EDITORIAL: Free-market Ford laps Government Motors

The Washington Times ^ | April 1, 2011 | Editorial

[jazusamo]

Bureaucrats can’t run a car company, let alone the whole country

Ford Motor Co. beat General Motors in March sales, another small but significant victory of private enterprise over government micromanagement. Since the 2009 government takeover of GM, competition between the two leading domestic auto manufacturers has taken on strong ideological overtones. It serves as an ideal test case, a microcosm of the competition between two worldviews, the automotive equivalent of North vs. South Korea. Right now, the good guys are winning.

Ford has been giving GM a run for its money since the competition began. In October, Ford recorded a 68 percent increase in its third-quarter net income, the sixth straight profitable quarter during the worst economy since the Great Depression. The blue oval passed Toyota to become the second largest auto brand sold in America. In March, Ford sold 212,295 vehicles, beating GM by 5,674 units - only the second time since 1998 that Ford won the monthly sales race. It did this without the supposed “benefits” of government intervention, except to the extent government minders have kept GM from maintaining its historically dominant position.

March sales numbers also highlight the lax public response to the Obama administration’s continued emphasis on “green” technology. One of Ford’s mainstays is the F-series pickup, sales of which are up 25 percent over the previous year. This full-sized truck gets 19 miles per gallon, very fuel efficient for a pickup in its class but not exactly a poster vehicle for environmentalists...

[Walts Ice Pick]

I own some Ford, but I don't own any GM stock.

Nevertheless, I want to see all of our auto companies succeed. It made me sick when I heard Hugh Hewitt urging Americans to buy Jap cars. I couldn't believe it. America has been good to guys like him and I don't understand why his type hate to see American companies succeed.

America first.

[xzins]

Yes, they do. Saw it on the web last week. BMW 116D, I believe.

I’ve heard rumors that VW has designed an 2 passenger, aerodynamic, 1 liter diesel that gets over 150 mpg. It is not an electric car either.

We’ll wait to see on it, though. Just rumor now so far as I can tell.

[familyop]

I drove Fords all of my life until recently. Front end repairs and transmission replacements on the trucks were difficult and expensive enough, but having front ends properly aligned became a no-go. Ford dealers just wouldn’t do that complicated job right and kept hinting about selling new vehicles instead.

I’ll stay with straight axles and older engine block designs, as our economy enters the fan of inevitable sovereign debt crisis.

[skinkinthegrass]

I’ve heard rumors that VW has designed an 2 passenger, aerodynamic, 1 liter diesel that gets over 150 mpg. It is not an electric car either.

here it is: http://www.gizmag.com/vw-shows-170-mpg-tandem-diesel-hybrid-two-seater/12833/ ....

[newzjunkey]

Anyone who missed the thread from this morning Obama: Losing $84 billion is success is about the $45 billion tax break GM got on top of the bailout meaning taxpayers aren't losing far more than Obama and Congressional oversight admit.

[sheana]

Well I don’t think I will switch from a Jag to a VW but I would think about a high mileage BMW. Lol

[Brad from Tennessee]

General Electric agreed to buy 12,000 Chevy Volts over the next four years. Other Obama corporate cronies are likely adding Volts to their fleets.

There appears to be a correlation between the advent of GM’s glorified golf cart and Obama’s war on domestic fossil fuel.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40132643/GM_s_Chevy_Volt_Gets_Early_Boost_From_GE

[FreedomPoster]

Just like they did to Toyota.

[truthguy]

GM had been sufficiently hollowed-out and gutted by its own management that anything short of wholesale bankruptcy with sale of assets to more responsible owners simply wouldn't work.

Absolute crap. GM was in process of reorganizing their company. They were on the right track. They got rid of Hummer, Saab, Oldsmobile, and most painfully iconic Pontiac. They only have 4 brands now (Chevy,Buick,Cadillac, GMC). Is this hollowing out or was it restructuring to be more competitive?

New owners would have come to the business with OTHER assets as well as connections to financial resources ~ the government trick left GM with little more than the $25 billion Obama had promised them for development of high efficiency vehicles.

More crap. You have zero evidence of this. It's pure speculation on your part. If GM had gone Chapter 7 there would have been NO NEW OWNERS in this environment. It would have been the end for this iconic company. Who was gonna step up and absorb this company? And what would they have done differently that GM wasn't already doing?

