The bad news just keeps coming for Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F). As a number of bloggers here have noted, sales continue to fall through the floor for the struggling manufacturer. According to today's New York Times, its bread and butter trucks and SUVs are being particularly hard hit, with F-series sales down 14% and Explorer sales down over 25%. Ford CEO Alan Milally has announced a "roadmap" for turning the company around, which includes job cuts and the introduction of new models in the next two years. One of the new vehicles was unveiled at the New York International Auto Show this week. It's called the Ford Flex and will be available in 2008 as a 2009 model. (You can read all about the new Ford Flex over at Autoblog.)
The Flex is a crossover vehicle, a smaller SUV on a car platform. Crossovers are expected to dominate car and truck sales over the next few years, and Mark Fields, the president of Ford's operations for the Americas, trumpeted the Flex as the vehicle that would make Ford "the defining crossover company."
The problem is that Ford -- like General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) -- is showing up a little late for the crossover party. The first crossover was the RAV-4, which Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: TM) started selling in 1995, a good 12 years ago. Foreign automakers now produce a number of crossovers, and they're way ahead of Ford and GM in terms of design. The Ford Flex looks a lot like Toyota's Scion xB and Honda's Element (I see a little Mini Cooper in there too) and I suspect that in this case imitation shows a bit of desperation. As Ron Pinelli, president of Autodata Corporation, put it in the Times piece: "It's not going to happen. . . . Domestic manufacturers have been outclassed by imports" in the crossover market. "They did it first, and they did it better . . ." So I wouldn't hold your breath for a Flex-led recovery at Ford -- and I wouldn't buy any Ford stock either.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-05-2007 @ 12:19PM
The_Village_Idiot said...
Ford has been late to the new product party for 10+ years (i.e. their B-car won't arrive until 2009/10). The Flex is not competing with the little Rav-4 product (which BTW is not a cross-over vehicle but rather a compact or mini SUV). Toyota slapped the Rav-4 together in 1995 using the Tercel parts bin and have improved it significantly but it still doesn't match-up to the Ford Escape/Mariener (and I'm not a Ford fan). The 2007 CRV leads this class.
Give Mulally a chance to correct the grotesque leadership errors made during the Nassar and Li'l Bill era's. The auto business is all about product and the Flex appears to have better potential than Ford's earlier crossover attempt via the FreeStyle (AKA Style-Free).
4-07-2007 @ 2:15AM
LANDERS said...
FORD DESPERATELY NEEDS TO STOP ALL
BONUS, FREE CARS, FREE GAS, FREE LABOR POOLS(GEN.POOLS)COMBINE MORE STAFF JOBS, EXTEND DEALER HOURS OPERATIONS INCLUDEING SUNDAYS, REDUCE ALL VACATIONS DOWN TO TWO WEEKS, ELIMINATE ALL OVERTIME, ELIMINATE ALL CONTRACT PEOPLE, ESTABLISH MORE ACCOUNTABILITY DOWN THROUGH THE RANKS, ELIMINATE TRAVEL, RE-ESTABLISH BEST METHODS TEAMS AND SELECT BETTER MANAGERS. DIFFICULT TIMES REQUIRES EXTREME MEASURES AND A BACKBONE TO INSURE COMMITTMENTS ARE MET.
4-15-2007 @ 9:29AM
jojomiller said...
DaimlerChrysler in trouble.
Florida lawsuit involving D/C in wrongful death and negligence.
D/C admits .
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