Ford Death Watch 6: Is Alan Mulally Billy Ford’s Human Shield?
Thirty-five million dollars, the keys to the corporate jet and a Detroit McMansion is a pretty good compensation package for any aspiring executive. Obviously, if freshly-minted Ford CEO Alan Mulally...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 7: Jump Down Turnaround
Another day, another turnaround plan. For those of you keeping score, Ford’s “Way Forward 2.0” is actually the third version in four years. In terms of strategy, the new, new plan holds few surprises;...
View ArticleGeneral Motors Death Watch 91 / Ford Death Watch 8: GM and Ford To Merge?
The idea that Ford and GM will merge or, as they say these days, “form an alliance” is yet another sign that we’re reaching the End of Days, Detroit style. Sorry, haven’t you heard? This morning’s...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 9: Capacity Utilization is Job One
Auto industry analysts have cast their beady eyes on The Blue Oval's third turnaround plan, and they don’t like what they see. Despite the fact that Billy and Alan and Mark have mashed the gas on...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 10: Wielding the Culture Club
This morning, I met with a management consultant who works for The Big Two Point Five. Back before the recent “unpleasantness,” Ford’s top brass engaged the consultant to tackle a marketing issue...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 12: By the Numbers
First the good news. For the first time in eight long months, George Pipas, Ford's man in the crosshairs Manager of Sales Analysis, could deliver glad tidings to anxious stockholders and stakeholders....
View ArticleFord Death Watch 13: Ford Feels Edgy
Star Trek based many of its best episodes on simple homilies. In “The Lights of Zetar” (Star date 5725.3), Memory Alpha is attacked. Creatures from the planet Zetar concoct an energy storm that ravages...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 14: The Race is On
Is there any doubt that that Ford is heading for Chapter 11? Sure. There are plenty of auto industry eggheads and company officials who continue to believe that FoMoCo has what it takes-- or will have...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 15: Those who do not learn from history
The new CEO of the company walked into the boardroom. The mood was grim. Recruited from another company in another industry just a few months previously, he carried bleak news. The automaker had just...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 16: Bold Snooze
Last Friday, JWT invited me to the Big Apple to discuss their Bold Moves internet documentary series. The ad agency wanted to interview "one of Ford’s fiercest critics" about their client’s decision to...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 17: Dealer or No Dealer?
As bad as Ford’s third quarter results (version 1.0) were for Dearborn’s darlings, the future doesn’t look much better. Ford’s Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair has publicly admitted that he expects...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 18: Betting the Farm
To combat the commonly held (if accurate) belief that FoMoCo’s product pipeline is drier than a Vermouth-free martini, FoMoCo recently unveiled the “Showroom of the Future.” Ford ushered retirees,...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 19: Ford By Name, Four’d By Nature
November’s sales figures are out, and FoMoCo’s treading unfamiliar waters. For the first time since, well, ever, Dearborn’s darlings find themselves off the sales podium. The General, Toyota and both...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 21: We’re Number Three!
The average American car buyer is completely unaware of Ford’s financial troubles. They don’t know Alan Mulally from Bertie Ahern. They don’t know that Ford’s taken out The Mother of All Bank Loans,...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 22: The Spin Starts Here
The Detroit News recently enlisted J.D. Power and Associates to help explain Detroit's pressure drop, and figure out how Ford and the other 1.5 can stop the rot. After gathering data from 500 survey...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 23: There are 12k parts in an average Ford. This is a story...
Enthusiasts don’t tend to wax eloquent about seat tracks. They’re the automotive equivalent of the sliding rails that support file cabinet drawers when you pull them all the way out. A vehicle’s front...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 24: Jaguar: Momento mori
Once upon a time, a dapper German auto exec named Wolfgang Rietzle dreamed of running BMW. When the Bavarians gave Wolfie the cold shoulder (twice), he left their employ to build his own, even larger...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 25: The Transmogrification of the Taurus
Sin City’s casinos are designed to create the illusion of chance. Vegas’ neon lights, chiming bells and piped-in oxygen keep hopefuls dazed, confused and distracted while their dollars are vacuumed...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 27: Staking the Raises
February’s sales figures are in. Ford continues to sing the blues. While FoMoCo’s spinmeisters invite us to savor the consistency of their domestic market share and clock their lessening fleet...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 28: Alan Mulally Wants to Be Where the People Are
Back in ’98, the BBC aired a fly-on-the-wall documentary series called “Back to the Floor.” A camera crew followed five British bosses who left the relative safety of the executive suite for a week's...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 29: Funkmaster Flex Expedition? Shelby GT-500KR? Ford F-150...
"We are absolutely going to do what it takes to keep our product fresh and keep it relevant in the market.” Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! A Ford exec making a public commitment to ongoing...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 30: Executive Compensation
In the first three months of his employment, Ford CEO Alan Mulally earned himself a cool $28.2m. So how’s the high flying ex-Boeing exec doing in his campaign to save the embattled automaker? According...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 31: David Mamet’s Hair Splitting TV Ads Miss Their Mark
In 1997, Kiwi film director Lee Tamahori brought playwright David Mamet’s words to the silver screen in an Alec Baldwin/Anthony Hopkins vehicle called The Edge. Ten years later and David Mamet lensed...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 32: Taking Stock
At Thursday's annual Glass House Gang get-together, eight of ten shareholder proposals got the axe. The kyboshed suggestions include a mandate to disclose the identities of all execs collecting upwards...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 33: Good, Fast, Cheap or None of the Above?
Last year, the Ford Motor Co. lost $12.7b. The company is carrying $188b in debt. Its bonds are non-investment grade. It’s got to the point where less than one in ten American analysts recommends the...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 34: PAG Pegs Out. Who will buy Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo?
