Autoblog

Perhaps 'fired' is the wrong word, as that does imply that these white collar workers did something wrong. The only thing some 12% of Ford's salaried workforce did wrong is get hired by a company that dug itself into a hole relying on strong truck and SUV sales during the 1990s. Now, with consumers avoiding gas-hungry vehicles, the restructuring effort faltering amidst high gas prices, and news that the company has abandoned its goal of returning to profitability in 2009... cutting more salaried workers was inevitable.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally told reporters last week that sales of big trucks and SUVs crashed once gas hit $3.50 per gallon. In April, full-sized pickups accounted for 11 percent of sales. By the second week of May, the number had fallen to just 9 percent. "I don't think we've ever seen a decline week over week like this," Mulally said. "It was clear to us it was time to act." And act they did. While details have not been finalized, Ford expects to eliminate up to 12 percent of its salaried work force (with about 24,300 white-collar workers in the States, this means more than 2,000 positions will be gone). Ford Vice President Jim Farley couldn't sugar-coat the news, but he did try to spread the doom around when he spoke to his employees on Friday, saying "I would expect other car companies to make similar announcements... they have the same issues that we do -- even Toyota."

[Source: The Detroit News]

Every villain needs a sidekick, and if there were ever a villain character in the soap opera that is the North American auto industry, it's 91-year-old billionaire Kirk Kerkorian who recently revealed that his private holding company, Tracinda Corp., was buying up Ford stock like he knew something the rest of us didn't. Kerkorian's sidekick in this saga is Jerry York, an ex-auto exec who the billionaire placed on GM's board of directors back when he was pushing for an alliance between the biggest of the Big 3 and Nissan/Renault.

York has revealed that he met with Ford CEO Alan Mulally after Tracinda Corp. began buying up Blue Oval stock and expressed his confidence in the executive's plan to turn around Ford. He also said that if it were him at the helm, both Mercury and Volvo would be sold. York thinks that Mulally will likely put Volvo up for sale in the next 18 months, but there's a bit more analysis to be done on whether or not to sell Mercury.

While Volvo might command a pretty penny on the open market for its brand cachet and expertise in the area of safety, we're not sure there's much demand out there for Mercury. We suspect that Ford is faced with the same question that GM was when it scuttled Oldsmobile: kill it or keep the lights on? Like Oldsmobile, Mercury is seen as a brand of rebadged vehicles so intertwined with its parent company that no potential buyer would want to deal with the long, expensive process of extricating it from Ford and starting over. But York thinks Ford might be able to get something for it, which doesn't say a lot to us about Kirkorian's sidekick.

UPDATE: Ford issued a press release saying that Volvo is not for sale and that it continues to invest in Mercury. Lewis Booth, Volvo's CEO, also reiterated that his brand's not going anywhere.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]

Ford revealed today that its CEO Alan Mullaly was compensated with a package worth $21.7 million last year. His base pay was $2 million and he received incentive bonuses totaling $7 million. The rest of his money pile comes from stock options and the like. All told, Ford's top five highest paid execs accounted for some $60 million of the Blue Oval's total bill in 2007. Mulally actually made $28.2 million in 2006, but $11 million of that was what it cost Ford to buy out his contract with Boeing.

$60 million is a lot of money to pay five people in one year, which strikes at the heart of an age old question in modern American business: how much should executives get paid? If they're doing their job and the company is profitable, no one seems to quibble over a million here and a million there, but instead credits the CEO for his or her expert leadership. When a company is losing money like Ford, however, those big bucks suddenly seem like funds that could have been used to develop new products, pay lower-tiered workers better or pad the company's cash reserves just in case.

Bill Ford Jr., Ford's last CEO who has turned down a salary until Ford turns a profit, hired Mulally to do what he couldn't: make Ford profitable again. But hiring a guy like Mulally costs money, which is what we're seeing here. It is too early to determine if Mulally is earning his wage, so the impatient see his compensation package as completely unwarranted. We're willing to wait a few years, and if Ford is back in the black by then, we know the cost of doing business with Mulally was worth it for the guys and gals from Dearborn.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd, Photo by GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty]

Joe Laymon isn't on the short list of successors for Ford CEO Alan Mulally, and it's unlikely you've ever heard of him, but if you want to get to the top at the Blue Oval, this is the guy you stop by Starbucks for on the way to work. Laymon is in charge of keeping a list of internal candidates ready in the event Mulally retires (or quits, is fired or for some other reason exits his position), which could come as soon as 2011 when he turns 65.

Both President of the the Americas Mark Fields and new marketing chief Jim Farley are on the short list of six execs on which the company is keeping tabs, but some less familiar names are considered, as well. Europe boss Lewis Booth, CFO Don LeClair, Europe COO Stephen Odell, and manufacturing chief Joe Heinrich round out the list of internal CEO candidates that will be given to the Ford board in the event of a Mulally exit. The list isn't static, either, as names are reviewed and added or dropped each year. If the board doesn't like its choices, though, the list is completely worthless and the company will again look outside its hallowed halls for help, just like it did in Mulally's case.

