Kazoomaloo and Ford's Best Day Ever

I was going to email TTAC commentator kazoomaloo to tell him I’d deleted his TTAC flame (“Dude, this is a pretty lame story”) when I clicked on his web addy instead of his email. I stumbled upon his pitch for a Ford Fiesta, as part of FoMoCo’s early adopter contest. I thought it worth sharing here because A) I like it and B) I’m showing the red card (or is that green card) for his assertion that the Fiesta is American. Hecho en Mexico, amigo. Moving on—I mean forward [ED. Fordward?]—I mean ahead, it’s the best day ever for Ford. CBS News is blowing some serious smoke up America’s @$$ regarding Ford’s relative health. Today, Ford received top billing as part one of The Morning Show’s weeklong series, “Early Across America,” featuring stories of “hope and optimism amid all the economic gloom sweeping the nation.” You can’t buy publicity like this. Oh wait . . . Anyway, there’s more!

“If you’re looking for that tiny glimmer of hope amid all the economic doom,” says Smith, “the place to find it might be at the gleaming, green, state-of-the-art Ford truck plant in Dearborn, Mich. It has three shifts are working 24 four hours a day, seven days a week, turning out Ford F 150 pickup trucks.

“Every single truck has been spoken for,” Smith continued. “A buyer or dealer wants it, which basically means it has a ‘sold’ sign on it”

Did we forget that February F-Series sales fell from last year’s 52,548 to this year’s 23,614? Yes, we did. So, production cutback, excellent. Sales? Not so hot. (Trivia question: which F-150 plant lost out?) Never mind. A good news story is like a steamroller: fact squishing is just how it rolls.

What follows is the usual Mulally hagiography: outsider comes in, kicks ass, and stays away from the needle—I mean, arranges but doesn’t mainline federal bailout bucks. And so I’ll end with my usual lament: until Ford picks ONE unique selling point, they’re doomed. And they haven’t. So they are.

“What we decided,” he said to [Early Show co-anchor Harry] Smith, “was that we’re going to be in every market, we’re going to go back to our roots and focus on Ford. … We’re going to have small, medium and large vehicles, cars, utilities and trucks. We also decided we’re going to be best-in-class in quality and fuel efficiency and safety, and also offer the best value.”

Ford wants to be known for quality, fuel-efficiency, safety and value for small, medium and large cars, utilities and trucks. Good luck with that.