CNN article here (http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/24/news/companies/ford/index.htm?postversion=2008072407&eref=rss_topstories).

Lol, is that really you in your avatar??

Anyhoo, that's a lot of money to be lost and it's sad to see some hard working people get bought out at those plants. Hopefully, reviving the Mercury nameplate and bringing in those six Euro models will definitely raise a few eyebrows.

but they are also bringing over the euro foci in 2010 since the majority of the US auto industry gambled heavily with suv's and trucks and are now losing big time the foreign car companies have been making smaller cars for years and it wouldn't be surprising for one of them to over take the top sales spot in the US. It will take the US side at least 23 years to shift their lineups around

Yeah, that's me. I needed a studio shot to look "artsy" for a writing project of mine.

Yesterday, on the commuter train, I sat beside a woman from Texas. "With the price of gas what it is," she said, "everyone in Texas is selling their pickup truck."
"To whom???" I asked.
"That's the problem," she replied.

When Ford's new president came aboard--the guy from Boeing--an insightful friend of mine said, "If he's smart, he'll form a tiger team that will figure out how to bring Ford's European small cars to North America, quickly." It took $4/gallon gas to make him smart.

Both of those comments were hilarious [hihi]

the bread and butter for ford is the f-150 until they start rolling out the euro cars over here they will either break even or be in the red.

I'll only be happy if They finally bring the RS Here... The US needs to know that bigger isn't alway better... but it id hard as HELL to move a king size boxspring and mattress on top of a FoFo. Looks kinda funny, too!

the bread and butter for ford is the f-150 until they start rolling out the euro cars over here they will either break even or be in the red.

was
the F-150. Ford's bread and butter has become toast.

^^^^lol

The sad part is that it was pretty easy to see the writing on the wall five years ago. Toyota and Honda saw it.

I just heard a discussion on NPR about this issue, and how the big 3 (really more like the mid-size 2 at this point) have a horrible time with forward thinking because they're too tied to their quarterly earnings. They had an "If it aint broke.. don't fix it" mentality. That's bad in an industry where R&D for a new car takes years. They sure were caught with their pants down because of it.

They're REACTIONARY more than they are PROACTIONARY... to slip in some corporatespeak.

The American way of thinking about these things is going to change. Most people don't really need that large pickup in the drive-way. You can rent trucks for occasional hauling stuff. You can have things delivered. That big truck you now own can just sit there because you'll have to almost give it away right now. I doubt most dealers will be taking them in trade much longer....their lots are full of the things.

As far as I'm concerned a large number of heads should roll at Ford and other US manufacturers. The hand-writing has been on the wall for a long time....

go figure....knew it was coming.

its a shame, ford had a chance to do something, as with gm, to bad they didnt think about future gas sales, which we all knew only go up..........

Lots of interesting details starting at slide 33

http://www.ford.com/doc/ir_20080724_2q08_earnings.pdf

* 2010MY Taurus (intro mid-2009) will have V6 EcoBoost

* 2010MY Licoln CUV (MKT, intro mid-2009) will have V6 EcoBoost (7 pax rebadged Flex)

* NO I4 ECOBOOST ANYTHING UNTIL 2010CY (i.e. 2011MY)

* New Focus in 2010 (2011MY) 4 door and 5 door only

* New Explorer in 2010 (2011MY)

* New small car in 2010 (2011MY; in addition to Fiesta and Focus) Maybe Focus CC, probably refers to C-Max

* New small Mercury in 2010 (2011MY) My guess Capri
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/220956/reborn_capri.html

* MTP shutdown in December of 2008; resume production 2010 (I heard to build C-Max and Kuga)

* 4 van platforms (E-Series, E-Series Super duty, Transit FWD and RWD) to merge to 1 (likely Transit RWD)

* CD3, CD3-2 and EUCD to merge to 1 platform. (Fusion merges with Mondeo MY2012)

Fiesta variants confirmed for N.A. 4 door and 5 door only.

^^^^lol

The sad part is that it was pretty easy to see the writing on the wall five years ago. Toyota and Honda saw it.

