Ford Cutting Lineup

[Unit 5302]

Ford Motor Company has decided to drop the Mercury Cougar, the Mercury Villager, the Lincoln Continental, and the Ford Escort from production.

Hopefully the Cougar will return as a platform mate to the Mustang, but who knows? It certainly cripples the Mercury brand name further. I don't know how Ford expects Mercury to succeed by killing all the models they sell of their lots.

Ford has also announced plans to lay off thousands, drop shifts, and shut several plants down. This is due to a $400 million operating loss predicted for 2001. That is in contrast to over $2 billion in profits for 2000. I find this to be EXTREMELY short sighted, uncalled for, and just plain stupid. Only $400 million in losses, which appearently takes into account the $3 billion that they paid out for the Firestone tire ordeal. Nobody expected Ford to make a profit because of that, how could they expect to? A truely GM-like short sighted decision that I hope is the only major folly for a while.

Perhaps I am wrong and have been misinformed, but from the information I have, my opinion is as stated.

[1BAD89]

They said they were cuttinglike 35,000 jobs....

[Mach 1]

what is surprising about that? Thats big corporate companies for ya.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, welcome to america.

[Crazy Horse GT]

man unit i heard about this,it suck's my first fomoco car was a 69 cougar it was the car that made me a blue oval boy forever,i was a total gm lover before i bought the cougar, when it reached over 100,000 miles and i didnt have to re-build it, well i was shocked ,it still ran like a bat out of hades,& wasnt smoking. it's a sad day for ford but mainly for all the people losing thier job

[7DMACH1]

As you should all know by know I am a Parts Mgr. in a Lincoln Mercury Dealer in Philly for 32 yrs. The three models they are dropping are dead dogs anyway. The Continentals we are luck if we sell one a month. The Cougars are good for about four and the Villagers are good for about four. That's out of an average of 100 new cars per month. The Grand Marquis and Sable are our bread and butter. The new Mountaineer is doing pretty good also. The Town Car and LS are always good movers. The lincoln Navigator runs hot and cold. My son is a salesman and was just saying that they have sold 10 Navigators this month when they normally only sell that many per month. The problem with the models they dropped are they needed to be changed. We are getting a new SUV. It's between the Mountaineer and the Navigator. It will have a 260hp 4.6. I forget what it is called. Lincoln Mercury needs a small car. Since they dropped the Tracer and Mystique we have nothing for the lower end buyer or economy buyer. There have been rumors about Mercury going away. My owner is on the Ford Dealer Council and says that's BS. RAY

[Unit 5302]

As far as Mercury hangin around, what for?

They now have 2 models. The Grand Marquis (Crown Vic), and the Mercury Mountaineer. From my understanding the Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria's days are numbered. With Police purchasing less and less in favor of SUV's and trucks, Ford is losing it's main market base for those models. Lemme let you in on a little corporate politics. The people getting cut are the last to know. I mean come on. Do you really expect a brand to hang around when they cannot justify R&D for new models? Begging to the parent company for hand outs? The parent company ignoring the request for money, and not appointing quality people to head up the brand name that can actually get the brand sales back up? It's all horrible horrible management. Very GM-like.

As far as the Cougar goes, in it's class it's the best car for the money hands down. The problem is it's image. It's performance does not suggest the amount of power under the hood that Ford claims, and its image as a chick car. Instead of dealing with the problem, the car has been abandoned. The reports suggest the Cougar has been very reliable, fun to drive, and priced thousands less than competitors. So why isn't it selling?? Simple. Ford and especially Mercury SUCK at advertising.

[7DMACH1]

We are still selling 25-35 Grand Marquis and Sables a month. They are both the Best Buy for the money on the market today. Sables go for about 21000.00 and Grand Marquis from 19000.00- 30000.00. What does GM or ANYBODY have to compare to Grand Marquis. Grand Marquis out sells Crown Vic. 2-1. Grand Marquis is a LINCOLN TOWN CAR for half the price. RAY

[Mr 5 0]

I'm not a corporate expert (although I've worked for a few but nothing as huge as Ford) but I know that Ford is sagging. It faces dramatic industry overcapacity and near-flat worldwide demand. As a result, its stock is now trading at less than 10 times its earnings -- just one-third the multiple accorded the Standard & Poor's 500 as a whole. Not good, folks.

I assume the layoffs were financially justified (no one is guaranteed a lifetime job, as I've learned over the years) and the gutting of the Mercury line was an obvious move, although I agree that the Cougar could have been saved, but the rest of the models they decided to cut weren't performing and simply stating that more advertising or better merchandising could have turned it around for these models is probably wishful thinking.

