I owned a 93 Ford Prode GT,and I can tell you,it was a piece of shit. First of all, It took premium gas and if it ran on anything else it would run like pure shit. The other thing is that all of the internal parts were Mazda,which made it expensive as shit to fix. I will never buy a Ford product ever again. As a matter of fact,there are very few American cars that I would buy with my hard earned money,these days.It's hard to find an American made car that's still driving with over 200k miles. All in all, they are not made to last,and I'm 100% sure that it's intentional too.
Ford Motor posts record losses
- Thread starter AFA
- Start date
Right You are!-And the stock market is ROCKIN!--Great Economy overall.----This will piss off the anti-capitalists!-----XOM is the symbol for those that want to invest in Exxon....COP is Conoco Phillips...CVX is Chevron.I am just into mischief now.Sorry to my communist and socialist friends.:1orglaugh
The subject of the film is a wider view I think. China's economy is booming, while US workers are laid off from closing factories making similiar products at a greater cost. What we feel is a standard of living here that allows us to buy a new car every few years or a big screen TV, is quickly fading, and impossible if you no longer have a job.
That's the trade off the film presents.
Invest in anything regularly, gold or paper securities. The news today said the savings rate is the lowest in history in the US, while personal debt is at it's highest. Forboding news both for the future economy and individual lifestyles.
Here's an interesting story;
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Perso...2832725&page=1
That's the trade off the film presents.
Invest in anything regularly, gold or paper securities. The news today said the savings rate is the lowest in history in the US, while personal debt is at it's highest. Forboding news both for the future economy and individual lifestyles.
Here's an interesting story;
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Perso...2832725&page=1
Here it is again;
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/
dave_rhino
Closed Account
I bet they still have more money than i do 
This stems from one great problem: We, as Americans, ever since the Commodore Matthew Perry ported in Uraga Harbor to force the Japanese to open up and trade with the United States in 1853, have been moving to establish free and open markets with which to trade. For newly opened and developing markets, this provided a great boom for American businesses of the time, and almost everyone believed that globalization and free trade were great things that should be vehemently pursued. Short-sighted people only saw the upside, and short-sighted businesses were too busy counting their profits to think ahead long-term. Now that we're firmly entrenched on the path towards this destination of globalization, everyone is discovering that there can be a downside and there are many other places that will perform jobs for less. It's not that we didn't know this was going to happen, it's just that nobody took the time or effort to get prepared for it.
For the United States...this is nothing earth-shattering. It's called the transition from a modern economy to a post-modern service-based economy. This is the same thing that Scandinavia and some parts of Europe went through, we were just able to postpone it due to the Cold War.
Furthermore, it's not like these jobs are lost forever, jobs ebb and rise with the fluidity of water. Once the market reaches equilibrium price (because China won't always be this cheap), the jobs will return due to productivity levels and technology.
Now that I've completely went around the block to cross the street: here's the part about Ford. Ford, like other American automotive manufacturers, were able to catch up with the Japanese in the 1990's because they were making good quality automobiles that people liked. Reaching parity, they then decided to focus on profits as well, i.e the advent of the SUV. While focusing too much on bottom-line profits, American manufacturers became oblivious to the fact that the consumers tastes had changed, but all was still well, they were selling enough to be profitable. Everything was fine and lay-offs were kept to a minimum until the bubble busted: fuel at $3 a gallon. What had been a small, incremental shift in demand suddenly became a large fundamental change. A quarter or two after this, American auto makers realized that they would be forced to change as well? Unfortunately, at the time, their idea of change was to keep the same product line, they just decided to make less product (cutbacks) with less workers (layoffs and buyouts) and offer larger incentives. For them, this was "restructuring." Since they couldn't continually offer these "deals," they returned to business as usual, which only served to make the problem worse. So...here we are, a couple of years after the initial problem, and it (the problem) has only gotten worse and led to more needless job losses...all because American auto manufacturers committed the giant sin of taking the US buyer for granted and ignoring the change in the automotive demands on the American consumer.
I'm done.
For the United States...this is nothing earth-shattering. It's called the transition from a modern economy to a post-modern service-based economy. This is the same thing that Scandinavia and some parts of Europe went through, we were just able to postpone it due to the Cold War.
Furthermore, it's not like these jobs are lost forever, jobs ebb and rise with the fluidity of water. Once the market reaches equilibrium price (because China won't always be this cheap), the jobs will return due to productivity levels and technology.
