User Comments

1. 

   7/24/08

   aningeniousname

   Well his wife was a drinker, maybe he gambled to compensate.

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   1. 

      7/26/08

      gerryPlanetEarth

      The auto manufacturer's quarterly loss was clolser to 8.7 billion dollars...
2. 

   7/26/08

   thegoodknife

   i blame that hideous new focus! oh and gas prices? i don't know.

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3. 

   7/26/08

   polybore

   If that continues I imagine they will be bought over by a successful car manufacturer. That or close down I guess. Ford have been really slow to see the way the market is going for years. Now they pay the price.

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4. 

   7/26/08

   kdawg68

   It's multi-fold.
   
   Gas prices have caused them to have to rethink production/marketing/sales strategies. Namely it's their Truck line that has tanked, pardon the pun. THis was always the area of the N.AMerican auto-market that Ford was able to count on in terms of dominating the market.
   
   Dealings with the UAW have left them in less agile positioning than many of their overseas competitors (one of whom I should disclose I work for) in terms of production/labor costs.
   
   Bad planning as far as designs
   
   Saturating the fleet market over the years with millions of Ford Taurus vehicles - which essentially destroyed their residual values (and this was one of their major production models).
   
   Falling customer satisfaction/realiability index scores as measured by things like Consumer Reports and J.D.Power&Associates.
   
   It's a complex problem and they really have to rethink their entire business strategy from R+D, to parts, to manufacturing, to disrtibution, to advertising, to sales, etc. I think they finally get it though that it's a matter of life and death. There's going to be more bleeding before they are done, but by 2011 or so if things go right, they could right the ship.

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5. 

   7/26/08

   LGramlich

   Ford's always sucked, as far as I'm concerned, so I'm not losing any sleep over it.

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6. 

   7/26/08

   CrotchetyOldMan

   The American auto industry took major hits in the 1970's and never learned their lessons from it.
   Part of the reason was, and always has been, corporate culture.
   The CEO of GM woke up every morning, got ready for work, and was picked up in his new top of the line Caddillac limo.
   Could he even begin to understand what it was like for someone trying to keep a 5 year old Nova or Vega on the road?
   Doubtful, at best.
   Compare that with VW. How many years did the original bug last? 30 or more with relatively few changes. The car was made to be repaired. One could walk into a parts store and buy any part for any Beetle, inexpensively.
   It was a car for people, not the company.

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