[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]

Click above for more high-res images of the FG Falcon G-Series

But is he getting one for himself? One could certainly infer that's the case based on this GoAuto article, which reports that the Ford CEO was so blown away by the Falcon G6E Turbo he sampled at an Australian test facility that he told Trevor Worthington (Ford Australia's product-development veep), "I want one." And that brings us to the question of the day: is the head of Ford really bringing over a new Falcon for himself to drive? Because while we in the peanut gallery generally agree that the Blue Oval stuff in Europe and Australia has it all over the American-market offerings (Mustang and F-Series excluded), there would be no greater acknowledgment of this than the CEO of Ford cruising around in a desirable RHD-only Aussie sedan while we make do with the Taurus, which even the execs recently made fun of. Americans will need to wait for the arrival of the new global RWD platform that's set to underpin multiple US-market rear-drivers sometime in the early 2010s, assuming Ford doesn't hedge like GM and use CAFE as an excuse to temper expectations regarding RWD models in the States.

UPDATE: We caught up with the folks at Ford this evening, and can now report that Alan Mulally is not bringing over a Falcon for his own personal use. We do believe the part of the GoAuto story where he's bowled over by the Falcon, though.


[Source: GoAuto]

We distinctly remember hearing last year that Ford had absolutely no desire to export its Lincoln brand to other markets besides North America. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the post in our archives to back up what our memory swears is true. That said, in these tough times when a turnaround puts every crazy idea on the table, it seems that Ford is genuinely considering making Lincoln a global brand to compete with the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and even Cadillac in markets like Europe and Asia. This according to an interview given by Ford CEO Alan Mulally to the German outlet Auto Motor und Sport.
Mulally revealed to the German rag that his company already sells Lincolns in the Middle East, though we're not sure if those are just Town Cars and Navigators destined for limousine service. Actually building out the entire brand for export, however, is another story that would require a major investment and some smart marketing. Fortunately, Ford says that if Lincoln ever does travel abroad, it will be "sometime in the future" since the focus is on building the brand in North America. Even in that respect, Lincoln's got a long way to go just to catch up to its cross-town rival Cadillac, which at the moment is enjoying all the critical acclaim heaped upon its new CTS sedan.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]

click above for more high-res pics of the 2008 Ford Taurus Limited

At the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit, Ford CEO Alan Mulally revealed that the automaker would be introducing a new Taurus sedan next year to replace the one that has failed to meet sales expectations despite a number of substantial improvements and a new name. Mulally said in his speech, "The new Taurus is the one we should have made originally." He clearly concedes that the current Taurus is not what the market wants, but as to what Ford should have made originally, we can't say with confidence what he's referring to. The current Taurus is a supremely competent sedan wrapped in a supremely ho-hum package, so we expect next year's Ford Taurus to be more stylish inside and out, as well as be made available with a range of turbocharged, direct-inject EcoBoost engines to augment the currently available 3.5L V6.

Mulally also reiterated in his speech Ford's intent to commonize platforms and models that are sold across the pond from one another. He even specifically mentioned the Ford Focus, saying it would eventually be the same as the European Focus. We've been wanting a hard date for when this will happen, as enthusiasts in the U.S. have been wailing with fists for the Euro version of the Focus to be sold in the U.S. since it debuted. While a firm time-table still eludes us, at least we have confirmation that one day our Focus will be as cool as theirs.

[Source: The Detroit News]

A little over a year ago, Alan Mulally's time was spent managing Boeing, and here in LA just 14 months later he's the keynote speaker for at an international auto show. He's a year older, and he also knows a heck of a lot more about cars than he did when he took the helm at Ford Motor Company. In that time, Ford has begun on reversing its massive losses, a new contract with the UAW has been ratified, and new products like the MKS introduced today are on the verge of production.

Much of Mulally's keynote speech focused on the green initiatives that Ford is undertaking, and we've attached the above video clip with the meat of Ford CEO's message. Click play above to check it out.

Ford's CEO Alan Mulally admitted in an interview with Automotive News that the Blue Oval's future is uncertain and that, after 14 months on the job, he is still unsure about when the company will turn the corner. With all of Ford's assets – right up to the automaker's shiny logo – mortgaged and potentially on the block, the former Boeing head is regularly asked if Ford will make it out the other side. His answer: "Don't know – race against the clock. Are we working on the right things? Absolutely... Do we have enough time? No idea."

The AN piece is peppered with a number of unanswered questions, ranging from what will happen if the automaker isn't turning a profit by 2009 and what could happen when the mortgaged money runs out. Although the tone of the interview has an air of desperation, Mulally gives the impression that both a plan and the troops are organized and making headway. When it begins to show, however, remains to be seen.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

At the prodding of Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co. is relenting and giving its customers what they want. At least most of them. What Ford's up to is reducing the number of options for buyers to choose from and rolling all that goodness into the standard package. By reducing the number of possible variations on the general theme, production costs decrease. With fewer configurations, things move more smoothly at the assembly level, and engineering and management costs decrease, as well. The effort has already kicked off, and it will snowball from model to model, making it easier for customers to get what they want, and increasing the odds that dealers will have the cars customers want on their lots. The simplification effort is a step that can be enacted quickly; a lot faster than bringing over a platform from somewhere else. It's all part of an effort to chip away at the losses and return black ink to the ledger. More stuff, packaged the way we like it? Sounds like a win.

[Source: Auto News - sub req.]