Now that I've completely went around the block to cross the street: here's the part about Ford. Ford, like other American automotive manufacturers, were able to catch up with the Japanese in the 1990's because they were making good quality automobiles that people liked. Reaching parity, they then decided to focus on profits as well, i.e the advent of the SUV. While focusing too much on bottom-line profits, American manufacturers became oblivious to the fact that the consumers tastes had changed, but all was still well, they were selling enough to be profitable. Everything was fine and lay-offs were kept to a minimum until the bubble busted: fuel at $3 a gallon. What had been a small, incremental shift in demand suddenly became a large fundamental change. A quarter or two after this, American auto makers realized that they would be forced to change as well? Unfortunately, at the time, their idea of change was to keep the same product line, they just decided to make less product (cutbacks) with less workers (layoffs and buyouts) and offer larger incentives. For them, this was "restructuring." Since they couldn't continually offer these "deals," they returned to business as usual, which only served to make the problem worse. So...here we are, a couple of years after the initial problem, and it (the problem) has only gotten worse and led to more needless job losses...all because American auto manufacturers committed the giant sin of taking the US buyer for granted and ignoring the change in the automotive demands on the American consumer.
I'm done.
Your assuming that the corporations won't just go to the next cheap place if that happens which it might very well not. It's hard to tell with a totalitarian government. In any case, there are a lot of poor people in this world. More than enough for the needs of corporations for a long time to come, and the worlds population is going to boom with even more. It isn't too smart to have people suffering now in the hopes that centuries from now, maybe, if we are lucky, everybody will be well off and there will be no place in the world where people can be exploited. Even that scenario I doubt will ever happen.
DrMotorcity
Don Trump calls me Pornography Man
Spare us your grief, stockholders and even those of you, who happen to be employed by Ford, or even those who may actually own and or drive a Ford product! We (natives) now have both identified the culprit and summarily have him well in hand! His name is Matt Millen!
:ban:
Him(?!) It could be anyone.
Remember, you heard it here first.
:ban:
Him(?!) It could be anyone.
Remember, you heard it here first.
If they built a good product and not jerk around thier customers, maybe they would do better.
After years of domestic ownership, I bought a Japanese brand. Five years so far and no problems. I used to trade every 4-5 years, but this time I will see how far I can go with this one. My next purchase will most likely be another Japanese brand.
After years of domestic ownership, I bought a Japanese brand. Five years so far and no problems. I used to trade every 4-5 years, but this time I will see how far I can go with this one. My next purchase will most likely be another Japanese brand.
MRPIMPN4EVA
Banned
Nobody wants to ride Fords anymore.
It shows you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
If you are indeed talking about an F-250... in a vast majority of cases an F-250 SuperDuty comes with the Powerstroke diesel engine. You can get them with the 5.4L gas V8 (like the one in my F-150) but they are rare.
A diesel will run forever and they retain their value better than anything out there. This is true of just about any diesel truck - do the research. A 2-year old diesel F-250 will lose some value off the lot, but after that the depreciation curve is very slight. I was looking at late 90's Ford diesels and I couldn't touch one with under 100,000 miles for under $17,500. I wanted to buy one and turn it into a sleeper street truck. A diesel will really move with a Banks twin turbo kit and some programming. I had to ditch the idea because I couldn't get into an F-250 for a reasonable price and i didn't want to hotrod a motor with 100,000+ miles on it, diesel or not.
I don't know where you're doing your research, but I'd love to see a late 90's Tacoma with 100,000 miles fetch that kind of price tag.
Ford is definitely in trouble, but their trucks are one of the few things that aren't particularly problematic. People really should understand what they are talking about before making comments.
:dunno:
Unfortunately whether or not I agree with your good comments Jbarx, a friend of mine in MS was talking about the higher price of diesel over gasoline by about 50 cents or more, that he ultimately sold his F-150 for a smaller Nissan gas pickup. I don't know if this was a local thing only but it was enough that it forced him to sell his older Ford pickup and go into a loan for the newer truck.
:1orglaugh
He must have some dirt of the Ford family, be a master at hypnosis, or be part of the mob. Those are the only ways I can rationalize him still having the job.
Yeah... and there are plenty of times when that makes sense. A few years ago, my big V8 F-150 was no big deal at the pump, but now it's a bit of a liability. Hey... what can ya do? Fortunately I only drive about 7-8,000 miles a year so it doesn't hurt me too much - even back when a fillup ran almost $70.
Rumor has it (well, actually I have a buddy who is an engineer at Ford) that SVT is trying to re-release the Lightning in 2010. My truck is paid off and I'm holding out until I can confirm the news.
I hope Ford gets it together. I've had a Taurus (87 was a very bad year for them), a Thunderbird (great car - those 3.8 V6's were pretty solid), and now the F-150. Between the T-Bird and truck I've had to replace 1 water pump (and possibly one in the truck soon), 3 sets of brakes, 3 sets of tires, an ignition coil and a recalled cruise switch over the course of 11 years. With regular maintenance of course.
Works for me.
:thumbsup:
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