In what is likely to be a positive strategy that will toss-out 50’s-era thinking, according to the Wall Street Journal, Alan Mulally (Ford’s CEO) is aiming at paring down the automaker’s eight brands in favor of more efficient models that have a Ford feel. Much the way BMW has done.
This move would be consistent with speculation (including FordMuscle’s) that many of Ford’s problems are due to the fact that the “lowest” brand on the totem pole carries the name of the Corporation….FORD.
While Ford is expected to sell its Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover brands, the fate of Ford’s Volvo brand will be a key indicator of Mr. Mulally’s direction and how far he will go in simplifying the company’s roster.
An article written by Monica Langley from the Wall Street Journal hits on some key points that really show Mulally is going to make a difference at Ford…
Mr. Mulally scrambled to familiarize himself with Ford’s vehicles. On a table in his office, he laid out 12 different prop rods used to hold up hoods of various Ford models. He demonstrated to managers that this variation is costly but doesn’t matter to consumers.
Derrick Kuzak (Ford’s Global Product Leader) said that Ford has a longstanding practice of each product line operating independently, which resulted in differentiation in a bid to produce a “unique car.” Mr. Mulally replied: “World-class companies don’t operate this way”
Full article at www.post-gazette.com
On Sunday I had the spark plug blow out in my 66K miles Ford Expedition (2000 model). I was on the bridge with my 3 year old son in the back. When I took it to the mechanic on Monday (everything was closed on Sunday) he just shook his head. I have now found that this has happened to thousands of Ford owners. When I google “ford spark plug blowout” I get 90K+ hits. If you limit the search through quotes and stuff you still get about 14,000 pages. When I google “toyota spark plug blowout” the only pages returned are referring to FORD! WTF? How can Ford ignore this problem? It’s clearly a design flaw and it’s gonna cost me a ton. I have also discovered that an entire cottage industry has appeared around this design flaw, with companies making fix kits. Apparently one company sold 15,000 of these kits last year! Ford’s ignoring this problem is going to lose them thousands upon thousands of customers. I will NEVER buy a Ford vehicle again EVER. My father is in the car business (he purchases FLEETS) and I have told him never to buy Ford again ever. I have told anyone who will listen about this problem - and I deal with 100’s of people daily. Ford is going to lose so many customers because they are being peeny-wise and pound-foolish. Even a “secret/back-door” warranty woul dbe better that hearing “I’ve never seen this before” from the customer service people and the dealer. As far as I am concerned Ford can kiss my a$$.
By Mike. March 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pmIf the American companies would quit retiring people with a huge retirement salary and all the benefits they had when they worked at the company, we may not be talking about this. Union labor is the root of the money problem as well as paying the upper management wayyy too much.
By Bee. January 3rd, 2007 at 11:44 amOh lets look at paring down , oh lets introduce cars that the consumer wants, BLA BLA BLA
You want the reason for fords demise, You dont have to look any farther than this .
Like it or Not the consumer is fickle. Very fickle when it comes to buying a 30000 Vehicle only to have the spark plug plug blow out at anywhere from 50000 to 150000 miles.
Sorry, but Fords problems lie within bad design ,and then complete ignorance of problems that they dont want to fix.
Well the consumer has choices at that point. Buy a different brand ( a LOT of people are! ) Sue Ford ( yah right ) or bite the bullet and pay to have it fixed. ( dont forget all of the friends and family that will hear about fords lack of concern and the defect ! )
All this talk of problems with their vehicle “line up” are just a smoke screen for the real problems.
http://www.topix.net/forum/autos/ford/TR7HFU0VD0N2U9KPD
By 71hotrodpinto. December 27th, 2006 at 5:09 pmBeing a Boeing employee of many years, I’ve seen how Mulally was successful with the Commercial Airplane division - think 777 and Dreamliner. Ford could stand a little of his ‘medicine’ as evidenced by some of the posts here. He set up and ran a world class company for many years, and I’m sure he’ll shake things up. But it can’t hurt, IMHO.
By smellslikeWD40. December 25th, 2006 at 12:34 pmMavowar, So many people are BLIND to the facts you stated. Im not, But so many others are.
I’ll say this. When Toyota starts selling their stock on Wallstreet (probably won’t ever happen) then the import panzies can continue their “My import is more american then the big 3″.
