appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the Plan, dubbed The Way Forward, at the December 7, 2005 board meeting of the company; and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2006. "The Way Forward" includes resizing the company to match current market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, and shutting fourteen factories and cutting 30,000 jobs. These cutbacks are consistent with Ford's roughly 25% decline in U.S. automotive market share since the mid-late 1990s. Ford's target is to become profitable again in 2009, a year later than projected. Ford's realignment also includes the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Hertz Rent-a-Car to a private equity group for $15 billion in cash and debt acquisition. The sale was completed on December 22, 2005. A joint venture with Mahindra and Mahindra Limited of India ended with the sale of Ford's 15 percent stake in 2005. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ford also became President of the company in April 2006, with the retirement of Jim Padilla. Five months later, in September, he stepped down as President and CEO, and naming Alan Mulally as his successor. Bill Ford continues as Executive Chairman, along with an executive operating committee made up of Mulally, Mark Schulz, Lewis Booth, Don Leclair, and Mark Fields. Unfortunately, ford still is having problems. The worst year Ford Focus to get is a 2000. The current years Focus’s have a problem with the key not fitting in the ignition, or not turning. Ford trucks and SUV’s have a problem with the spark plugs being ejected from the engine. Another problem is the Explorer, which has transmission problems. When Ford has a problem with their vehicle, their action plan doesn’t seem to help much or provide customer satisfaction. Many customers complain of a problem and they do a small recall, sometimes not including certain customers’ cars, to not loose more money.
What should be done? Obviously there are people that hate Ford and want it to disappear, but there are also people who like Ford, because Ford is still selling vehicles. I have a Ford car, and haven’t had too many problems with it (knock on wood). I think Ford just needs to manufacture better, and test the cars longer.
what happened? Ford went from being poor to desperate and all the models are having problems. The ford escape has airbag problems and the ford focus has had accounts of cars catching on fire. The makers of the new cars are not realizing just how much they are putting people in danger. ford is suppose to be reliable and dependable, but lately they are unreliable and uneconomical not to mention dangerous. what are they doing? They are trying to make new cars faster that are the same as a car they have already produced. But more dangerous. They are trying to get out of the rut that they are stuck in. what should they do? In my opinion I enjoy the ford cars and trucks. The things that i think they should change would be to stop making all these new cars. Just stick with the old cars but try to improve them for the new times. Not to mention try to make them economical. They would probably make more money if they would focus on their cars then maybe the business wouldn't suffer.
jeremy erickson/ I'll give a opinion on ford companies,and their vehicles that so many people enjoyed an loved. What is happening to the market mix,and globalization to any out-standing product today there becoming extinct to a ever-changing society. Like most companies here and world wide,they want perfect product,price,and promotion's. The best way to argue the point is to maintain a good rapport, be open-minded, good judgment, and the williingess to get involved. If I were to change this ,an use my judgement , I would let everybody know that technological advances are the mainstream of society today, Lets keep what we should have done an let it ride,don't stop it the future for us is nothing but a mainstring of w-connections,with no tree to climb in!!!
Between bad engineering, oil prices, and the tire recall, people just stopped buying Ford. No one's going to buy a car that might blow up on them.
What are they doing?
The released "The Way Forward" where they announced that they were closing down 14 plants and laying off 30,000 people. They're trying to come back by offering Hybrid vehicles, better engines, better quality, and fun features like Sync.
What should they do?
I think the world is going more "green". As long as they keep going Hybrid and don't get rid of the Mustang, they'll be fine.
I think the world is going more "green". As long as they keep going Hybrid and don't get rid of the Mustang, they'll be fine.
WHAT ARE THEY DOING? Ford started to resize the company to compete with current market realities, stopped producing unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidated production lines, eliminated duplicate engineering and purchasing teams, reducing model complexity, shut down 14 factories, eliminated 30,000 jobs, sold Hertz Rent-A-Car, Jaguar and Land Rover, while retaining stake in Aston Martin, Volvo and Mazda. Keeping the umbrella of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lines.
what should they do? In my opinion I enjoy the ford cars and trucks. The things that i think they should change would be to stop making all these new cars. Just stick with the old cars but try to improve them for the new times. Not to mention try to make them economical. They would probably make more money if they would focus on their cars then maybe the business wouldn't suffer.
