Ford's dropping Escort, Cougar, Villager, Lincoln Continental, closing 5 plants, firing 35K people
01-11-2002, 07:17 AM
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Ford's dropping Escort, Cougar, Villager, Lincoln Continental, closing 5 plants, firing 35K people
No word on getting rid of the people who took their eyes off the market and got them there. No word on improving the quality of the cars that's slipped.<ul><li><a href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1207719">Ford restructuring</a></li></ul>
01-11-2002, 07:42 AM
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There was a mayor from some mich city that has a Ford plant in it on MSNBC this morning....
ans he was stating that he thought ford should close some of it's foriegn plants instead of laying off it's domestic workers!
Really smart. The German made (Cologne) Focus is still a VERY hot car (80% are ordered, not available in stock) in Europe, second only to the VW Golf in sales. The economies in most of the countries where FORD has foriegn plants are not in the shambles our economy is in, and it is the American Ford executives (expecially the bean counters) who have cut costs and allowed the building of cars of poor quality. The firestone debacle, the ignition fires debacle, coupled with the genuine lack of quality in the American made Ford products ( 95% of all 80's-current American cars are pretty poor on quality) has caused people to go away from their own domestic products. When you consider that you can buy a Camry or an Accord vs a Taurus or Intrepid, or a Civic or a Golf vs an Escort, Focus, Cavalier or Neon, all for similair dollars, it's no wonder the American car companies are having such a problem.
When GM can't sell camaros in todays in it's home country, when GM cancelled it's caprice, the staple taxi and squad car, and when Ford made an *** out of themselves with the Firestone deal, it became ever more clear that the American car market was/is being run by people who aren't "Car Smart" or at all in touch with "Joe" consumer.
Mike S
Really smart. The German made (Cologne) Focus is still a VERY hot car (80% are ordered, not available in stock) in Europe, second only to the VW Golf in sales. The economies in most of the countries where FORD has foriegn plants are not in the shambles our economy is in, and it is the American Ford executives (expecially the bean counters) who have cut costs and allowed the building of cars of poor quality. The firestone debacle, the ignition fires debacle, coupled with the genuine lack of quality in the American made Ford products ( 95% of all 80's-current American cars are pretty poor on quality) has caused people to go away from their own domestic products. When you consider that you can buy a Camry or an Accord vs a Taurus or Intrepid, or a Civic or a Golf vs an Escort, Focus, Cavalier or Neon, all for similair dollars, it's no wonder the American car companies are having such a problem.
When GM can't sell camaros in todays in it's home country, when GM cancelled it's caprice, the staple taxi and squad car, and when Ford made an *** out of themselves with the Firestone deal, it became ever more clear that the American car market was/is being run by people who aren't "Car Smart" or at all in touch with "Joe" consumer.
Mike S
01-11-2002, 07:51 AM
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This is great news, ford is the worlds weakest auto maker.
Their engines are very inefficient, and there body styles are ugly as a whole. Go to a wrecker and most of the cars there are ford cars and trucks. The best part of ford died many years ago and that was Henry Ford who revolutionized manufacturing with the assembly line, and interchangable parts for cars.
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01-11-2002, 07:53 AM
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Not much that anyone can dispute with what you said, and I'd add...
..the execs got fat and happy cause US manufactureres were the only ones with decent SUV's when the market was heating up big time and they lost sight of keeping that product (as much as I hate them) fresh and competitive, and the Janpanese and European manufacturers have come from behind with competetive, high quality units that are hurting the most profitable business the US makers had. Dumb to let that go.
01-11-2002, 07:57 AM
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Its the same assembly line (read:non flexible manufacturing) that lost them alot of their
market years and years back...not eveyrone eanted a black model T...hahaha FMS (flexible manufacturing systems) are the wya to go now...even FORD got this a while back...