I'm not a big fan of Ford products but you'd think theri execs would be satisfied driving...
Posted on 01/03/2007 7:39:02 PM PST by jdm
DEARBORN, Mich. Jan 3, 2007 (AP)— Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said Wednesday that he recently bought a Lexus, but that reflects only his admiration for Toyota Motor Corp. and its luxury brand, and is not an overture to bring the companies any closer.
Mulally, who took over at the nation's No. 2 automaker last year, said he deeply admires the Japanese automaker for its manufacturing processes and product development strategy. He said that was the reason for his trip to Japan last month to meet with Toyota executives.
Mulally called Toyota "the finest machine in the world, the finest production system in the world. So we went to study with the master. I really wanted to connect with each of the manufacturers in the industry and to do it quickly," said Mulally, who was hired away from aircraft maker Boeing Co. by Ford.
Reports that Toyota Chairman Fujio Cho met in Tokyo with Mulally at the latter's request had sparked investor hopes about a potential alliance.
Ford on Wednesday reported an 8 percent drop in U.S. sales last year compared with 2005. But it was able to hold off Toyota after Toyota's sales surpassed Ford's for the first time in July and again in November.
Mulally and Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said Ford's painful recovery will be driven by new products brought to market more quickly. They spoke to reporters at a private dinner that featured a briefing and question-and-answer period.
"Despite the numbers, it (2006) was a year of incremental progress for us," Fields said. "It's like building a house. We built the foundation last year. But you don't see the house. You see a hole."
Did it have a huge gift bowtie on it too like the holiday commercials?
he should be fired immediately. he should be driving a Jaguar.
Every Christmas morning I run outside to see if Santa brought me one... after a few minutes my wife tells me to "Stop crying, come inside, and put some boxers on for God's sake!"
I'm not a big fan of Ford products but you'd think theri execs would be satisfied driving...
ROFLMAO.....you and I must live in the same fantasy world only my husband tells me to put my bra on.....
Any houses adjacent to yours for sale?
Right . When they come begging for a bail out , tell them to call Tokyo .
Thanks for the laugh and as a matter fact there is.....LOL
His first act as CEO should be to fire all the useless Ford children who ran the company into the ground.
Exactly.
"When you lose your job -- eat your foreign car."
Also in 3rd world countries, rich people have lived even after being car-bombed due to the sturdy construction of the Town Car and Continental series of vehicles.
My neighbor was a Chrysler exec and his new vehicle was a Ford F150. The truck he used to plow snow was a 20 year old Ram.
Ford announced a $5,000 rebate on their pickup trucks, i went scrambling to the dealer to buy a new ranger.
Sorry folks it only counts on 06 Models and they stopped making the 06 ranger in July of 06 so there are none available. Thats what I was told.
Oh well Toyota makes a nce little truck too.
It also corners like a wallowing pig, but if you don't like to drive fast I'd say it's a good car.
I'm sure he absorbed very much...
1) Pride in quality
2) Executives who don't have the singular goal of retiring as rich as possible no matter the harm they cause
3) An absence of union entitlement and absurd political agendas
4) Conformity, not diversity
I see the hole......
My dad recently got a new Town Car. It definitely rides and handles better than its predecessors and gets ~24 mpg to boot!
You haven't driven a newer one, have you? They are pretty damn decent nowadays. Better than most cars on the road and a hell of a lot more predictable. I definitely prefer the rear wheel drive. (Opinion based on the crown vic, same thing). I have no problem taking tight highway offramps at full highway speed in my bosses ride.
"...and is not an overture to bring the companies any closer."
Right. And my name is George W. Bush.
HF1 built the foundation and the house over 100 years ago. It's more like Fields is trying to pull out what's left after it collapsed back into the hole.
The TC has a longer wheelbase and air springs on the rear, though I believe that they both have a watts linkage to properly locate the rear axle during spirited driving.
Oops, now he is canceling the order on the the Lexus.
Only 3,000 in TX and they have them available.
More US workers make "Foreign" cars in this country than Ford.
Meanwhile..."Ford’s taken out The Mother of All Bank Loans, mortgaging everything up to and including the company logo."
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=2841
You are right on the wheelbase, but both list the same rear suspension typeas "live", and don't define shocks.
They still drive pretty damn decent, not like the 'wallowing pigs' ala the 76 era LTD's.
http://autos.yahoo.com/2006_ford_crown_victoria_standard-specs/;_ylt=AhhixjYWQ9REJttB0gVfxRooyMgF?p=all
http://autos.yahoo.com/lincoln_town_car_signature-specs/;_ylt=AhhixjYWQ9REJttB0gVfxRpZzNAF?p=all
Rangers ar the most uncomfortable little trucks going! They are about the same size as the 'yota', but sure seem a lot smaller inside.
I had an '85 toyota 4wd. I beat the crap out of that poor thing, and put close to 200,000 on it. Only needed 2 clutches (both within the warranty period) and a head gasket i did myself at 35,000 miles. Yeah, i changed the oil faithfully.
Later news reports suggest that he cancelled an order for a new Lexus. That said, he drove a Lexus up until he was hired as Ford's top exec.
Practically every American car is made only to appeal to men over 55, or to women with 3 kids or more.
They act like no other customers could even exist.
Toyota is indeed the master.
If the assholes in Detroit had just figured out 30 years ago that what people want for their money is:
(a) a reliable car, that
(b) does not break down much and
(c) gets good gas mileage and
(d) does not have to be repaired constantly, especially when new and
(e) did I mention that people hate having to fix cars that break down a lot
(f) at a competitive price
the Toyota wouldn't be the master, GM still would be.
But GM and Ford and Chrysler and AMC focused on gimmicks and brand lines and marketing, while Toyota just kept on building extremely reliable moderately priced quality cars.