I just heard a discussion on NPR about this issue, and how the big 3 (really more like the mid-size 2 at this point) have a horrible time with forward thinking because they're too tied to their quarterly earnings. They had an "If it aint broke.. don't fix it" mentality. That's bad in an industry where R&D for a new car takes years. They sure were caught with their pants down because of it.

They're REACTIONARY more than they are PROACTIONARY... to slip in some corporatespeak. I'm not so sure on that. Toyota was pushing the Tundra hard and if they really thought the market would flip like it did, as fast as it did, they wouldn't have tried so hard beat the F-150. They would have let Ford choke on it.

The problem with the Big 3 was that they made the decision back in the '90s to largely cede the car market to the Japanese, where profits were low, and concentrate on Trucks and SUVs, where there was more money to be made. At the time, who would blame them. Why invest in a car that you made $500 profit per vehicle, when an SUV gave you a profit of $10K per vehicle?

was
the F-150. Ford's bread and butter has become toast.


indeed, [cheers]
the truck and SUV market isn't dead, were now seeing the market correcting itself they will still be around but companies will not be able to bank on them for huge $$$ as mentioned the import mfg's knew this was going to be the case and focused their attention to smaller efficient cars

I heard about this on the news this morning...well we have all been hearing about this for a while. Anyway, I think the good news in all of this is that Ford has an established line of cars that should sell and they can make a profit. Kind of takes the guess work out of it. Still, I liked knowing that if I bought a car the manufacture would only make a grand, unlike their trucks. Now it looks like we will be given them more in profit for the car. Good for them we just won’t get as much when we buy a car.

bout damn time..

I just hope that they bring the rs over even thought it will prolly cost more than a mustang to start. Maybe we will finally see a 4 cyl diesel coming soon or atleast something better than the garbage they have been puking out lately. I work for a gm dealer and it's funny because even though of the gas prices people still won't even look at the g5's we have 3 or 4 that have been sitting since last year, and it was close to a year to sell the last 07 g5 we had.

black&tan, you are right on. The future of the automotive industry is hybrid technology and/or alternative fuels and efficient assembly plants to maximize profits, plain and simple; the American car companies just didn't see it like Toyota and Honda did. Of course all of the car companies knew that the market was shifting... you don't think they employ some of the top economists in the world?

The American car companies focused on the wants of Americans, which is the potential bank-breaking gas-guzzler, not the needs of Americans which is simply something affordable that will do the job and will never break the bank.

GM is failing because their CEO Wagoner, is an idiot. He acquired Hummer (like an idiot would), and just started vigorously pushing developing the company's first production hybrid a couple of years ago (the Chevy Volt). The volt is sure to be a winner mechanically, but will have a sticker of over $40,000, likely due to the money dumped into the project for quick-development, and plants that still use the same technology that they did in the 60's.

Ford is a follower in the market, and Daimler is a whole different story.

Japanese companies acquiring American companies? Not in the near future. Government subsidizing the major American car companies? Likely.

i definitely did see a euro focus at a ford plant in sterling heights that i had to go to help a mechanic service a semi-truck trailer.. i wanted to go over and look at it but i did not want to get yelled at by some security person

I would love to see a focus hybrid , its will be interesting to see which euro focus they bring over

no focus hybrid those things are dangerous. i know where there is a 4 year old prius near my house (at my g/fs dads shop) it needs 7k in batteries and charging system work. toyota wont cover it because its past the 3/36 they offered back then. kinda sucks if you ask me. now the big question is what will those batteries go to be disposed.

I'm anti-hybrid myself, but pro diesel. I hope we soon see the Focus diesel, or even a Fusion diesel.

