Ford gets a Death Watch - TTAC thinks time is ticking
The Truth About Car (TTAC)'s "Death Watch" series, whose sole occupant was General Motors, now welcomes Ford Motor Co. into its billowing folds. TTAC's Matthew Neundorf, armed with blunt facts and near-razor wit, lays bare the automaker's litany of problems: the recent $254 million loss; a drop in sales of the popular F-150 Series; and the company's inexplicable cancellation of its big people movers like the Lincoln Town Car when, to quote Neundorf, '...the American market is flooding with SUV refugees...' And while he acknowledges the Blue Oval's Mexican-built triplets (aka Fusion/Milan/Zephyr) are doing well sales-wise, their contributions are just too late. He views the possible sale of Jaguar as a necessary
Thumbs up or thumbs down to Neundorf's first Death Watch? Write your decision in comments.
Related:
Jaguar could be in the sights of accelerated Way Forward plan
BREAKING: Ford doubles Q2 loss
Volvo's profitablity waning
[Source: The Truth About Cars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
speed42 12:09PM (8/04/2006)
I think the Ford Death Watch is a little late, actually. But with the announcement today of Ford's most recent recall doubling, it may very well be a very short watch indeed.
Reply
Sid 12:28PM (8/04/2006)
Maybe these armchair strategists should actually take up advisor/consultants/management roles in these companies and do something about it?
Reply
Big AL 12:32PM (8/04/2006)
I am so tired of these half witted journalists who think they can predict the demise of the American Auto industry based on just a few (albeit significant) facts. Ford and GM will never go out of business. In fact, I will go so far as to say as long as there is an America, there will be a Ford and GM. They simply represent too many jobs, not to mention the sense of American pride to just close up shop and let the foreign brands take over.
So can we PLEASE stop with the nonsense? Thank you.
Reply
Presto 12:35PM (8/04/2006)
Fords stock is under $7/share. In comparison, Toyota's stock is under $110/share. Need I say more?
I wish the very best for Ford, our economy and our American livlihood desparately need GM and Ford to succeed. It keeps the automotive business in general healthy as well.
Reply
Kamil 12:41PM (8/04/2006)
TTAC - complete idiots. Just dumb. I lack further phrases to describe them. Everything ever written there is nothing but veral diaherrea.
Reply
Number Six 12:46PM (8/04/2006)
Big AL?
When told by a reporter that Studebaker would be closing South Bend forever, a worker coming out of Studebaker's South Bend first shift early in December 1963 was reported to have said "What are you talking about? Studebaker is going to be here for ever."
Two weeks later, the same man worked his last shift at Studebaker and the doors closed never to open again.
Your statement "Ford and GM will never go out of business. In fact, I will go so far as to say as long as there is an America, there will be a Ford and GM." made me think about that and instantly, I knew you were dead wrong.
Let us not forget, Studebaker had been around since 1852, and at one point, was one of the top 70 corporations in the United States.
Reply
John 12:57PM (8/04/2006)
#3 What a companies stock is currently worth is a very poor indicator of how good a company is or is not. With how many splits etc the Ford stock has gone through over the years, $7 can mean thousands of different things. Please refrain from making ridiculous, ignorant comments. Especially when you obviously know nothing about the stock market.
Reply
rwdmtparkingonly 12:58PM (8/04/2006)
Here are a couple papers on the significance of the auto industry to the US, sales creates more jobs than manufacturing:
http://www.cargroup.org/pdfs/Alliance-Final.pdf
http://www.slcatlanta.org/Publications/EconDev/AutoSouth/Ch1EconomicContribution.pdf
As technology revolutionizes production and populations continue to increase this might just be a sign of the end of work:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585423130/104-9720887-0508755?v=glance&n=283155
As the value of adding labor decreases and the value of natural resources increases it's good to know that at least we, the US, have the biggest army (this is not sarcastic).
Toyota's success will be a short blip as Korea, China and increasingly desperate developed world companies crush their margins.
Electric cars have turned out to be unsuitable commuter vehicles but excellent track day cars (http://www.teslamotors.com/), so I guess all of hell has frozen over.
Reply
Shawn 12:58PM (8/04/2006)
A prophet is either insane or stupid. I don't know which is TTAC, but if the woman answering the phone at 800-psychic is truely psychic, then she wouldn't be working as a phone operator.
Reply
glacia00 12:59PM (8/04/2006)
They could turn it around but it would take a radical break from the past. They would need to accept their own statement that what they did and are doing isn't working and reinvent themselves. And they can't keep it a secret. If there is really a plan hiding in 'the way forward' tell people about it. They don't have time to play the 'we have a secret' game.
