What will a post Jaguar/Land Rover world look like at Ford?

Let Ford die and Toyota or Nissan or Honda will be net third person...
who cars abput ford
they make junk trucks and cars

I care about Ford cars.

Ford employs tens of thousands directly in the US. It employs hundreds of thousands through its suppliers. If you closed the doors today all those people are out of work. Also Ford DOESN'T make junk. Your bias is showing through. Ford's F150 is doing to badly. It has a great chassis (even if its engine is lacking some power). The SuperDuty series has several innovative features to the industry and continues to sell well. The Edge, Fusion, Mustang, and Focus are all selling well (and save the Focus are quite competitive in their respective segments.

Ford is looking to the future, their car programs are going through shorter and shorter production cycles. They are introducing performance oriented smaller displacement engines (Ecoboost). And one of the most important things is they are finally changing into a global company. Their chassis plan is consice and competitive.

Perhaps instead of just spamming you should learn about what you are talking about.

And BTW this comes from a GM fan NOT a Ford fan.

@pchera01

You're a moron...

I tend to agree with you 94z.

I as, an american, do care for the domestic market as well. I would truly like to see ford succed as GM has. Ford was a heritage company that produced good vehicles (and still produces good trucks).

I can understand hemmoraging companies to save for (somthing GM did have to due thanks to GMAC) however it does leave one with a bad taste in ones mouth about Ford in general. I am not too pleased with how they have been running their company for the past few years.

Their high end product seems to be aimed at an international market, whereas the domestic market is being flooded with what most would consider fleet vehicles. Just a couple years ago they could have given us a mustang that would have been as ground breaking as the 1964 1/2 mustang, with a nice design and modern suspension...unforutnatly they went bargin basment again and gave us what the bean counters wanted to produce for the fleet. Again the same thing occured with the Focus (which I always thought was a good car) where the domestic market didn't get the update that the European market did.

I know that there is a big issue with the UAW which causes domestic vehicles to have a huge price difference with their foreign counterparts, however Ford has to start (hate this euphamism) "thinking outside the box" on how they can deal with the 'UAW Tax' while producing a product that not only meets but bests the foreign vehicles. Their current strategy is more of a cut off the leg to stop the bleeding vs a forward thinking concept.

There has been rumors of a new chasis and engine combination that sounds quite modern however this is just rumor and conjecture right now...and still dosent show how Ford will change its entire line up...just one vehilce.

So I again implore Ford to do what you must, fire your board of directors and hire a new marketing and design team if you must. Focus on issues that are close to home vs trying to throw a hail mary pass across the pond in hoping the international market will solve all your problems. If you show you listen to your domestic base, I'm sure the base will show its support in kind. However... you FORD, have to make the first move.

Sorry this turned into a rant however I like 94z do want Ford to succed. And the more people who scream at them the greater the possiblity they might hear us.

Hopefully in means higher stock prices with the dead weight released from the ankles.

Bottom line is that Ford is in the spot they are in right now because a decade ago they blew all their money buying brands instead of maintaining the one they had.

Hopefully this workout will allow the focus to continue on making Ford better instead of the biggest.

SteedPub..

That's well said.

They should never have bought Jaguar, the only good buy i think is Mazda as I'm sure they picked up a few hints from Mazda, but apart from that they shuld have concentrated on their own cars..

Well-They have been able to use a fair amount of Volvo architecture in their cars. Jaguar would have worked if Ford had gone the extra length in terms of styling for Jaguar. In reality they did a good job of cleaning it up and making it a reliable product. Had the X type cars had a longer wheelbase and a wagon sooner this might have helped in sales. But in retrospect mpls is right.Jaguar and Landrover were a distraction from focusing in on their own brands.What frustrates me is that Ford of Europe is making good quality,visually appealing,and nice driving products that should be sold in the US.The next Taurus should be based on the Euro Mondeo but with a an eco V6 engine.The next Focus should be based on the Euro Focus etc.The Mustang should get IRS and a decent V6(probably adapted from the Duratec in the Taurus).The Fusion,Milan and MKZ should be slightly larger to compete with the Accord,Camry,and Altima. Ford is capable of doing these things.Lets hope they are in the process of.

pchera01

you clearly said it