Survey: Ford's image gets a boost by nixing federal aid
In what has to be one of the least surprising developments related to the auto industry, a newly-released survey finds that Americans' favorable view of Ford Motor Company has increased substantially since it became the sole member of the Detroit Three to abstain from taking federal funds.
Before the Capitol Hill Bailout Bonanza got going in earnest late last year, just 41% of Americans held the Blue Oval in a positive light. Now, after billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent keeping now-bankrupt Chrysler and soon-to-be (in all likelihood) bankrupt General Motors in business, FoMoCo's positive number has jumped up to 63%, according to a survey conducted by the Aloft Group last week.
However, that's not to say that those surveyed believe Ford's out of the woods: a mere 24 percent of the respondents think Ford doesn't need Uncle Sam to come to the rescue. Still, Ford's decision to mortgage everything on its own in a bid to stay alive has been a big PR success, and you can bet that Alan Mulally will instruct staffers to burn all the office furniture in Dearborn this winter before he looks to Capitol Hill for a penny in bailout dollars. In Detroit right now, the Scarlet Letter is "B."
[Source: The Detroit News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Samurai Jack 7:13PM (5/01/2009)
And why wouldn't he eat it? It's a frackin' tasty looking car.
As others have said in other threads, kudos to Ford. Let's hope they stay above water.
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anthony 7:16PM (5/01/2009)
I'm pulling for them and they have some impressive products now and coming, but I don't want to be duped again, I hope it's for real this time. Keep it up long term and I'll be happy.
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J 7:19PM (5/01/2009)
I think they are on the right track and they seem to be learning from their mistakes. They have what it takes to be a leader in this business and they have the products. They're just not over here. Yet.
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Sea Urchin 7:24PM (5/01/2009)
But one has to ask...does the company benefit by not taking bailout money? Because with bailout other 2 can come out clean, financed with low interest loans, plus management took pay cut.
Also i think that UAW, creditors, suppliers and everyone else will not be as friendly with Ford, because they are not dying.
But once again, this is what smart management does, it turns around the companies and in down times grabs market share, nothing new here. Great for Ford, i also hope that Ford, Toyota and Honda will really fight it out in the hybrid war and come out with an affordable, reliable, nicely equipped small sedan for 21-24 K
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why not the LS2LS7? 7:27PM (5/01/2009)
I think that not taking bailout money has significant advantage in terms of perception. Won't that lead to sales?
Besides, Ford has applied for Federal aid of their own. It's really odd to see "nixing federal aid" in the title of this article, that's not at all true. Many say they didn't take bailout money, but the DOE loans they have applied for are most definitely Federal aid.
Sea Urchin 7:35PM (5/01/2009)
"I think that not taking bailout money has significant advantage in terms of perception. Won't that lead to sales?"------------You are correct, in PUBLICs eyes Ford is better, but i think with bailout the other two can come out structualy better, no debt, no obligations, possibly no UAW, no unnessesary dealers or brands, and government eats the bill. Also, you can bet a house on the fact that for the time being GM and Chrysler will get more governmental contracts.
paul34 7:45PM (5/01/2009)
Nope. Ford doesn't have to worry about the Federal government putting its grubby hands on the company. They're on their own, and will clean themselves up, or die. Simple, that's how the free market works. No political ploy CEO firings. If a CEO needs to be fired, the board will make that decision, and someone else who the shareholders and board believe is qualified will be put in his place, not just the #2 who thinks just like the #1 who got fired.
Ford is better off for not accepting the money. Kudos to them, I hope they can pull through as a leaner, meaner, and better company.
Jake B 8:11PM (5/01/2009)
I feel that ford will see more sales as a result of their image not being soiled by the bailout money. I don't think that Ford taking the DOE money can be viewed as a bad thing, the government is providing that money to make vehicles more efficient, which they are forcing automakers to do anyway. I also think that their would be some legal issues with the government giving more contracts to Chrysler and GM over Ford because of recent happenings.
Sea Urchin, how can you even think that there is a possibility of no UAW for GM and Chrysler because of bankruptcy. How is Chrysler going to get rid of the unions when the unions are going to own 55% of the company?
Ford is finally starting to do better because it is being arranged into a more proper automobile company, instead of a labor and health care company.
Mr.Oak 1:11AM (5/02/2009)
Urchin: Agreed with most of what you said, except the "No UAW" part. The UAW is not going anywhere.
Paul34: Ford may be riding high in public opinion polls, but they won't necessarily be better off than GM or Chrysler. Ford is still wrestling with an archaic business model, and a mountain of debt. Remember they're still losing money, they still have too many dealerships, and the Lincoln/Mercury divisions are still a mess. Thus far, only the Ford division appears to be pointed in the right direction
It's really too early to tell. In a year or two, Ford might wish that they had gone through the "Quick Rinse" bankruptcy.
Judy Zik 1:13AM (5/02/2009)
As usual Urchin you don't get it. Perception is everything.
Why was GM able to make disgusting amounts of money through the 80's and 90's while building some of the worst cars ever? Perception. In the 60's and 70's their cars were better than the unreliable cheap imports and it was considered socially unacceptable to buy something that wasn't American made. Image is everything in the car business. Most buyers want to put a car in their driveway that the neighbours will be jealous of or at least approve of. It will take GM and Chrysler a long time to earn forgiveness from the public for taking their tax dollars. Most people also have no idea how bankruptcy works and many who do are still afraid to take a chance dealing with a company who has filed for any form of protection.
