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Old 10-12-2018, 02:25 PM
 
3,882 posts, read 2,350,664 times
Reputation: 7440

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Good. There are already too many car makers.
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Old 10-12-2018, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
7,010 posts, read 11,927,087 times
Reputation: 5813
Quote:
Originally Posted by jnojr View Post
So they should have voted for Hillary Clinton and higher taxes, more regulations, more expensive health care, etc?

Pretty sure you'd find about the same breakdown at Ford or anywhere else as the general population... half the eligible voters voting, and half of those for each of the R or D, and a handful voting for something different. No matter what, voting for more of the same gets us more of the same, and not voting is still a vote for more of the same.
I don't believe Hillary would have started a trade war, but they voted with who they thought had their best interests, looks like either they were conned or they were foolish.
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Old 10-12-2018, 05:01 PM
 
6,503 posts, read 3,405,586 times
Reputation: 7903
Quote:
Originally Posted by ColdAilment View Post
Was Ford in some sort of economic turmoil?


Completely scrapping their entire line of sedans, including the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, and Taurus. Now they're laying off over 10,000 workers?


Is Ford becoming greedy enough to slash the workforce and focus just on SUV's to maximize profits? Or are they in serious financial distress?
False dichotomy you're painting. Isn't necessarily one or the other.

Companies can also "clean up their books" immediately prior to an acquisition about to take place. AT&T did it.
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Old 10-12-2018, 07:44 PM
 
9,694 posts, read 7,353,044 times
Reputation: 9931
my first job was with ford in dearborn, I could not wait to get out of there, I lasted three months, that was back in 1980
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Old 10-12-2018, 08:21 PM
 
2,178 posts, read 2,665,549 times
Reputation: 2596
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disgustedman View Post
Well, I have heard that it may be due to the tariff war....But haven't heard from Ford that it's true.
Hackett (Ford's CEO) said the Trump tariffs have cost the company $1B in profit so far. Hence the need for "reorganization."
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Old 10-12-2018, 09:58 PM
 
6,345 posts, read 8,084,095 times
Reputation: 8784
Quote:
Originally Posted by jnojr View Post
So they should have voted for Hillary Clinton and higher taxes, more regulations, more expensive health care, etc?

Pretty sure you'd find about the same breakdown at Ford or anywhere else as the general population... half the eligible voters voting, and half of those for each of the R or D, and a handful voting for something different. No matter what, voting for more of the same gets us more of the same, and not voting is still a vote for more of the same.
There's that Mike Pence guy that was running for president. He seemed to be a pretty good guy. It's kinda hard for Pence to compete against Trump and his reality TV supporters like the Kardashians and Kanye West. Somebody from Indiana is not going to have as much attention as the coastal elites from Manhattan.
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Old 10-12-2018, 10:13 PM
 
Location: Florida
3,128 posts, read 2,234,277 times
Reputation: 9157
Every auto manufacturer does things differently to an extent, but every single one of them is currently working on designs for models that are five and ten years down the road. Ford Motor has made a calculated decision to focus almost entirely on trucks and SUV’s because they are far and away the most profitable vehicles in their lineup. If you were running the company, would you want to build 500,000 cars that net you a profit of $2-4 thousand dollars each or 500,000 trucks and SUV’s that net you a profit of $8-15 thousand dollars each?

As to their manpower reductions that some ridiculously assert that a monkey could do, the simple fact is they won’t need those people from the car side. They need truck people. Only time will tell if their gamble will pay off, but my years in the industry tell me they are on to something with this strategy.

Just remember, at the end of the day it is all about profitability. Always has. Always will. And every company operates that way, like it or not.
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Old 10-12-2018, 11:19 PM
 
9,891 posts, read 11,710,266 times
Reputation: 22086
Ford is dropping cars as car sales are rapidly declining, so those assembly lines can be converted to trucks and SUV, where sales are rapidly taking over the industry.

If the assembly line can handle Trucks at a good profit, it does not make sense to keep building low profit cars on that assembly line, so they will convert them to become more profitable and fill the demand. The see demand for cars is declining, and makers are going to be cutting prices, again lowering profits.

They now have car engineers with nothing to do. They will have model builders to make full size cars for evaluation, and nothing to do, just for a start. Note they have not announced lay off on assembly lines as they can build trucks. There are other jobs with workers and nothing to do.

First thing companies in this position is to ask older workers to volunteer with a big severance many will jump at it with pleasure from both the car and truck divisions. They then re-valuate and offer severance packages to other employees. In the end few people will be laid off with severance packages depending on pay rate and length of service.

Things like this have been going on, for many decades.

Most people on this thread are thinking companies are terrible. Remember Ford is unionized and it will be negotiated with the auto workers union.
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Old 10-13-2018, 08:44 AM
 
Location: Twin Cities
2,377 posts, read 2,325,436 times
Reputation: 3082
https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/for...-vehicles.html

Quote:
Ford Motor Company stunned the world this week by announcing that it would stop selling cars in the United States over the next few years, except for only two: the iconic and ever-popular Mustang, and the Ford Focus Active, a crossover hatchback/SUV that goes on sale next year..."By 2020, almost 90 percent of the Ford portfolio in North America will be trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. Given declining consumer demand and product profitability, the company will not invest in next generations of traditional Ford sedans for North America."
Ford is one of those companies that would benefit from tax cuts, which could help offset losses due to tariffs. Oldtrader and Serious Convo both nailed it: it's now an SUV/truck game. What's the point of having these engineers around especially with sales already declining? Toyota does the basic car thing better anyways.

Assembly workers are still gonna be needed.
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Old 10-13-2018, 10:38 AM
 
Location: Central IL
20,726 posts, read 16,260,145 times
Reputation: 50369
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron61 View Post
Every auto manufacturer does things differently to an extent, but every single one of them is currently working on designs for models that are five and ten years down the road. Ford Motor has made a calculated decision to focus almost entirely on trucks and SUV’s because they are far and away the most profitable vehicles in their lineup. If you were running the company, would you want to build 500,000 cars that net you a profit of $2-4 thousand dollars each or 500,000 trucks and SUV’s that net you a profit of $8-15 thousand dollars each?

As to their manpower reductions that some ridiculously assert that a monkey could do, the simple fact is they won’t need those people from the car side. They need truck people. Only time will tell if their gamble will pay off, but my years in the industry tell me they are on to something with this strategy.

Just remember, at the end of the day it is all about profitability. Always has. Always will. And every company operates that way, like it or not.
Your math doesn't add up. I don't think the market is big enough for trucks/SUVs - just because you stop making xthousand of one doesn't mean you'll automatically be able to sell the same xthousand SUVs and get to pocket all the extra. And those SUVs don't build themselves - are you telling me the jobs are so different they can't retrain their current to go from cars to SUVs? They all work on all different models depending on what line they're working on.

But hey, we're talking white collar, not line workers...so even less retraining...
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