The worldwide move will benefit Ford in the long run. Already, Ford makes money everywhere but in the US. The very first year that they lost money, they should have realized what the problems were. Most likely they did, but the speed of corporations moves slower than the speed of government.

same here i would be all over a diesel focus. 100k and its broke in 500k+ out of the motor (provided for doesnt go back to international to build it)

from the link that ghiafan posted above. Ford NA plans to be 100% aligned with Ford EUR by 2013 in the B,C,C/D and Commercial Van segments. I would be surprised if Ford brought any of the Euro performance models over. When I was working at the dealership I was able to attend a sales meeting with a very high person in Ford (Can't remember his name) and I asked about the RS and what not. He said it's unlikely because the Mustang Ideally is to be the best performer in Ford. If the RS came over they would have to increase what the Stang can do and resulting in driving up the price and losing sales.

Well didnt they just come out with some new SUV? I saw it at the dealer on the way home, not sure if it was a ford or not, but it looked new. I still cant belive it has taken them this much time to realize people dont want a vehical that only can get in the mid to high teens as far as MPG's go(it has after all been 3 years since gas prices spiked up I belive), but would rather have a smaller car that gets close to thirty.

everyone should know by now we wont get a rs or an st, its possible for st, but no rs, ford doesnt want to lose the mustang crowd to a focus, as a result of a rs in the states, the mustang would need atleast 100+more hp, and that would result in a high 30s to 40 thousand dollar stang, and ppl buy the stang cuz its cheap, good hp and its americas pony car. bring over the rs and keep mustang alone, ppl are gonna test em both and buy the rs cuz its faster, and say its 30k, same price, and gets better mpgs so i doubt itll happen. and if it does, very limited numbers.

i just wanna see some small 1.3 1.5 liter diesel boosted cars to hit the market

black&tan, you are right on. The future of the automotive industry is hybrid technology and/or alternative fuels and efficient assembly plants to maximize profits, plain and simple; the American car companies just didn't see it like Toyota and Honda did. Of course all of the car companies knew that the market was shifting... you don't think they employ some of the top economists in the world?

The American car companies focused on the wants of Americans, which is the potential bank-breaking gas-guzzler, not the needs of Americans which is simply something affordable that will do the job and will never break the bank.

GM is failing because their CEO Wagoner, is an idiot. He acquired Hummer (like an idiot would), and just started vigorously pushing developing the company's first production hybrid a couple of years ago (the Chevy Volt). The volt is sure to be a winner mechanically, but will have a sticker of over $40,000, likely due to the money dumped into the project for quick-development, and plants that still use the same technology that they did in the 60's.

Ford is a follower in the market, and Daimler is a whole different story.

Japanese companies acquiring American companies? Not in the near future. Government subsidizing the major American car companies? Likely.
Well, it's a lot easier to replace 100 people with a robot when you don't have a union to answer to, right? And that's not to say, blame it all on the union, but the situation is not as simple as you are making it out to be either.

The last I checked, in a capitalist society, the market dictates to the business what products it wants and the business responds by making that product. So, yes, Americans wanted SUVs and the car companies, including Toyota and Honda, provided them. The difference is Ford, GM and Chrysler shifted too much of their focus to those SUVs and largely abandoned the car market. They forgot that Americans can and will change their minds on a dime. So, when the market began to flip they didn't have as good a product as their Japanese counterparts to provide and because it takes time to develop and produce cars, they were left one footed.

In addition, don't forget that a lot of companies were under intense pressure to increase their stock price. Well, if you want to make people buy your stock you can either do as Enron did and cook the books or you can go out and make more profits and that's what they did. Nobody was criticizing them when the good times were rolling, when gas was $1.25 a gallon and they couldn't keep an SUV on the lot. During the '90s and most of the '00s, total sales of cars versus trucks and SUVs were going down year after year and in 2004 the total of new vehicles that were cars sales fell below 50% for the first time, remember that?

Not even Toyota thought the market would flip back to cars as fast as it's doing. How do I know? Because Toyota sales were down just like everyone else, but why? Because they didn't have enough cars to meet demand.

article here (http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/01/news/companies/general_motors/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories).
Now I feel much better. [lockdance]

article here (http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/01/news/companies/general_motors/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories).
Now I feel much better. [lockdance]


I am afraid that's it only going to get worse before it gets better for GM

bring over the rs and keep mustang alone, ppl are gonna test em both and buy the rs cuz its faster, and say its 30k, same price, and gets better mpgs so i doubt itll happen. and if it does, very limited numbers.