Chrysler-Daimler dropped the Prowler and the Plymouth line entirely for much the same reasons; much competition, low sales and dim prospects.

GM dropped the Oldsmobile line. A company that has been around for over 100 years and has a rich history, including being a stock-car favorite in the beginning days of NASCAR with the famous 'Rocket 88' (303 Cubic Inches - 160 HP bone stock in 1951). That move will cost GM close to a billion to buy out the Oldsmobile dealers and settle accounts. They didn't do this on a whim.

Bottom line: When a huge auto maker decides to drop a model line, partially or entirely, it's a thought-out decision based on economics and profitability, which is why a car company - or any business - exists: Profit. Ford is owned by stockholders and they want the stock to increase in value and if a model has to go, it goes.

It's simple capitalism and it works fine but sometimes people lose out; everyone can't be a winner and in a global market, the days of keeping a money-losing model around just for sentimental reasons or because the CEO likes it are long, long gone.

Doesn't mean I like it or always agree.
I'll hate to see the Camaro - an American muscle car legend - disappear and I think some replacements stink, such as touting the boring, generic new 'Impala' as a 'heir' of the original Impala, which once was quite a cool car (with a 427 and a 4-speed) but got fat and boring and was originally dropped years ago.

Same with the new Thunderbird. Looks like a replicar and is as slow as the original for near 40 large, Yawn.
Still, the 'new' Impala and T-Bird are selling briskly so I can understand why Ford and GM have revived them. I think that pasting a famous name on a generic car like the Malibu or the Impala is bogus, but these are really not my kind of cars and I can see why they do it; to lure the gullible into the showroom and sell them fake nostalgia. Ford did this in the mid-70's with the infamous Mustang II. Fine. Buyer beware and all that.

I just can't get too upset over Ford dropping money-losing models in a recession and with the global competition they face, as well as the financial losses from the Firestone debacle.
I'm sorry for the laid-off workers but that's life. I've lost a few decent jobs when the company moved., downsized or folded a local division through mergers. Stuff happens.

We'll survive without some Ford or Mercury models and I'm sure the Mustang is quite safe for a long time to come, which is my real concern, anyway.

[Ripper]

I feel sorry those people losing their jobs. Blame the big time managers that run companies like Ford and GM. They both have horrible management. They should have been paring down their line up of cars for years. Look at all of the redundancy/parts sharing between cars in their line ups. Is it done to justify a separate brand of cars? I don't know but a Grand Marq = Crown Vic, a Sable = Taurus and a Mountaineer = Explorer. Why bother for a relatively few differences. In addition, Ford does have to keep their shareholders (aka owners) happy. Or else those top people who make all of the money will lose their Multi-million $/yr jobs.

[7DMACH1]

I laughed every day that Jac Nasser was in charge. He was a TOTAL IDIOT. He is why Ford is in the shape they are in today but they took too long to realize it. When a Company wants to get into other markets instead of perfecting their own, they are in TROUBLE. Nasser tried to get involved in everything except perfecting his Company. He bought GREENLEAF, a nation wide chain of junk yards. They sell all the left over parts from the assy. plants. This was his way of saving money instead of scraping them like they did for years. So now us dealers compete with this Greenleaf so Ford Motor Co. sells less service parts. Makes a lot of sense. They bought JOE AUTO .COM. A chain of auto repair shops so they could take work away from THEIR dealers. He tried to go to Just In Time Parts, so they would have a minimum inventory. Well that went over like a lead baloon. We had the biggest parts back order situation I have ever seen in my 32 years. So since the Body and General repair shops couldn't get the parts from us they went else where. Another GREAT idea JAC. This is just a few examples how this idiot ruined Ford. He's laughing all the way to the bank though. He made over 10 million a year. RAY

[PKRWUD]

I read about this either yesterday or Friday, and truthfully think it's a great idea. It sucks that they're closing 5 plants and laying people off, and I'm never in agreement with that, but ditching the money-losing scraps of metal was a no-brainer. When was the last time you heard about someone getting excited about buying an Escort? The Focus is doing what the Escort couldn't: outselling Honda. When a company diversifies, it should go beyond changing name plates and trim packages. As Jim noted, Oldsmobile, one of the very first automobile companies in this country, is done. With the similarities between the various GM models, this was inevitable. The same is true for Ford/Lincoln/Mercury. I have also heard that Mercury isn't long for this world, but I know they are also planning on releasing the Marauder late this year, so who knows?

In anycase, I see this move as being one of the best they've made in quite a while.

Take care,
-Chris

[Unit 5302]

They could mearly assimilate Mercury. I disagree with the Mountaineer being the same as the Explorer because of the drivetrain.

