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The Spectacle Blog
I’d like to hear from TAS auto columnist Eric Peters about this, but I don’t really understand why Ford seems to be losing money every bit as rapidly as GM. I’ve driven a few different models from each automaker during the past few years and have found the Fords to be much tighter and more rewarding to drive. The GM’s have simply made me yearn for my 2000 Honda Accord.
What gives? Why can’t Ford get ahead?
View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Hunter Baker
http://spectator.org/blog/2008/11/09/ford-v-gm
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Robert Stacy McCain | 11.9.08 @ 7:02PM
Hunter, you don't need Eric Peters to answer this. The answer is very simple: UAW.
Labor goons have saddled U.S. automakers with so many liabilities -- especially in pensions and healthcare costs -- that in order to compete in price, the Big Three lose money with every car they sell.
But don't get me started on AFL-CIO banditry or I'll go all night. I'd shovel manure before I'd ever belong to a union.
ruth| 11.9.08 @ 11:12PM
I don't know about the great Ford vehicles you've owned, but the old adage, Found On Road Dead usually described my unfortunate experiences with Ford.
ruth| 11.9.08 @ 11:16PM
Oh, I love my Honda Civic, it's small but what a great car.
Ashby | 11.9.08 @ 11:17PM
(F)ix (O)r (R)epair (D)aily
ruth| 11.9.08 @ 11:24PM
Ashby, that's a good one! I hadn't heard that one before.
Lewis| 11.10.08 @ 1:58AM
Ford has a great line up with Ford Full size trucks
the 7.3 6.0 and new 6.4 Diesel engines are great vehicles.
Matthew| 11.10.08 @ 3:21AM
I had a 96 ford ranger that never once failed to start in the 8 years that I owned it. I finally sold it for 1400 dollars when it had 110,000 miles on it. Now I have a 2007 nissan frontier and it's a piece. in winter water drips out of the clips the sun visor clips into. I took it in to the dealership about this and they said their was nothing they could do about it. The technician pretty much laughed in my face as he recounted the stories of other Nissan trucks that had done this. Apparantly the problem is worse with the Titan. I've had other problems/annoyances with this vehicle that made me wish for my old Ford. I would have bought another one but their so freakin' teeny compared to other small trucks and Ford hasn't updated the Ranger since the days of the Model T!
Al Hamilton| 11.10.08 @ 5:03AM
The main problem with the US auto industry is a lack of tariffs. Both Japan and Europe have tariffs in the form of a Value Added Tax (VAT). The VAT applies to any Import, but if a product is Exported, then the VAT is refunded to the exporting producer. The result of the VAT is to Tax Imports and to Subsidize Exports.
Free trade simply doesn’t work when only one market (that is nation-state) is playing by the free trade rules.
BTW, when Obama gave a speech last year attacking the US auto industry for not making fuel efficient cars, Obama’s own personal car was a Chrysler 300 Hemi V-8! It was only after that speech that he traded that car in to buy a Ford Escape Hybrid. Hypocrite thy name is Obama.
I’ve owned American cars that ran forever, with limited maintenance and problems. Ford has started to import the best of the design features from Volvo (which it owns as well as Mazda) and combine them with the best they develop in the US. Rumor is Ford may begin to make some of its European models in the US under the Mercury brand. Ford’s European Fiesta gets up to 65 miles per gallon, but can’t be sold in the US due to Federal Government regulations.
Kevin of Michigan| 11.10.08 @ 7:12AM
The problem with Detroit(America auto industry) is that they are every bit as competitive as our Lions.
It takes them five years to do anything. Due to all of the uncompetitive practices in place they have a hard time even breaking even.
I will never buy a shiny new car unless I end up having more money than brains. I currently don't have a clue where these millions will come from but that is ruining the flow of why I will never buy a car that is the latest model. As soon as the car is yours it loses value and year by year it keeps falling at rate that makes it not make sense to buy until it is 2 to 5 years old.
Also in the past twenty years all we have done is find more power without giving up on mileage. That was cool when it was 80 cents a gallon, but now it kinda sucks.
Mrs. J.| 11.10.08 @ 12:14PM
Kevin of Michigan left out a most salient fact - the Lions and Ford are owned by the same family; the Fords. And even though the Fords are educated by the finest educational institutions in the land, they are not known for their intelligence. At all. Only Bill Jr. could say he's a true blue environmentalist (a little blue oval humour there) while running Ford Motor Company and a business plan based on producing the profit rich (well they were) SUV's and trucks and not developing a decent small compact and mid-size car lines -because, thanks to the Unions, they weren't profitable. But it was foolish to throw the baby away with the bat water because of the Unions. No one ever asked what happens if the cost of gas goes up? Also Ford has a practice of allowing the top guy -the Prez - to be Prez for only 5 years. Then they are history. Well that kind of environment doesn't promote healthy long term thinking from the top, does it?
I'd love to hear what Mr. Peters has to say about Ford's woes as well. From where I sit, (which is about at the 50 yard line fourth row up in football terms) the problem Ford also has is the promises it made with Walter Ruether (sp?) back in the post-war years for a stagnant economy and a time when 97% give or take a few cars on the road were American made. Now, the Dying 3 combined do no even add up 50% of the cars on the road being American made. Yet, until the last Union contract go-around Ron Gettlefinger (Prez) had his workers strike to keep as much as they could of their gold standard UAW rewards. Until this last go-around the guys who cut the grass and change the light bulbs at the auto assembly plants were Union and one could be paid $130K in salary and perks for holding wand, pressing the button to let the pre-measured paint be applied to the car. The Unions also still, I believe, dictate how many shifts a plant must run or if the Car execs can actually close it - it doesn't matter to the Union (much) if the cars made in the plant actually sell. Nor did the Union care that Ford's foreign competitors build cars in this country paying their workers about $25 -30 dollars less an hour and without the high level of perks.
Hello?
The question for a while is, with the Union being the Union and the Car Execs being the Cra Execs, can an American Car manufacturer build a car that is profitable? Or do they go belly up, and move to Mexico and ship non-Union Mexican-made cars and trucks up north?
The answer might be found in the fact that Ford Motor has mortgaged all of their North American properties, including the Glass House and the Blue Oval.
Talk about starting over...
MikeN| 11.10.08 @ 11:48PM
Ford cars beep if you don't wear your seatbelt.