This certainly bodes well for the only Detroit OEM not to take a handout from we the taxpayers and I commend them.
Ford has already sold 151, 137 units this year and still has November and December to line its coffers. Sales of the Fusion are up 15 percent from the same period last year.
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Ford has accomplished this without an inordinate number of fleet sales, something that ruined the previous version of the Taurus. And now Ford has to compete against a couple of OEMs who got away without having to pay their bills. I remember distinctly when American Airlines had to compete against other carriers, like UAL, who had a distinct cost advantage because they didn't have to pay their bills.
ReplyDeleteI am sincerely rooting for Ford, and have put money where my mouth is. They haven't terminated dealers as they understand how their dealer coverage gives them an advantage in the market place. The Government ask Force, in their infinite wisdom, handed Ford a real advantage when they forced GM and Chrysler to terminate dealers. Those OEMS certainly did not do that on their own. But Ford has to pay debt service on billions of dollars of debt. Here's hoping Ford can leverage their dealer body, positive public perception, and some really attractive products to pay down debt and succeed in the long term!
I feel like I should expand on my previous comments. The word "handout" implies a gift with no repayment expected. I'm not sure the government bailouts of GM and Chrysler should be described that way. It was an investment made in the hopes of not only making a profit, but also in avoiding a catastrophic chain of events that could render the taxpayer's investment "chump change" by comparison.
ReplyDeleteI remember the word "handout" being bandied about during the previous Chrysler bailout, when in fact the aid was in the form of loan guarantees on which the taxpayer made SUBSTANTIAL profit and SAVED millions.
The moves by the government were certainly less than idealogically pure and were a stab at pragmatism.
As an aside, the definition of "socialism" is when the government owns the means of production. So the Post Office is socialism. Medicare is socialism. Social Security is socialism. We crossed the technical threshold decades ago. BTW, Japan just sold their postal system to stockholders.
In addition to the GM/Chrysler "bailouts," I believe Ford received a "grant" of at least 6 billion for work they are expected to do on "green" automotive technology, but suffered no "intrusion" by the government in exchange for the money. I believe GM received a similar grant. Even Fisker, which has yet to make a profit, received taxpayer funds in the hundreds of millions of dollars.