E Parnell I think Ford was too comfortable in their market and did not realize the consumers of today have many more choices and are not bound to buy American if the quality is not comparable with imports. Bottom-line Ford fell behind the curve and is now struggling to catch up, but their reputation has suffered and they have lost a portion of their market share to the competition. I have to ask are American car manufacturers really going to be competitive in the market place when they know Uncle Sam will bail them out of their financial difficulties. What ever happened to survival of the fittest in the market place?
8 comments:
What Happened?
With the dawn of the new century, legacy healthcare costs, higher fuel prices, and a faltering economy led to falling market shares, declining sales, and sliding profit margins. Most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through Ford Motor Credit Company.
By 2005, corporate bond rating agencies had downgraded the bonds of both Ford and GM to junk status, citing high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce, soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and dependence on declining SUV sales for revenues. Profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased "incentives" (in the form of rebates or low interest financing) to offset declining demand.
The automaker reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $12.7 billion, and estimated that it would not return to profitability until 2009. However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $750 million profit. Despite the gains, the company finished the year with a $2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo.
What are they doing?
In the face of falling truck and SUV sales, Ford moved to introduce a range of new vehicles, including "Crossover SUVs" built on unibody car platforms, rather than body-on-frame truck chassis. Ford also developed alternative fuel and high efficiency vehicles, such as the Escape Hybrid. Ford announced that it will team up with Southern California Edison (SCE) to examine the future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid. Under the multi-million-dollar, multi-year project, Ford will convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE will evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility's electrical grid. Some of the vehicles will be evaluated "in typical customer settings," according to Ford.
In March 2008, Ford announced that it has reached agreement to sell its Jaguar Land Rover operations to Tata Motors for $2.3 billion. The sale is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008. It is understood that Ford Motor Company Ltd. will not retain any shareholding in either the Jaguar or Land-Rover companies, unlike Aston Martin where on its sale a small shareholding was retained; when the total sum to be paid in cash by Tata Motors of approximately US $ 2.3 billion, Ford will then contribute up to US $600 million to the Jaguar Land Rover pension plans.
In January of 2008, Ford launched a website listing the 10 Built Ford Tough Rules as well as a series of webisodes that parodies the show COPS (TV Series).
In the latter half of 2005, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly-appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the Plan, dubbed The Way Forward, at the December 7, 2005 board meeting of the company; and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2006. "The Way Forward" includes resizing the company to match current market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, and shutting fourteen factories and cutting 30,000 jobs.
Above cited from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company (keeping in mind the fluid nature of this website and its propensity for "change")
What would you do?
I'll be honest and say that except for Mustangs, I have never been a big Ford (or for that matter the Big Three) fan, I have owned an Escort and it was of poor quality, I have seen a Probe and it was of poor quality. Having said that, it is my belief that Fords current push towards alternative fuel, flex fuel, and fuel cells may be their key (pushing away the image as being the 7th world corporate polluter [U of Mass study), plus cleaning up their standards in manufacturing and looking more "green" might be the way to go. Emphasis on their Truck line, Muscle Cars and perhaps less emphasis on Mercury (in fact get rid of it), push for tradition with the brand and try to hold on to "loyal" generational Ford owners, and hope that it captures the younger market (lets face it, except for Mustangs, its an older market with younger buyers more interested in cheaper cars or first time cheap cars). In a lot of countries, Ford has not fared well (overall) and perhaps learning to market their vehicles better to tailor the country they are in is in order
WHAT HAPPENED?
To sum it up...poor engineering design, not staying on top of the competition and management shakeup. Ford was caught off guard by the quality and popularity of the Japanese import cars and the VW Bug. Poor engineering with the examples of:
1. Pinto: manufactured too quickly to compete, which left it with design flaws where the gas tank would explode upon rear end collision.
2. Mustang II: more design flaws which caused the gas tank to explode upon impact (more than the Pinto). This model was inferior to the former Mustang I model.
3. Ford Explorer: another engineering design flaw which caused tires to explode and cause rollover accidents. These were recalled in 2001 and 2003.
4. Ford's most profitable line (F150 truck, Expedition, Bronco and Lincoln Navigator) self-ignited while parked.
Ford denied there were any problems in any of these cases.