So Ford wins by default. Last man standing. They may get to blow their horn as the last "truly American Automaker" when this is all done (as if any of them really are). In addition to that they have a wicked product line enroute and a competent team of managers. No amount of bailout money is going to do that for GM and Chrysler. The amount of money and market share Ford is going to earn from being "the good son" will more than make up for it and even with the Government's help the other two will continue to fall if not fail completely.
John 7:28AM (5/02/2009)
@ why not the LS2LS7
The DOE fund for the automakers is no different than any other government's funds to try to advance an agenda. In this case the agenda is more efficient cars. Don't you think Japan and China are doing the same for their auto manufacturers? Ford would be stupid to forgo their share of this fund, and to be at a disadvantage in their efforts to improve efficiency.
Ford haters though are still trying to spin this fund into "federal aid" in the context of "federal bailouts" in order to try to smear Ford with the same brush that is painting GM and Chrysler as losers. Currently 63% of the public see threw your effort to paint Ford with the federal aid brush. It's not working, so give it up.
Oh, and let me propose an answer to your "why not the LS2LS7" question. Because the company is going bankrupt!
Nellydesign 2:16AM (5/03/2009)
@Sea Urchin
I would much rather be the auto company NOT hampered with the stigma of bankruptcy and in control of my own destiny (i.e. not beholden to the US govt.). GM and Chrysler are unfortunately in the sad position of going from bad to worse in terms of public perception. In the case of Chrysler they get boos for taking money and then they get passed on by the buyer because who buys a car from a company who just went bankrupt. I can say I wish it weren't that way but Ford is in a much better position. Even after coming out of bankruptcy I really don't see Chrysler being able to sell enough cars to stay viable. I'm afraid Fiat is just going to strip them more brutally than Diamler did.
pollen sniffer 7:51PM (5/01/2009)
At least the government won't be ordering Ford around. All of you people will be buying cars issued by the government.
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TomdeTomTom 1:36AM (5/02/2009)
Hear that? It's Ford's gravy train pulling into the station.
Ray 8:03PM (5/01/2009)
The best part of this post is the caption in the bubble! Loved it.
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Smegley 8:05PM (5/01/2009)
Not only is not being on the bailout plan a massive boon in my eyes, but also because the other domestic brands are now taking marching orders from the idiots in DC means that I will ONLY consider Ford and some imports next time around.
GM/Chrysler are off the list. Any company marching to DC's orders can march its way to hell without my money.
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Smegley 8:08PM (5/01/2009)
Correction to my statement:
GM and Chrysler will actually march their way to hell with my money, but only with the money that the idiot äss-duo of Bush/Obama and the blowhards in congress STEAL from me (and you). They will never get my private money.
warren 8:53PM (5/01/2009)
Smegley, perhaps you're either too young or have too short of a memory to remember what happened the last time the government bailed out an auto company. Back in 1979, Chrysler took a $1.5 billion loan from the U.S. government to avoid bankruptcy, and by 1983 they had paid the loan back, and the U.S. government made $350 million in profit off of their $1.5 billion investment.
So before you go crowing on about how the government is stealing your money (at this point, they're not -- they're borrowing money from China and Japan to pay for these bailouts; it's not like your Federal taxes have increased lately!), consider that this is actually an investment that could pay off pretty nicely in the years to come.
(Unlike, say, paying hundreds of billions of dollars a year for the war in Iraq.....)
Of course, it's all a big fat maybe -- GM and Chrysler have much stiffer competition now than they did in the early 1980s.
Smegley 9:56PM (5/01/2009)
Warren, perhaps your so old that your memory is gone and you can't retain what's happened in the last couple month or even what you just read.
I wrote the non participating in the bailout is a boon in my eyes. A boon, to me, means that I would prefer Ford to Chrysler or GM, but it does not disqualify the latter.
What does disqualify GM and Chrysler is that in the past couple months they are taking marching orders from DC (read what I wrote). Obama, drawing from his microbic business experience, is ordering Chrysler to merge with Fiat and firing GM's senior management and, with regard to the "loan" is now seeking to get it converted to equity. Equity can maybe sold, but not repaid.
Now, because I loathe 80% of what the federal government does and am convinced of its incompetence, I will do nothing ever to support that craphole. In fact I would undermine it with every legal means available, and in this case that means I will never buy a vehicle from any company that is owned and dictated over by these wankstains.
As for borrowing from the Chinese, so what? Guess who has to pay that back plus interest? And guess how that payback will need to happen? That's right - stolen from me, maybe you, but certainly most of us. If you compel me into a major obligation that I did not agree with in any way, that is pure theft if I am forced to pay by virtually any standard, but if DC does it then maybe you bend over and say its cool. I just hope you get a federal vaseline subsidy in the process.
And yes Bush sucked in many ways so grow up and get past that moron. The new moron will prove far worse.
texmln 11:37PM (5/01/2009)
Hear, hear! Smegley. I too will never buy a car from a company controlled by the government OR the UAW if it comes to that. When I was in the market for a new truck in late 2008, I was talking to nobody but GM... then the original bailout made its way through and I became a Toyota man just like that.
As I've mentioned in many other posts, it's up to us to kill of GM and Chrysler the old fashioned way; we've got to boycott them. Spread the word. Obama supports were never American car types to start with and with the other half of the country avoiding these two embarassing companies they won't last long.
I laugh every time some blowhard chimes in about the FIAT 500 coming in to save the day for Chrysler. Most of them haven't ever seen one in person. They make Mini's look like Escalades. Even the Smart Car looks roomy in comparison. No self-respecting American will be caught dead in one. I take craps larger than those cars. Really.