More bad news for Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F). After announcing a mammoth $8.6 billion loss just three weeks ago, the company is laying off 300 workers in the Detroit area. The workers at the Romeo Engine Plant are being let go due to a steep drop in demand for vehicles which use a V8 engine that goes into a majority of Ford's trucks and SUVs. As gas prices have climbed, large truck and SUV sales have plummeted.

The layoffs start Monday, according to a Ford spokesperson. The 300 being let go are a good chunk of the 1,075 people employed at the Romeo plant. Perhaps Michael Moore should show up and film another movie.

After Ford saw an 18% drop in truck and SUV sales during the first seven months of 2008, its Way Forward plan needs to be pushed into high gear. Ford needs to make the product mix as flexible as possible to meet the changing demand arising from changing tastes and gas prices fluctuations.

This situation reminds me of Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma a bit. Instead of innovating in the supply chain and manufacturing flexibility arenas, automakers that aren't adept at near-instantaneous changes in consumer buying habits are finding out just how painful the status quo can really be.

When Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sends up its quarterly results tomorrow, the automaker is expected to report its third straight loss, due largely to falling truck sales. Two-thirds of Ford's business come from the sale of large and light trucks -- and that segment continues to see disastrous results as the bloodbath from rising gas prices gets worse.

Right now, the average price for 87-octane gas stands at about $3.50 per gallon, on the back of $119 crude oil barrel prices. Want more? Oil magnate T. Boone Pickens believes oil barrel prices are headed for $125. Who knows -- they could shoot past that. Are you looking forward to $4 per gallon gas this summer? Be prepared. And if you were planning on a Ford truck purchase and are now pulling back, you're probably joining hundreds of thousands of fellow consumers being swayed by record oil prices.

Did Ford have a good August in terms of U.S. sales, or did the company's results slip like they did in July? We are about to find out, as Ford will be discussing U.S. sales results for August 2007 here in a few minutes. Ford's George Pipas will take the helm to talk about the automaker's August sales results.

The company has seen major changes in the last three quarters as newer CEO Alan Mulally has taken the struggling automaker to cost-cutting land in addition to designing cars (and increasingly, smaller SUVs) that U.S. buyers are wanting to actually purchase. In terms of this product segment, it's my belief that Ford is beating competitor GM here, and soundly.

So, with gas prices still holding steady near $3.00 per gallon in much of the country, let's see what Ford managed to secure in terms of U.S. business last month. Remember to use the "Refresh" key on your web browser to get all the minute-by-minute updates below. All times are in EST.

How did Ford perform in the month of April? Outside of the automaker's Q1 results from last week, I'll be covering Ford's results for U.S. sales and production here in a few minutes. Ford's Q1 loss was much smaller than expected, so did that sentiment march on in to April as well?

Have things improved in a month's time? Who knows -- but you are about to find out. Remember to use the "Refresh" key on your keyboard copiously, as updates to this post will happen ever few minutes. All times below are in EDT.

Here we go!

1:00pm -- waiting for Ford's April sales results call to start...

1:02pm -- here we go. Ford's initial statements to start were that Ford's U.S. results were "disappointing" in April, but Ford is making progress in returning to profitability in the U.S. market.

We are here waiting for Ford's conference call to start -- and GM is next week as well in terms of reporting quarterly earnings. Will these two American automakers start lifting from the gulleys in light of very poor past quarters? This is Mulally's first quarter as CEO -- which is not enough time to do much -- but here we go nonetheless. Take a peak at the Ford earnings preview post here and we'll sit patiently until this thing gets underway in aminute.

All times below are in EST.

9:02am -- waiting for the call to begin

9:04am -- the Ford director of investor relations gives an intro to the exec officers who will be on the call

9:06am -- CEO Alan Mulally takes the helm. The first numbers are coming through -- Ford posted $2.1 billion in losses for the quarter (without special items). $5.8 billion in total losses were posted for the quarter as well. $12.7 billion was the total loss for th last fiscal year. Wow.

9:10am -- Ford's cutting of 14,000 positions by the end of this fiscal quarter is the goal, with buyout packages going to thousands of UAW employees at plants across the U.S., saving over a billion dollars. Mulally sounds a little downtrodden reading from his script. $33.9 billion in cash was the Ford pile at the end of the fiscal year. That's still not more than Bill Gates' net worth.