With Chrysler already in BK and GM heading that way, people continue to point to Ford as the winner of the 3.
I am not discrediting that, but it is like an 80 year old guy bragging about outlasting his childhood friends.
Yes, they have stayed out of bail out and BK discussion, but I don’t think they are out of the woods yet.
The only reason they haven’t had to ask for money is the fact they were worse off than the other 2 a couple years ago and therefore leveraged pretty much everything they own to come up with cash. Now, they are hoping they can wait out the UAW negotiations with the BK auto companies to piggy back on the lower cost of labor.
Since almost all of their assets are leveraged, they now only have two moves to gain cash: beg for money or dilute their stock
So they are doing both:
The EIB said Ford would receive 400 million euros for its operations in Romania and 200 million euros for research and development in Germany.
Ford Motor Co. said today that it would sell 300 million common shares and use part of the proceeds to pay off its health-care obligations to the UAW under the terms of a recently concluded deal with the union.
I know they still haven’t taken any US govt loans, but they lost $1.43 billion in the first quarter and still have a number of the same issues the other domestics have.
Sorry for the rant, but I got into a similar argument with someone this morning.
This is not a GM (CTS-V) > * thread, but just trying to point out that all auto companies (Nissan, Toyota, Ford, etc) are hurting right now.
Cliffs: Ford issued a bunch of stock diluting their common shares to raise capital and taking loans from the EU.
Honda’s profit plunged during its most recent quarter but its annual result was well above its target.
Japan’s second-biggest carmaker said it had a net loss of 186.16 billion yen ($1.94 billion) in the January-March period, down from a profit of 25.43 billion yen a year earlier.
Honda Motor Co, Japan’s second-biggest automaker, may build more vehicles than bankrupt Chrysler LLC in North America this year, further weakening Detroit’s grip on its home market.
Honda narrowed the gap to 17,011 vehicles at the end of April from 236,645 a year earlier, and with most Chrysler plants shut for as long as 60 days, analysts expect the Japanese automaker to overtake its rival. Honda may also surpass Chrysler in US sales to trail only bankruptcy-threatened General Motors Corp, Toyota Motor Corp and Ford Motor Co.
Well after politicians told the GM and Chrysler that they were going down the shitter because of product mix and lack of new gas efficient technology, I am sure this is earth shattering to them that some of the “perfect” companies are not doing well either.
at least ford has a steady flow of exciting products coming in the future. hopefully they can hold on to produce them. their long term engine plans will save them a lot of money.
no I mean producing competitive cars in for nitch markets. taurus SHO competes with the 5 serise and audi a6/s6.
All electric focus for 2011 for the green freeks + the devlopment of the 2.0 ecoboost that will be in the neighborhood of 250hp. Devlopment of a dual clutch tranny (that part is playing catch up. both the 2.0 and tranny).
F150 rage is a awesome truck. Though more for marketing than for profit
The launch of the 3.5L and 3.7L ecoboost engine into nearly every vehicle they produce is going to be HUGE. power, effecientcy, modabality. I will not say reliabality untill they are on the streets but from what I have read they are taking the devlopment very serously compared to things in the past likthe 2.3 turbo in the mazdaspeed stuff. There is still talk that the duratorque (4cyl diesel) may come to the US but that is still just talk.
the fusion hybrid system is rocking reviews right now. A fun to drive hybrid with power and good fuel econmy. The CVT transmission was used in the ford 500 for 2 years of production to test durabality and with 0 reported failures on taurus car club of america I have high hopes that it will not be a problem now that it has to deal with a car that is a lot lighter and a 4cyl engine instead of a 6cy.
playing catchup? maybe a in some areas but they are on track to have a great product lineup. It will be interesting to see how that works for them.