Adoption is a lengthy process. Prospective parents must submit to all kinds of scrutiny to prove themselves suitable child care providers. And for good reason. You can’t give ‘em back, as they say. Not...
View ArticleFord’s Death Watch 35: Everything Must Go
Desperate times, desperate measures. Ford Motor Company has retained the services of three investment banks to advise it on the sale of Jaguar, Land Rover and, perhaps, Volvo. Flogging the remains of...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 36: What Profit a Man?
Last week, Ford exceeded Wall Street’s expectations by reporting a profit. A profit! As in, the American automaker took in more money than they spent! Pundits unfamiliar with the fact that Ford carries...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 37: Is Mulally Making the Grade?
The House that Henry Built was close to ruin when Junior Bill fell on his sword to bounce Boeing’s best to The Blue Oval. One year later, BusinessWeek (BW) gives FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally an A-. And yet...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 38: Wiggle Room
So Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have hammered-out a new deal. Our fave sage Daniel Howes over at The Detroit News hailed the tentative agreement with the usual rhetoric: new paradigms,...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 39: Bah Humbug
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas; at least in Dearborn. Ford has reinstated merit raises for their white collar workers. Bonuses for its blue collared brigade are under consideration. Ford’s...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 40: Mercury R.I.P.
Four vehicles. That’s all you’ll find on Mercury's web site. If you’re as “lucky” as I am, Mercury will respond to your browsing by asking if you want to spend five minutes on a questionnaire. Say...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 41: Time to Bail
Alan Mulally began last year as a passenger on a nose-diving Ford Motor Company. Clocking the company’s $12.6b fiscal flummox, FoMoCo’s CEO left no punches unpulled. "We fully recognize our business...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 42: Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch
Automotive News recently published an interview with Ford's group vice president of human resources. Joe Laymon mentioned the names of six brass hats Ford considers potential successors to their...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 43: Drive One… What?
"Ford on a good day is always about the people," declared Jim Farley, group vice president of Ford marketing and communications. Like many of these pre-digested pronouncements, Farley’s seemingly...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 44: Captain Kirk Bets on The Last Man Standing
Why would gunslinger/investor Kirk Kerkorian want to buy Ford? After two decades living high off the [gas] hog, Ford’s still suffering the Mother of all Hangovers. The night before the day after,...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 45: Last Man Standing Pt. 2
I recently bought a dishwasher. Investor Kirk Kerkorian (a.k.a. “The Lion of Las Vegas”) bought 20m shares of Ford Motor Company. As a percentage of net worth, we each spent comparative amounts. But...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 46: The Toyotafication of Ford
At one time, the nations of Europe took great pride in their cavalry divisions, horses and men numbering tens of thousands. Then the Gatling gun made its debut, and all those horses and all that...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 47: The Man With the Plan
In a recent article, The Economist wondered if Detroit's automakers would win their "race against time." In other words, will Ford, GM or Chrysler return to profitability before their cash...
View ArticleEditorial: Ford Death Watch 48: Branding Isn’t Everything
It’s been a while since we’ve run a Ford Death Watch. Which doesn’t mean Ford isn’t dying. It is. It’s just dying more slowly and less spectacularly than GM and Chrysler. In fact, Ford’s head-faked the...
View ArticleEditorial: Ford Death Watch 44: A Time to Die
Ford sits on the "Edge" of disaster. Despite the assurances from its CEO and chief cheerleader to the contrary, Alan Mulally knows that the day of reckoning could soon appear at his doorstep. Without...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 45: Drive One. Act Two?
Perusing the February 23rd issue of AutoBiWeek brought to mind Frank Sinatra's final concert series. My thought at the time: can someone just shoot this guy? One of the greatest singers of all time...
View ArticleEditorial: Ford Death Watch 46: Fauxcus
While its Detroit rivals unravel with publicly-funded gusto, Ford continues to enjoy nearly unanimous praise from the media and industry commentators. And why not? Free from the public funding,...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 47: Taurus! Taurus! Taurus!
By all accounts, the refreshed Ford Taurus is an excellent car. Easy-to-drive, economical, well-built, comfortable, capacious and handsome. As a sign of its pre-launch success, the vehicle's critics...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 48: ’til the Cows Come Home
Speaking of barnyards, someone forgot to tell Ford watchers not to count their chickens until they hatch. The MSM is ready, willing and able to pronounce the Blue Oval Boyz' turnaround plan for the...
View ArticleFord Death Watch 49: Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves
Will Ford go bankrupt? I doubt it. Not while the “bad” automakers that suckled on the federal teat go on and on and on and on. A FoMoCo C11 would expose the government’s Detroit bailout for what it...
View ArticleMach-E Delivers Everything but the Mustang
The first Mach-E delivery took place yesterday, according to macheclub.com. Sam Pack’s Five Star Ford in Dallas, Texas was the dealership, and the vehicle was a California Route 1 Mach-E in white....
View ArticleDeliveries of Mach-E Stall
According to macheclub.com, the arrival of your Ford mock ‘Stang may be delayed, although no reason had been given until now, when the enthusiast site reached out to Ford for comment. “As part of our...
View ArticleJunkyard Find: 2011 Mercury Mariner, Last Gasp of the Mercury Brand Edition
Ever since I found one of the very last Oldsmobiles in a Denver car graveyard, I’ve been keeping my junkyard eye open for other final-year-of-marque Detroit machinery. We’ve got the 1998 Eagle, the...
View ArticleFord to Offer Chinese Version of Mustang Mach-E
Ford announced that a Chinese version of the Mustang Mach-E, also known by some of us cynical scribes as the Mustang Mock-E, will be built in China by Changan Ford. It had to happen. Demand for EVs in...
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