Ford Is A Mess

Holy Cow! Can Ford get itself into a bigger mess? How are they still operating? First, since Ford can't be a leader, after GM restated its own earnings, Ford followed suit: Bloomberg News reports: Ford Widens Second-Quarter Net Loss to $254 Million. Now, this AutoWeek piece is a bit old, but can Ford be doing more haphazardly? AutoWeek reports: Powertrain Plans.

Gasoline engines: Ford's new 263-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 hits the road this fall in the 2007 Lincoln MKZ sedan. The car was called the Zephyr during the 2006 model year.

Yeah, put your newest gasoline engine in a car that you aren't 100% sure you are done naming. And that no one will buy. Certainly don't put it in the Fusion. And why even dabble in Mercury? And what about the anemic Five Hundred? Sigh. It's also a bit sad that Ford had to partner with GM to make the 6-speed automatic transmission. Can't Ford (or GM for that matter) do anything by itself? Finally, The Detroit News reports: FORD WEIGHS DRASTIC MOVES. As we mentioned yesterday, Ford has hired Kenneth Leet, a fancy bank dude who's good at selling pieces of companies. The article mentions:

"It's time to figure out what we are going to do about some of these brands," a Ford official told The News.

Gee, you think? It took Ford only 17 fucking years of owning Jaguar to come up with this brilliant plan?

Want to know what Ford is going to do? Sell every brand in the Premier Auto Group, hunker down, and focus on the Ford brand. We bet they sell it all, buy up the stock, and take Ford private. They'll keep Ford Motor Credit Co. of course, because it makes money and pays the Ford family their dividends. The Ford family will never give up its controlling interest in the company, so no one is going to partner with them, so the only solution is to sell the money-losing assets (is it an asset if it loses money?) to raise cash to buy up the stock.

Comments

[Chuck]

At least Ford is still trying to survive their current economic turmoil. Four new Ford products will reportedly be developed from the existing Ford Five Hundred sedan platform. The "future unique segments" of Ford will reportedly consist of two sedans and two vehicles. The Ford Five Hundred itself is derived from Volvo platform that originated with the XC90 SUV. The mystery sedan to come from the platform is known to be the Lincoln MKS, as confirmed by the automaker recently.

[Jeff]

What? No mention of Ford's 1.2M vehicle recall for fires related to the cruise controller? This is what the fifth time this issue has caused a recall?