Ref: www.stolenthunder.blogspot.com
WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
Ford started to resize the company to compete with current market realities, stopped producing unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidated production lines, eliminated duplicate engineering and purchasing teams, reducing model complexity, shut down 14 factories, eliminated 30,000 jobs, sold Hertz Rent-A-Car, Jaguar and Land Rover, while retaining stake in Aston Martin, Volvo and Mazda. Keeping the umbrella of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lines.
Ref: www.wikipedia.com
Ford was the first to introduce two new features in the 2009 models of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury as standard equipment to aid driver's visibility: Blind Spot Mirror and Cross Traffic Alert with Blind Spot Monitoring (radar based to help with backing up).
Invested $130 million to improve quality and upgrades to introduce the new redesigned small car Focus with SYNCtm technology (hands-free, voice-activated-in-car communication which integrates Bluetooth enabled phones and digital music players. Increased fuel efficiency to 35 mpg.
Ford is using virtual manufacturing technology to improve quality 1) digital tools to predict/eliminate on-the-job injuries, 2) advanced motion capture technology to design jobs that are more ergonomic to workers, 3) program team builds the cards virtually before the parts are produced and the prototype is built, which impacts cost savings and quality improvements and less manufacturing feasibility issues.
Other things Ford is doing is investing $10 million to expand the Vietnam plant. Reducing to one-shift operations at 3 American plants. Offering hourly workforce early retirement packages and enhanced buyouts. They are reducing water and energy consumption. Ford introduced the Ford Shelby GT500KR to be on remake TV show Knight Rider. They have a new marketing campaign "Town-to-Town, Friend-to-Friend" asking competitive vehicle owners to drive the 2008 Edge for a week and then pass it on to a friend to drive. Ford is putting their 2008 Focus on the reality TV show "Car Wars with Funkmaster Flex" where the car will be customized. They have a goal of putting EcoBoost engines in 500,000 vehicles annually by 2013 to increase their competitiveness in the fuel efficiency market. Introduced the 2008 LE "Warriors in Pink" Mustang to raise money for breast cancer and will continue with a 2009 model. They offer incentives for College Students, Military, Expatriates, and Diplomats while giving cash back incentives from $1,500 to $3,000. Currently Ford offers 4 cars, 2 crossovers, 5 SUVs and 6 Trucks/Van. In 2009 they will offer 1 more crossover vehicle (FLEX) and 1 more truck (F-150-2).
Ref: www.ford.com
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
I think Ford should continue with the forward thinking and investment in the areas of design/engineering that they seem to have shown recently with the EcoBoost engines, blind spot mirrors, cross traffic alert, SYNC technology, but probably should accelerate their plan to more of their line. With the current global conditions, they need to make more of their vehicles, not just the cars, more fuel efficient and lower emissions to decrease CO2 levels. They need to target Generation Y, which have no loyalty to a specific brand, but are more environmentally conscious, but need a new look and name just for their generation. I would decrease the amount of SUV's in their line of products. Need to standardize truck features on all lines.
What happened?
Ford has been making lemons for a while. Probably because of poor craftsmanship, but I didn’t find a lot on older Ford vehicles.
During the mid to late 1990s, A large number of Ford Vehicles were sold, with Americas booming economy, soaring stock market, and low fuel prices. With the dawn of the new century, legacy healthcare costs, higher fuel prices, and a faltering economy led to falling market shares, declining sales, and sliding profit margins. Most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through Ford.
By 2005, corporate bond rating agencies had downgraded the bonds of both Ford and General Motors to junk status, citing high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce, soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and dependence on declining SUV sales for revenues. Profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased "incentives" (in the form of rebates or low interest financing) to offset declining demand.
What they are doing:
In the latter half of 2005, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly-appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the Plan, dubbed The Way Forward, at the December 7, 2005 board meeting of the company; and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2006. "The Way Forward" includes resizing the company to match current market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, and shutting fourteen factories and cutting 30,000 jobs.
