Re: Ford bail out


"RickyBobby" <nascar42@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Nancy2" <nancy-dooley@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Dec 18, 10:18 pm, "armpit" <armarmpit...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Nancy2" <nancy-doo...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

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On Dec 18, 1:40 pm, "Raymond O'Hara" <raymond-oh...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"BF" <b...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

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Ford CEO said that Ford doesn't need any bailout money. How could
they
be
better off than GM? One thing might be that GM makes too many
different
cars and they all cost millions to design and build.

most of those "different cars" are on the same platform a the
differences
are just cosmetic.

Ford has the Ford 150 and 250 trucks - pretty hard to beat, consumer-
wise...

==================

Ford has also sold about a bazillion Mustangs as well.

(Love the Mustang. But I loved my 'Vette, too.)

Interesting new print ad - a full-page Chevy ad in my new Better Homes
& Gardens, claiming (I'm sure it's accurate) that they have more
models with x (I think 30 mpg) highway mileage than Honda, Nissan,
Toyota, VW, etc. The problem is, they have too many models, period.

N.


They have entirely too many models. And each and every one of them costs
a ton of money to make, even if nobody buys them. The slow selling Chevy
Cobalt comes in four distinct flavors, two door, two door supercharged,
four door, and four door supercharged. How many four door supercharged
Cobalts do you think will be sold in 2009? My guess would be about 137.

For every Mustang or Charger or Malibu success story they have had a dozen
Prowlers or SSRs or Thunderbirds that slowly but surely have driven them
to the brink of bankruptcy.

A lot of people get sidetracked into debating the hourly cost or
retirement cost of UAW workers. That is real money they are talking about
but if the Big Three still sold most of the vehicles in this country the
volume of sales would have made the hourly worker cost a non-factor.

Outside of the half ton and heavy duty pick up truck 95% of their vehicle
nameplates since 1990 have sold like crap and have been discontinued. Or
at least 85%. All of Olds for sure, all of Pontiac, all of Buick, and so
on.

So what vehicles do sell? People must be driving around in something with
a nameplate on it....

Camry
Accord
Mustang
Corolla
Civic
F-150
Prius
Altima
Silverado
Jetta

In other words, vehicle nameplates that have been around for years and
have a strong reputation for value and providing a satisfying ownership
experience.

Why do the Aveo and Cobalt not sell any better? Because nobody has ever
heard a good word spoken about either one of them. It does not matter is
they both get 30MPG on the highway. People buy what they trust, not what
they never heard of.

Would the Buick Lucerne be selling better if is were called the Buick
LeSabre? Yes, it would. I understand that and you understand that but
Buick does not understand that.

There are a whole lot of factors that have driven the Big Three to beggar
status. It is not just 30highway MPG and it certainly is not just
nameplates and it is not mainly UAW labor costs and it is not just the
fact that a Civic at 200K miles is a ten times better car than a Cobalt
brand new. It is the sheer incompetence in the Big Three boardrooms over
the past twenty or thirty years.

The was no boardroom incompetence at Benz, BMW, Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai,
Honda, or VW. They do not have incompetent executives and they do not try
to market laughably bad vehicles either.

Instead of making silly assed Prowlers and SSRs and the like they should
have had a diesel line and a propane line even if they only sold them in
certain regions.

They should have done a whole lot of things. Mainly they should have been
making vehicles other than pick up trucks that people would buy. The
reason that they only have about 45% market share is not that Americans
are unpatriotic or that UAW members get paid too much. It is because the
foreign competition was just so much better from the day you buy the
VW/Nissan/Toyota/Honda until the day you sell it. It all starts with the
design of the vehicle. Everything else follows.

The Prius and diesel Jetta/Passat are so very much better than anything
coming out of Detroit that it is not even worth talking about. Talk about
fuel economy with the hybrid or long life with the diesel engine and
Detroit does not even deserve to be mentioned in the same paragraph.

If the new President appoints some sort of Car Czar that person had better
pack a lunch and be prepared to work some long hours. I could not even
imagine where they are supposed to begin.

If it were me I would immediately order Chevy to license or buy the Passat
diesel drivetrain from VW and drop it into a six passenger bench front
seat Impala and sell it for 19,999 dollars. There would be a line in
front of every Chevy dealership the next day.

The next day I would Chrsyler to produce a Hemi Propane bench front seat
six passenger Charger.

On the third day I would order Ford to put an all alloy turbo four banger
four valve per cylinder high revving gas engine into the Mustang that got
at least 30 highway mpg and hit sixty in less than five seconds.

On the fourth day I would order Chevy/GM to bring back the Astro/Safari
platform with gas, diesel, hybrid, and propane engine options depending on
the region and the application.

On the fifth day I would totally upset the applecart as we know it. I
would put a 30% tax on every motorized vehicle of any sort than was
assembled outside of the USA and sold in the USA. Car, truck, skid
loader, PWC, airplane, whatever.

Then I would call it good and resign my post.




Only 5 days? God worked 6 befrore His first weekend.

Great point though on the import tax but perhaps it would be better to order
them to bring back the jobs THEY (the big 3) shipped overseas before giving
them a red cent. The Jap cars would be the ones not paying the tax since
they have the integrety to put them together here.



.

Relevant Pages

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