And now Toyota makes money while the American car companies fall apart.
Oh, and the bit above about unions is only partly true. Sure, there's no "union entitlement" at Toyota. BUT Toyota takes care of its people and doesn't cyclically toss them out at the drop of a hat. One of the secrets of Japanese industrial success is that they don't have labor strife BECAUSE the workers are made very secure with all necessary benefits (like vacations, adequate pay, health care, retirements) WITHOUT having to extract every concession on these basic necessities from management by force. In a downturn, Toyota cuts profits and dividends, not workers.
The second key to Toyota's success is that management is paid adequately, but not lavishly. American standards of executive pay are ridiculous, particularly in a mature industry like the auto industry, where the key is not in whiz-bang innovation and earth-shattering change, but in solid, reliable, steady engineering, product reliability, and price control. Auto manufacturers do not need "The best and the brightest" and don't have to pay the sort of salaries to attract those sorts of people. What they need are the solid, dedicated and loyal.
In other words, American auto industry managers need their pay cut in half, and executives need their pay cut by 80%, to bring their cost structures into line with the Japanese standard.
That's REALLY the fly in the ointment. American executive talent is unwilling to work as hard as the Japanese for so little money and so little power.
Oh, and when Toyota doesn't have a good year and needs money for R&D, they don't give their shareholders dividends. Shareholders suck hind tit at Japanese companies. The PRODUCT comes first, loyalty to workers comes second, reasonable executive pay (but no more) comes third, and shareholders come last. That model does not work in America, which is why America cannot compete in car manufacturing anymore. American civilization is simply too greedy and executives are too arrogant to be able to compete with the Japanese head to head. They make better cars, cheaper, and understand that the role of the investor is to shut up and be happy with a certain long term profit stream, but not to expect any profit when the company isn't doing well.
Curiously, there are plenty of Americans who WILL invest in Toyota shares for that reliability. But Wall Street and Harvard won't buy that business and finance model, in which the interests of capital are dead last, and the interests of the MBAs are second to last, and behind the interests of keeping a happy work force. It stands the whole US industrial model on its head.
You want to see PROTECTED workers? Go look at Japanese methods. They protect their workers, and thereby keep them docile and productive and avoid having to NEGOTIATE with them.
American manufacturers always want to economize on labor, as opposed to being brutally economical with management and executive pay and shareholders.
Of course the Japanese manufacturing model is superior: it makes better stuff, and managers and executives and shareholders are utterly replaceable, but reputation for quality and peaceful labor relations, once lost, can't be gotten back.
American business types find the Japanese LABOR and CAPITAL model really quite repellent, because execs and shareholders are in last place when it comes to money flows, and that's not what capitalism is "supposed" to be about. Of course, that IS what builds a superior automobile, and car buyers really do not give a shit about shareholders, they just want reasonably priced cars that are reliable.
The Japanese provide that, especially Toyota.
The Americans don't.
Victory Toyota.
True. Back when Harley Davidson was in the dumps (80s IIRC), they went to a Japanese manufacturer to see how to improve quality.
In fact, Ford took some lessons from the guy who helped build the reputation that Japanese cars have today (he's an American if it's any consolation for those obsessed with foreign vs. domestic cars) and the end result was the Ford Taurus which was an okay car for its time (certainly better than the quality of the cars being produced immediately prior to its introduction).
I see that most of the parts for the Victoria, in the standard version, are made in Canada.
Do you sip lattes with his kids at the country club? (...sorry.)
Like most fords. Most "foreign" cars are more american made than american cars.
I had a couple workers on a job bet whose car was more american, a ford and a volkswagen. Everyone bet on the ford, i bet onthe VDub.
the volkswagen won.
Though you probably don't realize it now, you just dodged a bullet my FRiend.
It figures. Just hype.
Well, he bought a good car.
Wow dude, well said. Ford and GM execs will get more wisdom from reading your short summary on FR than they will get from hundreds of hours and millions of dollars worth of consulting contracts.
He can't. All those mentally disfunctional Ford heirs that ran the company into the ground control most of the voting shares of Ford stock.
LOL!!!
Why would anyone "buy american"? ;P
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4013662715321332704&q=jeremy+clarks
I remember when that came out...kind of Flash Gordon meets the Disco crowd...too bad it was before videos were made for every release.
I drive a ford and sold a Toyota to get this car. Both are good cars, but this Focus 5 speed manual is more fun than my old Turbo Saab.
I've had only one problem on the Ford....which was made in Mexico.
I have worked on many of those, and I wouldn't be satisfied with 'em! The Ford CEO should have a top of the line jag, or Aston Martin if they still own them, or, if he is bored, his pick of the drivable concepts/classic museum pieces stored away in the holy shitty of Dearbornistan.
Too funny. This reminds of the story about how LA Dept Water and Power executives had Arrowhead bottled water in their offices.. all the while they were telling the public that tap water was perfectly fine for drinking.
Wasn't sure if anyone would get the reference, but here on FR it only took five posts. A sharp crowd here.
I can't imagine why someone would pay all that money for a Lexus. It's little more than a tweaked up Toyota Camry.
W. Edward Demmings?
Ahhh... the Union Voice pipes up.
When an American company makes a car that can compete with Lexus, or Toyota, or Honda or Mercedes, or Saab... then they'll sell them. If they don't, they'll continue to suck air. It really is that simple.
In fairness... I've owned two Honda cars and one Toyota truck in the past... presently I own one Ford Mustang and one Jeep Commander. I didn't so much buy them because they were American, but because they were each the best choice for the money and the function when I bought them. Both have been great cars.
So... I'm a believer that America can compete. Quit bitchin' and build a good car, and the market will give its due.
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