[95mustanggt]

Originally posted by Unit 5302
... Ford and especially Mercury SUCK at advertising.

I have only ever seen ONE good Ford comercial. It was the T-Bird one where the guy lines up with a Lambo or Ferrari or something and the chick gets out the guy takes off and the dude in the T-bird picks up the hot chick.

Ford has the crapiest advertising. They are on the bottom of the list in that department.

Canceling prodcut and cutting jobs is all the bean counters and shareholders. I have to admit though, I have a pension fund, and I want it to make me more money so I can retire early. The only that is going to happen is if companies have good return on investment. Now, whether or not these guys are thinking about the long term is a different story. But in my opinions, very few companies have any kind of vision beyond 4-5 years.

[Mach 1]

Ford commercials arent the best, but they arent the worst. GM commercials have been extremely poor, and industry analysts agree, as I have read this a few times.

Remember the chevy truck ad with the front grill that was impervious to "loading docks" because it could take a hit and would flex instead of crack? How many times do you pull into a loading dock with the front of your truck forward?

[fixer]

Originally posted by Mr 5 0





I just can't get too upset over Ford dropping money-losing models in a recession and with the global competition they face, as well as the financial losses from the Firestone debacle.
I'm sorry for the laid-off workers but that's life. I've lost a few decent jobs when the company moved., downsized or folded a local division through mergers. Stuff happens.

I agree.

The lines they dropped sucked--period. With this "restructuring" Bill Ford Jr. is basically trying to de-Nasser the company.

Bill Ford i also taking NO salary at all and tying all of his compensation to stock performance.

He is also slowing down assembly line speeds. This by itself will increase quality.

He is also cutting production.

With these things it loosens up money that can be better spent making good cars and trucks even better in order to recapture lost market share. Ford will be concentrating on cars and trucks that face intense market pressures.

Ford isn't saging, they're taking it in the rear from Japan, Germany, DCX, and GM.

A good prtion of the jobs were not just cut and dry lay-offs; early retirement, contract buy-outs, severance packages etc were all part of the deal. Most of the cuts will be phased in and people have ample warning that they are on the chopping block. It sucks--but it could be way worse.

What would be the alternative, Let Ford go down Enron style?

Then EVERYONE is out of a job.

[OnMy3rdStang]

I live in Missouri and the Explorer assembly plant in St Louis is being shut down. A friend of mine works there and he is going to lose his job

[Dark_5.0]

It sucks that all of those people are going to lose there jobs..............but, in my opinion the cars they are scapping were not worth producing anymore the cougar was god awful ugly and who wants to be seen in an escort.

Hell! Even I am going to buy a GM next year I want one of those SSR's really bad

[Coupe Devil]

I dont have a problem with the company stopping production on these models. I have a problem with the laying off of thousands of workers. I have been layed off before and it sucks to know that you wont be called back and you have to find a new job. This is also a time of assurance for my family. Ford announced that they will be using General Tire tires for the 2003 Expiditions.

You say big deal right. I say your correct. My father works for General Tire. He has worked there for over thirty years. He is 48 years old and works 12 hours a day, and this agreement with Forde means that maybe he'll be able to keep his job another year.

I am not meaning to drgrade any of the people that work for FORD or thier work habits by saying this. My father and I have a friend that works along side him. He just recently in the past month toured the Expidition plant in Detroit. He returned and was disgusted. He said it was very interesting to watch the men and women work. He said he stood for ten minutes and watched one man inparticular. This mans job was to install a strip 3 inches wide and a foot long of insulation betwwen the fender and door. That was it. The vehicle moved along the assembly line. When it got to him he opened the door, Manuvered his hand with the insulation between the fender and door and closed the door. He then waited for the next vehicel to come along.

I guess I am disgusted that these people are wining about losing thier jobs which they grip about being so hard. I can understand their are harder jobs than others. I have had those hard jobs, before and installign a piece of insulation aint one of them. I am also pro-union. I feel for these people for losing thier jobs. BUt get over it. Crap happens like this all the time. Its enevitibly going to happen to you some day. Pick up your chin and go on.

[Dark_5.0]

My GMC truck came with General tires and "THEY SUCK!!!" 18,000 miles and I already need new tires. When my mom bought her truck we had them take the american generals off and replace them with michelins before we would buy it. Hopefully I just had a bad experience.

[MTU 50]

Dark 5.0 - Not trying to rip on ya, but I think you are the first person that I have heard of that likes those new SSR's. Most people on LS1 complain and wish GM had put their money in something else and I tend to agree with them.

Again, if you like it then thats cool, but I would rather build up a Mustang with the cash that the SSR costs. Plus the Mustang looks ten thousand times better. Just my opinion though.