Ford puts warranty company up for sale

Associated Press

DEARBORN -- Ford Motor Co. has put its extended warranty business up for sale.

The potential sale of the Automobile Protection Corp., a Ford subsidiary, is part of the company's review of strategic options as it restructures in an effort to become smaller and leaner.

Ford bought APCO, which mainly sells auto dealers warranty service contracts that continue beyond the manufacturer's warranties, for $180 million in 1999.

Ford said in a statement Wednesday that just because it has placed the subsidiary up for sale doesn't mean a sale will take place. Any such sale would have to be approved by Ford's board of directors.

Ford said Atlanta-based APCO, which employs about 280 people, has grown in sales and revenue since it was acquired. The company would not reveal APCO's earnings for this year, saying it does not report them separately.

In August, Ford announced that it would sell Aston Martin, the icon of luxury sports cars made famous in James Bond movies, as part of its restructuring. So far, no sale has been announced.

The company also has said that everything is on the table as it restructures, including sale of other brands in its Premier Automotive Group which also is composed of Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover.

Ford lost $1.4 billion during the first half of this year and is undergoing a major restructuring

Terminal10 - 10/13/2006 3:05:55 PM

0 Boost

I simply cannot believe it. Ford and GM just looking for ways to be competitive in a market that they pretty much owned in the earlier decades. You cannot deny some of their shinning stars the Vette, Mustang, the rebirth of the Camaro etc.

You cannot look any further than the top management of these companies. There is seriously something wrong when you are on top for years and cannot reconize your freefall down. Managements answer more cuts stick it to the worker. Wrong answer, we simply cannot have plug in CEOs and upper management where upon arriving on the property their first duty is to negotiate their millions plus severance package. Basically giving the screw ups more money for a job poorly done. In the real world you do not get millions for screwing thing up.

They must stop looking to the worker for more cuts. The CEO and upper management at alot of these companies are asked to leave and they take their millions and stock options with them and go plug themselves in at another company with millions more for them when they are fired. The worker is usually married to the company for life they stay for the money and the benefits which are always under attack by upper management. The board is usally no help either until its to late. They are all handpicked from other companies that share members its like an elite club. They do not act until the spiral down is to great for them to overlook and then they are forced to take action.

Until these companies and several others automotive and non-automotive take a good look at who's running them and weed out all the plug in CEOs and upper management we are just going to continue to go down the tubes with a few bright spots like the Vette, Mustang, etc.

Kyle - 10/14/2006 3:30:57 PM

+1 Boost

Why would they want to keep this particular warranty company when they've grown it, can sell it for a profit, and since they already have their own Ford branded warranty company that is already very successful.