Relaxing and saying "we can't go under" is a delusional fantasy. Introduce something radically different - maybe take a concept car off of the 'never gonna build' board and put it on the lots. And not some overpowered monster or a barge - something people could drive daily but would turn heads with a modern design in and out. Modern is a word not associated with Ford in decades (or maybe ever).
They need a coherent strategy on fuel. Unless they have a Focus plugin/hybrid up their sleave for release yesterday the hybrid boat has sailed for them. So if it's not hybrids what is it? The whole flexfuel thing is so wishywashy with infrastructure being non-existant. So is it new lightweight materials to bring current mpg closer to a hybrid but without the extra cost?
Reply
Steve J 1:22PM (8/04/2006)
Neither GM nor Ford is going to go out of business in the near future. But it's very naive to say that Ford and GM are going to exist forever, and people should just stop talking about this already.
The Ford brand, as well as some of the stronger GM brand names, will probably never go away, this is true. But whether they will continue to be owned by those companies, or those companies will remain independent, is far from certain. Both have some serious issues to face. They are not at all insurmountable, but it is by no means certain they'll overcome.
There are brands within those companies' portfolios that have a lot of traction and are indeed very unlikely to go away. Despite sliding market share, there are still a lot of people who have loyalty to Ford and Chevrolet in particular (particuarly in the area of trucks). But whether the corporate entities that own those brands today will continue to do so is the big question.
But don't expect death anytime soon. Both companies have a lot of strategies they can use to generate cash to prop up core businesses. And Chapter 11, while beyond ginormous for either one of those companies, is likely long before Chapter 7 (liquidation).
Reply
porker 1:37PM (8/04/2006)
TTAC- the most blatantly Anti-American Auto site on the internet. They're so full of the hype over japanese and german cars, they can't even see how badly biased they are. No, neither GM nor Ford is immune to bankruptcy, but both can and will remain on the world market. The thing that needs most to be done is to educate the American consumer that the myth of japanese auto superiority is just that, a myth. GM and even Ford (which I dislike intensely) make better, more reliable cars than their japanese counterparts. I should know, I've owned both for many, many years. My GM cars and trucks have far and away outperformed my nissan and toyota products, in service and reliability.
Reply
All World Automotive 1:41PM (8/04/2006)
I really do hope the best for them. They are a American Icon. We need to keep our domestic automakers going.
Reply
chemp 1:42PM (8/04/2006)
stylish watch;)
i want this
Reply
Lithous 1:53PM (8/04/2006)
Everyone sign up on TTAC for starting an American car company with American assembly (even the import fanboys want that, they try to rub the Fusion and the Impala in domestic fanboy's faces as not being assembled here as if it matters to them).
I'm sure with enough talented people (as you all think you are) and the money you *best of the best* have from all your success it will happen.
Now TTAC has to just set up the sign up sheet for who's in (but how long did it take them to actually have comment sections added to their site?).
This will be great. Toyota, you watch out!!! Some of the best (Terrell Owens types) on the planet are gunning for you and some new Americans (other than GM and Ford) will show you how it is done!!!
Reply
Sgt. Hulka 1:54PM (8/04/2006)
By my calculation, TTC has predicted the death of at last 5 car companies. Holding true to the "A broken clock is right twice-a-day" I figure this guy should be lucky in his guess by about 2028.
Reply
Steve J 1:57PM (8/04/2006)
Forgot to add: Presto, you do ineed to say more. Share price in isolation means absolutely nothing. Market capitalization is a better measure, but still only tells part of the story.
Reply
Lithous 2:03PM (8/04/2006)
We are such a backwards society in our thinking.
Someone comes up with a bumper sticker type saying like, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach". Yet we try to send our kids to schools with the best teachers.
The time when this type of logic really does apply is "Those who can, manufacture. Those who can't, buy foreign or write bad things about those who do".
Reply
Aki 2:10PM (8/04/2006)
"Electric cars have turned out to be unsuitable commuter vehicles but excellent track day cars (http://www.teslamotors.com/), so I guess all of hell has frozen over."
Actually part of the point of the Tesla vehicle is to show that it can be a commuter car--the main drawback is cost. It does do 250 miles on a single charge, which is more than what most people need a day. If you factor in the fact that you don't pay gas and it purportedly lasts 100k miles, that's a good deal even if you ever have to end up swapping the battery for a new one.
"I'm sure with enough talented people (as you all think you are) and the money you *best of the best* have from all your success it will happen."
I was looking for the sarcasm in that but apprently you are dead serious. Yes, sign up and start a car company! All of those exclamation points can't hide the desperation (and envy).
Reply
Presto 2:24PM (8/04/2006)
I stand corrected. Let's all buy Ford stock since it's $7/share and so CHEAP!!!
Reply