Originally Posted by tripleblack

They Need To Save Ford

Ford Motor Company has fallen on hard times. The fresh new designs aren’t selling - the dependable old SUV’s and F150’s are sitting on the lots, endangered species threatened by looming $4 per gallon gasoline prices - and the competition is offering better looking, better running, more dependable vehicles at lower prices. Insular, “hide your head in the sand and maybe they’ll go away” management has failed to fill the pipeline with the cars and trucks needed to match the new market realities. The massive problems with quality that plagued them in the 70’s and 80’s are thankfully gone, but that just means that buyers are now shopping for style, performance and utility rather than simply how many tiny flaws can be spotted on a new car by J.D. Powers and Associates.

Speaking of the paramount importance of styling, Mays, self-anointed “chief design executive“, has fled the s-storm in Detroit and set up shop in his preferred digs in London, his fresh, newly recognized “center of the creative universe”. While the white collar faithful back in the USA have their morale hammered by yet another decimation of their ranks, he and his cronies lounge in the salons of Soho dreaming up new Ford 500’s, Freestyles and Escapes to plague their long-suffering dealers with. Bill Ford, a Mays admirer, doubtless has given them their marching orders: Design gorgeous bodies for the hybrid vehicles to make them more saleable (which would mean they were selling at all, of course) - design the successor to the Think electric cars (have they shipped all those ill-fated mistakes back to Euroland yet?) - oh, and be sure to pen some quickie layouts for the glue-on decals for the exciting new SVT Ford 500, SVT Escape (er, Adrenaline), and the SVT Freestyle (no, that‘s been canceled, but a new image for the Edsel-clone and utterly failed vehicle when its reintroduced in 2008 or whenever).

If Ford wants to save Ford (and how many entendre’s can one find in that simple phrase ?), he might give some thought to the following:

1. Quit blaming the lack of sales and profits on the unions and retirees. His competition has all the same problems, so a level playing field has already been achieved. Sure, some of the guys build components in countries where the labor is cheap and the UAW doesn’t exist - so does Ford. Just because folks have believed the old bromide that “they can’t make any profits because of the evil unions” in the past doesn’t mean that the same lame excuse will play today. He might even discover that the unions would talk sanely if management ceases to blame them for all the ills of the world…

2. Fix some recent mistakes. Axing middle management engineers creating things like the GT just before you bring it to market was unwise (yes, I’m talking about Colleti here). What should have been a shining corporate icon in a dark product universe has been dulled by bonehead problems with castings that break and $275,000, 200mph sports cars gathering dust in dealer’s maintenance bays waiting on parts. (Of course, why the $140,000 GT’s are being gouged at twice the price by desperate dealers is just another indication of systemic failure).

Depriving the Ford SVT fans of their cherished Lightnings, SVT Foci and Cobras just so you could win some low level corporate coup was misplaced schoolyard ego at best.

3. Regain control over the design process. The picture of an American corporate icon like Ford lacking a design center and being totally dependent on the whims of a flake squatting in a flat in London is not a pretty one. Disconnecting from the American buying public and plugging into the artsy set in England is no way to fix the problem with new designs that don’t appeal and don’t sell. You’ve got a serious mismatch between your designers and your market. You need the American shopper - and he and she don’t live in Soho. Fix it or die.

4. Finances. If you want to stop whimpering about money, and really want to make a change that can help everybody, pick up Neal Boortz’s new book about a national retail sales tax to replace the income tax. Want to streamline white collar labor costs and free up capital to invest in your company? Imagine the savings when you don’t need tax lawyers, accountants and the IT and clerical support staff that goes with them! Between the direct costs of complying with federal corporate income tax rules, and accounting for all your employee’s income tax withholding needs, the savings would be huge. Add the sudden lack of that overhead to price competition with foreign auto manufacturers, and suddenly it will be THEM squealing about unfair price advantage!

5. Dust off all those market segment studies and plan cars that match the segments.

5.1. Toyota’s Scion line is an excellent example. Do that, and do 2 versions - one for Mercury, too.

5.2. Give poor old Mercury some help - you simply can’t afford (unlike GM, who seems to think nothing of killing off entire car marques) to let Mercury die. Bring back the Cougar - use the power of the new Mustang (your sole success story this year, lack of GT supply notwithstanding) to build up Mercury dealers. Get a young, meat-eating American designer to pen the simple changes (keep her close to the Mustang, keep the design changes simple but potent). Maybe make the lines just a touch more European…

5.3. Add back the Mustang niche models you axed - the new Shelby is great, but add a Mach 1 (the new body lines were meant for this) and an IRS option for the Shelby, if not a complete new Cobra (use the 4.6 with a blower and IRS - suspension tuned like the racers).

5.4. Revive the Lightning. Put the same 5.4 in as the new Shelby.

5.5. Bring out the Adrenaline, too, but don’t plan on selling as many of these as you do of the Lightning. Its still a butt-ugly overall design.

5.6. Revive the SVT Focus. Get some AWD action in this lineup to compete with the Subarus. Add a turbo.

5.7. Kill the Freestyle ASAP. Money pit, and that’s it. No need to resurrect the corpse - let it die.

5.8. Put some effort into a new Ranger pickup - grab your scattered design staff and get them moving right away on this. Use some imagination.

5.9. Revamp the brand new, but not working, design for the Ford 500. Rethink the CVT - it can work, but not the way it does now. DO NOT wait the “normal” grace period for new designs to take hold. That’s 90’s think - and defunct.

5.10. Lincoln needs to be competing with Cadillac, Lexus, and Infiniti - not Saab and, er, Ford. Rethink dropping the Aviator SUV - gas prices may change that market a lot. Moving a small Jag design in was a good idea at the time, but it has rotted on the vine. More promising would be a BIG Jag design as a new Continental - leave the large-format Town Car as is - totally refresh the small Jag Lincoln - and add a new sports car Mark IX based on the Jag XK. Once set up, the same production line (moved to Atlanta?) might even be expanded to include some Jags, with little effort…

5.11. Mercury would benefit from the ideas I’ve espoused above, with the following new moves: Dump the euro-cougar and add the new Mustang-clone cougar… Advertise the Marauder more, and put some giant tires on her… Give Mercury a pickup truck, with front end styling similar to the Mountaineer - don’t worry that it will compete with the Lincoln LT, the price differential should be substantial…