Ford Slaps Musk After Calling F-150 Factory A Morgue

Everyone is a social media troll these days, even presidents and corporate excs. Can we get back to real car news now?

Elon is a expert of creating hype and valuation but he should stay away from trolling other automakers about their production process.

Musk should've been making production deals with Ford/Chrysler/GM to use existing unused assembly capacity to build the Model 3, etc. Tesla would've been nearly caught-up with delivery orders by now.

F-150 factory may still be alive and active - but not so much for those producing passenger cars since Ford is quitting the US market. Not yet a morgue, but on life support.

Want proof ? Look at Ford stock valuation in the past 5 years and tell me which direction it's heading.

"Valuation" means NOTHING. There are numerous examples of companies with high valuation that were a house-of-cards disaster about to happen. And so it will be with Tesla.

For a publicly traded company, valuation is real money.

@EVisNow No, valuation is not real money.

"Valuation" is theoretical amount the company is worth in a transaction should the company be put up for sale, but is NOT cold hard cash. Valuation is essentially the asking price in a transaction. It is theoretical because the transaction price is rarely the valuation amount.

Valuation looks at assets and income versus incursions BUT there is also some crystal ball work in that a prognostication of future earning is always a part of the theoretical price.

The transaction price can be more or less than the valuation.

Let's say that Tesla has a valuation of $100. A buyer might pay more if they are willing to gamble that the valuation of Tesla will increase. Five years ago, that would have been a solid bet.

In Tesla's case today, the OPPOSITE is true. A buyer would offer substantially less than the valuation for Tesla given that Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry are getting ready for hard EV onslaught.

Moreover, partners who own a business jointly routinely use the valuation should a partner want out or a new partner wanting in.

I've dealt with valuation many times.

I divested of an interest in a Jaguar dealer to partners when the valuation was high and about a year later the dealer was no more. It went bust. They believed the sky was the limit and that at 22 I knew nothing of the market. I won.

I divested of an interest in a VW dealer below valuation because I wanted the hell out and took the loss. My former partners laughed when sales went up and then crapped themselves when dieselgate happened.

Valuation is the sticker price on the Monroney. If the market makes the car into a "gotta have" vehicle, the customer will pay more than valuation. If it's a Fusion, the customer will pay substantially less.

The real losers are the Tesla dweebs who pay full valuation because of Tesla's fixed pricing. They get cash raped because EVs have horrible resale value--and for good reason. Teslas currently trend slightly better, but once the Porsche Taycan arrives, watch for Tesla resale value to hit the skids.

This is all part of Mr. Smoke and Mirrors Musk's scheme to create media attention. No such thing as 'bad' media attention.

When you have something to hide - or do not want to bring up a subject - Con Men and Crooks often revert to the old - change the subject - and instead hit on the people looking at the problem from the outside. So - a war of words about Pick up trucks that Ford actually produces - and Tesla does not - was a way to get people off the Model 3 Debacle.

THe fact is - Tesla still cannot afford to produce BASE model 3 cars - likely because they were priced too low. So he is coming up with all sorts of "hand tricks" to have people look the other way. ANd of course - he is also using up the last of their allotment of Tax rebates as well - so people who wanted to buy a Base Model 3 AND get a $7500 tax incentive will be TOO LATE to do so. That will result - no doubt - in more cancellations and require deposit returns.

Who gives a flying flip about a company's "energy" if said "energy" can't produce cars at a desired volume or which cannot deliver consistent quality control? Tesla might have happy-unicorn, fields-of-clover energy but it still has egregious quality control issues and dubious production volume.

Musk is lashing out (flailing even) as his house of cards is maybe starting to crumble.

I've said it before, Tesla should have produced a real 7-seater SUV that could also serve duty as an urban delivery van. That would have been a knockout product.

The Model 3 and Model S are nice (the Model X is but a novelty), but sedans are not where the action is.

Instead of doing the Model 3, Tesla should have done a crash redesign of the Model X to get rid of the chicken doors and should--as you say--have done a delivery van.

With sedan sales on the skids, rushing the Model 3 to production a year early was a stumble. The project should have been delayed so that the crossover body could have gone onto the platform instead.

As I said before, I'm saving my last laugh until the end of this year when Tesla shows everyone what they have accomplished with the Model 3. However I have been giggling the last few months since the Model 3 started its production ramp. With the money donated by the TSLA shorts, I'm picking up my first Model 3 this weekend for free. Thanks guys.

Your first Model 3? Are you planning to need several so as to guarantee you have one to drive given Tesla's reliability issues?

Trash talk is baby talk. Show me you're a grown up, may be we can talk.

@EVisNow, I'd have to value you as a person, but I don't, so toughen up, snowflake. Or is that snowFAKE??