These cutbacks are consistent with Ford's roughly 25% decline in U.S. automotive market share since the mid-late 1990s. Ford's target is to become profitable again in 2009, a year later than projected. Ford's realignment also includes the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Hertz Rent-a-Car to a private equity group for $15 billion in cash and debt acquisition. The sale was completed on December 22, 2005. A joint venture with Mahindra and Mahindra Limited of India ended with the sale of Ford's 15 percent stake in 2005.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ford also became President of the company in April 2006, with the retirement of Jim Padilla. Five months later, in September, he stepped down as President and CEO, and naming Alan Mulally as his successor. Bill Ford continues as Executive Chairman, along with an executive operating committee made up of Mulally, Mark Schulz, Lewis Booth, Don Leclair, and Mark Fields.
Unfortunately, ford still is having problems. The worst year Ford Focus to get is a 2000. The current years Focus’s have a problem with the key not fitting in the ignition, or not turning. Ford trucks and SUV’s have a problem with the spark plugs being ejected from the engine. Another problem is the Explorer, which has transmission problems.
When Ford has a problem with their vehicle, their action plan doesn’t seem to help much or provide customer satisfaction. Many customers complain of a problem and they do a small recall, sometimes not including certain customers’ cars, to not loose more money.
What should be done?
Obviously there are people that hate Ford and want it to disappear, but there are also people who like Ford, because Ford is still selling vehicles. I have a Ford car, and haven’t had too many problems with it (knock on wood). I think Ford just needs to manufacture better, and test the cars longer.
Wilkepedia.com Fordproblems.com Ford-problems.com fordlemon.com
sariah Weber
what happened?
Ford went from being poor to desperate and all the models are having problems. The ford escape has airbag problems and the ford focus has had accounts of cars catching on fire. The makers of the new cars are not realizing just how much they are putting people in danger. ford is suppose to be reliable and dependable, but lately they are unreliable and uneconomical not to mention dangerous.
what are they doing?
They are trying to make new cars faster that are the same as a car they have already produced. But more dangerous. They are trying to get out of the rut that they are stuck in.
what should they do?
In my opinion I enjoy the ford cars and trucks. The things that i think they should change would be to stop making all these new cars. Just stick with the old cars but try to improve them for the new times. Not to mention try to make them economical. They would probably make more money if they would focus on their cars then maybe the business wouldn't suffer.
jeremy erickson/ I'll give a opinion on ford companies,and their vehicles that so many people enjoyed an loved. What is happening to the market mix,and globalization to any out-standing product today there becoming extinct to a ever-changing society. Like most companies here and world wide,they want perfect product,price,and promotion's. The best way to argue the point is to maintain a good rapport, be open-minded, good judgment, and the williingess to get involved. If I were to change this ,an use my judgement , I would let everybody know that technological advances are the mainstream of society today, Lets keep what we should have done an let it ride,don't stop it the future for us is nothing but a mainstring of w-connections,with no tree to climb in!!!
What happened?
Between bad engineering, oil prices, and the tire recall, people just stopped buying Ford. No one's going to buy a car that might blow up on them.
What are they doing?
The released "The Way Forward" where they announced that they were closing down 14 plants and laying off 30,000 people. They're trying to come back by offering Hybrid vehicles, better engines, better quality, and fun features like Sync.
What should they do?
I think the world is going more "green". As long as they keep going Hybrid and don't get rid of the Mustang, they'll be fine.
I think the world is going more "green". As long as they keep going Hybrid and don't get rid of the Mustang, they'll be fine.
WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
Ford started to resize the company to compete with current market realities, stopped producing unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidated production lines, eliminated duplicate engineering and purchasing teams, reducing model complexity, shut down 14 factories, eliminated 30,000 jobs, sold Hertz Rent-A-Car, Jaguar and Land Rover, while retaining stake in Aston Martin, Volvo and Mazda. Keeping the umbrella of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lines.
what should they do?
In my opinion I enjoy the ford cars and trucks. The things that i think they should change would be to stop making all these new cars. Just stick with the old cars but try to improve them for the new times. Not to mention try to make them economical. They would probably make more money if they would focus on their cars then maybe the business wouldn't suffer.
E Parnell
I think Ford was too comfortable in their market and did not realize the consumers of today have many more choices and are not bound to buy American if the quality is not comparable with imports. Bottom-line Ford fell behind the curve and is now struggling to catch up, but their reputation has suffered and they have lost a portion of their market share to the competition. I have to ask are American car manufacturers really going to be competitive in the market place when they know Uncle Sam will bail them out of their financial difficulties. What ever happened to survival of the fittest in the market place?
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