By Wildo. December 24th, 2006 at 5:22 amToyota quality has went down. Lets see 3.0 motors v6. Oil coking due to poor oil drain back. Leading to plugged oil screens and expired motors. Struts and or mounts are total crap on the 94 and up camrys. The 1.8l motors get sticking oil rings…..Just a handful of stuff I see on a regular bassis. There is no car that is that much better at this point. The Japanese have admitted to this since the the turn of the century. I am an ASE master tech of 13 plus years. Look at the economics issues The rich by Imports as a stsus symbol but have the income to maintain them. Johnny average buys an escort and can barley afford the gas. What car is gonna last longer? Come on stop being mindless zombies………and think…….for yourselves…..
By Mavowar. December 23rd, 2006 at 2:52 pmhell, being in the body shop industry we even prefer to work on Japanese cars. We make more money on them and we get them done quicker too. for instance, why does the rear bumper cover for a Ford Focus cost $150 more than one for a Toyota Avalon? it just seems really really unbalanced. i agree that platform sharing can work well, provided that there is enough variation between the brands to warrant the different models. badge engineering wont work. (Contour/Mystique? Taurus/Sable?)
I would love to see Ford build a small, RWD 4cylinder Compact car though. Something Focus-sized and priced. I doubt it will happen. Lets just wait for the Japanese to beat us to the punch again.
By Steve. December 23rd, 2006 at 10:36 amI seem to remember back in 64 that Ford wanted the Mustang but couldn’t afford a new model. So a certain bright young man based it off the Falcon to share most of its parts. It cut production cost dramtically and in 1964 we saw the Mustang come to life. In the 60’s a lot of Ford cars shared parts to keep cost down. They seem to have forgotten that. Maybe Mr. Mulally can remind them of that simple method to cut cost.
By Ed. December 23rd, 2006 at 8:28 ammy take on this,
OHHH NOO!
This has me worried.
The problem like it or not has been fords track record with reliablitly and warrenty features on existing vehicles that have been made in the last few years.
F150 4.6 Spark plug blowout. ( only 2 threads holding the plug in) NO recall and no warrenty after the first plug change way after it expires. HOW MUCH FOR NEW HEADS AND LABOR???? 5000 and up!
Ford Focus. Ignition tumbler breaking and leaving you stranded. NO recall. And how much does it cost to have a tow?? ( happend to my wife) the focus was out since 2000?? 1999? still they only just fixed it on the 2005s THATS STUPID
Lest we forget the Explorer incident?? Not entirely fords deal. And they handled it wonderfully. However damage done.
Ford Ranger
The blend door on the heater AC unit breaks. Now its a minor inconveniance but to have heat when i want it and cool requires this part. How many affected Vehicles? If its a ford ranger or explorer guess what? same design. Its soo bad that there are fixes all over websites dedicated on how to fix it cheaply, Oh the fix from the dealer??? $700 for a new heater box assy + labor for 6 hours . The door??? oh 20 for an aftermarket. and you install it. Better part of 2 days work.
This is just a small list of things that ive experianced and heard of. All i can say is that whenever i talk to many of my friends about new fords is RELIABLITY!!! and warrenty coverage. Some have owned fords (recently) and were discusted on many points. Some have had friends that owned Fords that had problems and wont buy a ford now.
On that point of reliablity Why is Toyota #2 selling brand now?? Reliablity. I hate to admit it myself! but true.
NOW having said that, Im a tru blue ford owner and never will change, but The general public is very Fickle.
By 71hotrodpinto. December 22nd, 2006 at 11:15 pmI agree… well kinda, The example of the GMC and Chebby Suberban is a good one, but having 12 differant prop rods is dumb. That is something that makes no differance to owners, but it raises the price doing nothing for quality.
Should they be the same model with differant badges, NO WAY, but small stuff that doesnt matter should be the same to keep costs down.
By Andy. December 22nd, 2006 at 3:15 pmFrom what I’m gathering, the new guy wants to make all the vehicles look the same just change it up w/ different badging? If so, didn’t he study economics? True that it is cheaper for his plan but he is wrong about consumers. If the Chevy Suburban looked exactly like its counterpart from GMC (in the 90’s, the only difference between the two was the name on the grill, since the model name was even used for both) and say the Chevy was slighly cheaper, everyone would be buying Chevys and GMC sales will drop and cause trouble for that division. End result, you may get profits but not as much as say if you chaged the Chevy version up a bit. Look at the new Mark LT. Why buy that when you get all of the features in it in a F-150 for less (minus the Lincoln badges)? What the US automakers are doing now is a response to what they did in the 90’s: no diversification among the divisions. Now that the vehicles from each of Ford’s divisions have a different flair to each, the new guy wants to undo this? This is why the Japanese companies are thriving (besides price and mileage): the fact that a Toyota and a Lexus looks different.
By bassman97. December 22nd, 2006 at 2:09 pm