People need to get back into reality...that won't happen and this has been beatin to death. Please think logically people when considering this. The focus and mustang are two different cars, only a small number of people would choose and rs over a mustang just on the basis that it is faster, it would not hurt sales at all. So honestly people stop with this rediculous talk...sorry its been beatin so much over the years. The mustang is an icon, its a legend, it has a super standing name, and its loved by all around the world. Yea the focus has some of those but its a different car. I'm sorry but not everyone just buys a car for the sake of ones faster then another, honestly most people don't even consider that. The mustang still outsold the camaro etc right...even though its competion had way more power and were faster. If your point was the case then people would of forgot the mustang and went and bought a camaro or something. Not to mention the focus and an rs focus, its totally different then a mustang. Someone going to buy a rwd v8 big engine 2 door mustang....is not going to buy a, what most people think looks "goofy", focus. Also, an ST focus would cost below 25k it can't cost more cause it has to be close to competition, and RS focus would be high 20s, but still under 30k. The mustang, is getting more power as well, especially now that the camaro is coming out and its v6 is gonna have the same power as the mustang GT...so Ford will definitly be pumping up the power in both the GT and the V6...making plenty of performance room for a focus rs. But like I said, someone who wants a mustang is not going to walk into a Ford dealership and be like oh shit the focus is just as fast gets better gas mileage and is alittle more practical...im getting that instead. It wont happen, maybe with young teenage drivers who all they think about is how fast a car goes.

The reason we have no performance focus yet is because old management saw no market for it, cause they were dumb, but also many people in this country didnt care for small efficient sport compacts. Not until recently with gas crisis. You gotta remeber it takes time for things to come here and change, the companies just started retooling factories and canceling production on many trucks and suvs. Also government restrictions are holding back the companys, specifically ford, from bringing over their european products...which are expected to arrive during the next 3 years. Now that people are flocking towards small efficient cars, we will see more sport compacts like the focus st and the rs. Mazda is coming out with the redesigned 3 soon. The MS3 is not dead, and the next one will be adopting the 5 cly turbo from the Focus ST and the RS...which makes me feel even better that we will see a focus varient in the states with this engine.

The last I checked, in a capitalist society, the market dictates to the business what products it wants and the business responds by making that product....

In addition, don't forget that a lot of companies were under intense pressure to increase their stock price. Well, if you want to make people buy your stock you can either do as Enron did and cook the books or you can go out and make more profits and that's what they did. Nobody was criticizing them when the good times were rolling, when gas was $1.25 a gallon and they couldn't keep an SUV on the lot. During the '90s and most of the '00s, total sales of cars versus trucks and SUVs were going down year after year and in 2004 the total of new vehicles that were cars sales fell below 50% for the first time, remember that?

Not even Toyota thought the market would flip back to cars as fast as it's doing. How do I know? Because Toyota sales were down just like everyone else, but why? Because they didn't have enough cars to meet demand.

Part of making money in business is to try to correctly anticipate market forces, or at the least "hedge your bets".

There were analysts criticizing the big three's over-reliance on trucks and SUV's back in the 90's and early 2000's.

Yes, Toyota was producing big pickups and competing for the F150... the difference is that they kept innovating in their small car lineup. Toyota and Honda anticipated an end to the SUV era and built a line of cars for it. True, they couldn't keep up with production when the market shifted, but they were MUCH better positioned than Ford or GM. It's a lot easier to ramp up production of an existing model than to design and build a new one from scratch.

Yes, dealing with unions is hard. But i'm also tired of hearing management blame it all on the unions. They made some very bad decisions and were just plain outmaneuvered by their competitors in terms of their product line, and now they're paying for it.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time. Oil is a limited resource that is volatile. Alternative energy sources and conservation of existing oil reserves are a necessity.

