Alex Taylor: Ford Says No Thanks To GM, Chrysler Offers
Long time Fortune auto industry scribe Alex Taylor III has posted an interesting story on how and why FoMoCo is staying the hell away from GM and Chrysler. GM CEO Wagoner and Chrysler CEO Nardelli are both said to have made proposals of various sorts to Ford over these past several months. When Ford says no, it is actually Ford, Bill saying no. Bill Ford is still Chairman of the board of the company and defacto representative for the Ford family shareholders and their 40 percent voting rights. Ford Motor Company is one of very few large public companies where at least some of the shareholders actually do have a powerful say in strategic decisions. Yet, Chairman Bill and CEO Alan Mullaly still have their hands full internally dealing with the politics of the once and former Ford empire: “The prospect of financial Armageddon hasn’t put an end to the palace intrigue in Dearborn.
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- Redapple2 Love the wheels
- Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
- Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
- Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
- Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”
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With all due respect, I think this is another WAR with quotes like "According to a knowledgeable source..." But here is a better quote from the story because we know the source (but not the actual name): "At a regional dealer council meeting in Florida last week, one dealer announced that Ford would not be able to continue as a manufacturer by the end of next year, and added that he expected government assistance to kick in if the company should falter. The automaker quickly moved to distance itself from the unauthorized comments." And "Its recovery plan looks a little skimpy. According to a dealer, the Lincoln-Mercury franchise will shrink to eight vehicles by 2010 - three for Mercury and five for Lincoln-- from 11 today." Ford isn't even close to being out of the woods yet.
"Ford isn’t even close to being out of the woods yet." No argument with you there.