The inevitable is catching up with GM. This time next year they will be GONE.

Even More Crap. GM is profitable now and has a huge amount of amazing new vehicles in the pipeline. They will be stronger at this time next year unless the economy gets really worse.

Bottom Line: GM was making the necessary changes to be competitive when they got clobbered by this ugly recession which was caused by government. GM simply wasn't fast enough. If not for this recession GM would not have needed government assistance. Ford sales were way down in the same time period but they had more cash to weather the storm. But Ford does not and did not have better product. Both have excellent products now. GM will eventually be back in private ownership. It will be sooner than most believe.

[xzins]

Beautiful little auto.

Do you think it’ll cost more or less than 40,000?

[xzins]

One of my favorite cars I ever owned was a VW Passat I got my last tour in Germany.

I’d be at 130 mph so fast that it was hard holding it back. Loved that car. Brought it back to the states and promptly got speeding tickets and then hit a deer which did something to the transmission.

VW makes a great car. That said, so does BMW. Their 116D gets 54 mpg. That’s not bad at all.

[truthguy]

Let me introduce you to a new term: vaporware.

And if VW ever did put this vehicle into production, it would NEVER survive the Dept of Transportation Safety and Crash Tests. I don't think you will be seeing this concept around soon.

[Liberty1970]

Let me give everyone a bit of free advice: Don't buy a new car produced anywhere on the globe in the next couple months.

I'm a quality engineer for a Tier 1 supplier. Let's just say the plant shutdowns you've been hearing about due to the Japan situation are just the tip of the iceberg. I'm seeing more and more emergency changes coming down the pike because of parts shortages. I'm just a grunt in the trenches as it were, but what I'm seeing is going on everywhere, and the picture I'm seeing is of a tremendous amount of part substitution and emergency redesigns to cope with component shortages.

Hopefully the shutdowns (I don't want to comment too much as I don't know what's public, but I know a couple Ford plants are going down next week due to a plethora of shortages) will themselves limit the damage by improving parts availability for the remaining plants and buying time for further testing. There just isn't time otherwise to do good validations of the redesigns and component substitutions.

[blueunicorn6]

GM - bankrupt and bailed out by taxpayers. Ford - not. That’s some great management at GM. Maybe the sun was in their eyes or the refs were against them. You can say that the stars were out of alignment, but it doesn’t negate the fact that they failed, and failed big. And that falls on management’s shoulders. They can try to shrug it off, but it’s still on their shoulders.

[muawiyah]

When International Harvester went under (the totality of which took a couple of decades) they had assets of value. GM didn't.

When it comes to GM there's no there there!

NOTE: first time the new management and the union had the chance they rewarded each other with bonuses. No rational observer of America's automotive industry could possibly imagine anything other than dissolution and disposal of assets as the next step.

[jazusamo]

Well the results as of now kinda speak for themselves. And this lousy 600 to 800 word editorial may not be a pulitzer prize winner but it tells it like it is. :)

[truthguy]

You can say that the stars were out of alignment, but it doesn’t negate the fact that they failed, and failed big

If you only knew how difficult it is to make anything here in the United States, you would be so flippant in your remarks. We have lost so much manufacturing in the US it isn't funny. It's killing our economy and standard of living. Do you think these companies all had bad management? Do you think you could manage a manufacturing company today and try to keep most of the jobs here in the USA? I'd invite you to try. Our government has made it damn near impossible to make anything here. There are a lot of reasons and whole books, websites are devoted to explaining the reasons for this horrible problem.

Nothing makes me madder than asinine comments from posters who think that if just they were in charge, they could have done it better and that the management of the company is just plain stupid. Yes, Ford made some very clever financial moves and if not for that they would have been going to the Feds for help as well. 2 out of the 3 automakers in the US needed assistance. That tells you something.

[sheana]

Wasn’t putting down VW. I went from a Lexus to a Jag and just think I would find it hard to go to a VW.

[jazusamo]

The inevitable is catching up with GM. This time next year they will be GONE.

I tend to agree though they may hold on a little longer.

I really believe they were planning on the Volt and rebates from taxpayers bailing them out but there's every sign the Volt will bomb, even with the rebate.