I dunno, whenever I hear the argument, "There is/was no market for it," I'm reminded of how my wife didn't want me to get the girls multispeed bikes because, "They don't even ride their one-speeds." Um, maybe they don't ride because the bikes are one-speeds.

"Why should we try to sell something decent when the consumer won't even buy our crap?" Maybe because it's crap.

I called this a long time ago. Ford and a lot of other companies in the past few years put way too much time into their truck production. I really new GM was going down hill when I see Escalade prices nearly cut in half and now ford is giving $12,000 rebates on F-150's. I had an 03 Ford Sport Trac when they came out. Had it for 2 years. Traded it in for my SVT. I have to say that it was the best thing I ever did automobile wise. Things will only get worse. Latest news, Bennigans closing stores nation wide along with Starbucks closing many locations. Get ready for higher taxes due to unemployment.

And tough times should require quick reactions. This article by John McElroy gives a very good option for something fast. Check it out.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/31/autoline-on-autoblog-with-john-mcelroy/

"Every day Chrysler LLC builds Euro-spec versions of the Chrysler 300 at its assembly plant in Canada, bolts a V6 diesel engine into most of them, and ships them off to Europe. That diesel 300 gets better fuel economy, over 30 mpg, than all the other vehicles in Chrysler's U.S. showrooms. But it's against the law for Chrysler to sell that car in America.

Right now Ford and General Motors are trying to figure out how to bring many of their fuel-efficient European models to the U.S. and manufacture them here. They'd love to do it immediately, but it will take them several years to modify, test and validate those designs before they can meet U.S. regulations. Until they do, it's illegal to sell those cars in America.

Anybody else out there agree with me that this is crazy? Let's let automakers bring their fuel efficient European cars over here immediately. As long as a car meets the Euro 5 emission regulations and the latest European NCAP safety standards, we ought to let them build those vehicles in the U.S. with no other modifications.

John McElroy is host of the TV program "Autoline Detroit". Every week he brings his unique insights as an auto industry insider to Autoblog readers. Follow the jump to continue reading this week's editorial.

Those European standards are extremely stringent. It's not as if we'd be allowing smog-spewing death traps to show up on our shores. In fact, there would be virtually no increase in traffic fatalities, nor any measurable increase in air pollution.

But even though U.S. and European emissions and safety standards are awfully close, it takes a lot of time and effort to get a car to comply with either one. It's not as bad if a car were designed from scratch to meet both standards, but if you have to go back and modify an existing European design to meet U.S. standards, it takes a lot more effort than most people realize.

To make this politically palatable I'd make this a temporary freeze, where any automaker would be given a 5-year window to bring Euro-spec vehicles here. After that, those cars would have to meet whatever U.S. standards are on the books. And they would have to be built in North America-no fair importing them (not that they want to considering the dollar/euro exchange, but this would placate the unions).

And there's a precedent for this. Back in 1980 then-President Jimmy Carter froze certain emission and safety standards to give automakers some breathing room as they struggled to re-tool their line-ups to deal with the oil crisis of that day. Guess what? We all survived that temporary freeze.

Moreover, I'm told that Mexico will allow automakers to sell any vehicle there as long as they meet U.S. or European standards. So if we did a similar sort of thing maybe it would help push the industry towards the common international standard that it's been begging for, for years.

The beauty of this idea is that it would not involve any taxpayer money, no corporate welfare, or any complex scheme to regulate at all. It would instantly give consumers many more choices, immediately help the United States reduce its dependence on oil, and promptly provide the domestic industry with some of the assistance it desperately needs."

-If you agree with this, and I don't see why people shouldn't, look up and email your Congressmen and women here:

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Here's to hoping we can buy one of these someday in the US.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03/04/geneva-08-ford-fiesta-econetic-under-100g-km-of-co-sub-2-sub/

The Ford Kuga?

But we already have that here:

http://z.about.com/d/cars/1/7/j/n/2000_mercury_cougar.jpg

lawl

I want the Ford Falcon though.

According to USA Today, GM lost $15.5 billion in the second quarter.