Ford Motor Co. recorded strong earnings for 2011 but the market didn’t flinch and the stock price sunk? Is there something we don’t know because with great management and strong products isn’t Ford on the right track? Here is a good article that digs a bit deeper than most reporting on Ford’s future.
Sometimes it can be difficult to please Wall Street. As trading for the week neared its close the automaker’s shares were on track to drop about a half dollar as trader’s lamented the sort of figures that they might have only fantasized about during the depths of the Great Recession. The maker reported a full-year pre-tax operating profit of $8.8 billion, or $1.51 a share, an increase of $463 million over 2010.
But what didn’t sit so well is that Ford still fell about a nickel a share short of early estimates, and more worrisome, total automotive pre-tax operating profits for the fourth quarter dipped to $586 million, a decrease of $155 million from the fourth quarter of 2010.
After decades of dominating the commercial van market Ford is taking a huge risk by killing the best selling Econoline Van and replacing the workhorse with the Euro Transit Vans! Obviously the E-Series neded a redesign but will Ford leave some commercial consumers wanting more than what the Transit will deliver? If that indeed happens there will be openings for competitor to snatch some new sales from former Econoline buyers.
I think we all have an Econoline story. I know at least one person in this office learned to powerslide in a modern one. Another would consider selling his child for a first-generation, flat-nose pickup version. And I don’t know how many families I knew growing up in New England that needed every one of those seats to haul the kids to school.
But, all things must end and the body-on-frame, big-engined Econoline (now E-Series) is set to be replaced by 2013 by the full-size Ford Transit.
The New Transit will be built in the same Kansas City Assembly plant where the F-150 is built, but Ford is injecting some $1.1 billion into it for the new production. “The new Transit will be the smartest, most fuel-efficient way to move cargo or people,” said Tim Stoehr, Commercial Truck Marketing Manager for Ford.
Hatchbacks are hot at Ford Motor Co. and the maker’s new Evos Concept – which officially debuts at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week – suggests that even more 3- and 5-door models are in the works, according to the maker’s head of global product planning.
Long considered unacceptable to U.S. motorists, hatchbacks are gaining ground fast with younger buyers and influencing even older motorists to take another look. That convinced Ford to go with a 5-door design for the Evos Concept which introduces a new look that “will become increasingly familiar” to the company’s customers around the world,” said product czar Derrick Kuzak.
“The (hatchback) body style is becoming increasingly popular worldwide and especially in North America,” Kuzak told TheDetroitBureau.com, in sharp contrast with years past.
Where hatchbacks were offered on past-generation Ford products sold in the U.S., said the product chief, they accounted for perhaps 20% of total sales. Now, Kuzak noted, “It’s just the opposite,” hatchbacks generating 60 to 70% of demand for models like the 2012 Ford Focus and 2011 Ford Fiesta.
The Frankfurt Auto Show is rapidly approaching so automakers are already trying to build buzz for their debuts. Ford is no exception. Not only are they touting their largest display to date, but also four new vehicles. Not many details are known, but one is a concept and the other three are production models. One production model is forecasted to be the Focus ST. The performance Focus is slated to debut with a 240hp eco-boosted 4 cyl, and the looks to match the performance. However, details of the Focus ST have been widely known for some time, so Ford must have something really exciting up their sleeve on the concept side.
I’m placing my bets on either a Focus coupe/Capri remake. A coupe version of the Focus is the missing link in the lineup so it is logical addition to have debut. It would probably compete with the wildly successful VW Scirocco that we don’t get here in the states.
On the other hand, the Capri is a much-loved icon in Europe, and has been long heralded to make a return. Additionally, in July, Ford debuted a Falcon concept in Australia , so a performance concept for Europe is not completely unfounded. It’s a long shot, but if they could make a RWD compact like the old Capri, for the price of a Focus, it would be heaven. All these debuts are slated to go global, so hope for the best because we will get them too. Stay tuned for September’s Frankfurt Auto Show
Make sure to take a peek at the video above to see the cobwebs being shaken off some historic rally stars. Shot at this year’s Vintage Acroplois Rally in Greece, the video features everything from old Porsches to Group B rally monsters.
Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally (C) rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange with company officials, June 7, 2011. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (UNITED STATES – Tags: TRANSPORT BUSINESS)
DETROIT (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. said growth in Asia and increasing demand for small cars will boost global sales 50 percent to 8 million vehicles annually by 2015 as the automaker switches gears from restructuring to expansion.
“Growth is a new skill to learn for us,” Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said today in an interview in New York. “We’ve been good at restructuring businesses over the last decade. Growth takes practice.”
CEO Alan Mulally told investors today that the automaker expects that by 2020, 55 percent of vehicle sales will be small cars and a third of sales will be in Asia, Booth said.
“Fifty percent is a large number,” Mulally said of the growth target on Bloomberg Television today. “But it’s off a tremendous foundation we have laid to support that.”
Ford executives, on a tour of Wall Street today, also said:
• Total Automotive debt will be reduced to about $10 billion by 2015, down from $16.6 billion at March 31, 2011 and from $33.6 billion at the end of 2009.
An attendee inspects a cut-away of a Ford Explorer at the 2011 North American International Auto Show at the Cobo Center in Detroit, January 11, 2011. UPI Photo/Mark Cowan
DETROIT (Bloomberg) — The black Ford Explorer had a warning for the test driver at the lab in Dearborn, Mich.: “It is important for you to recheck your blood glucose now.”
The driver’s blood-sugar reading was 81 milligrams per deciliter at 6:32 a.m., the robotic female voice said in the prototype demonstration.
When he replied that it has fallen to 71, close to where he can have lightheadedness or blurry vision, the car instructed him to take some glucose tablets and check again after 30 minutes.
Then it signs off: “Have a nice drive.”
For Ford Motor Co., medical monitoring is the next key to a burst of car sales. About 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day and 26 million Americans have diabetes.
It’s been long overdue for the interior of a vehicle to get the attention to detail and design investment as the exterior would get. When you look at what Chrysler has done with their exterior designs then go into that new Chrysler car or truck and see a gorgeous interior you can see real progress has been made. Ford, Nissan and Chrysler have catapulted into three of the top main car lines when it comes to overall interior design including fit and finish.
From the Detroit News:
Dearborn — The outside draws potential buyers to take a closer look, but a car’s or truck’s interior seals the deal and determines whether satisfaction with the vehicle, the brand and the automaker lasts its lifetime.
“The exterior is the fall-in-love part and the interior is the stay-in-love part of the equation,” Scott Strong, global director of interior design for Ford Motor Co., said Tuesday at a conference on automotive interiors.
If the inside doesn’t meet the driver’s needs and expectations, he said, the initial infatuation can end quickly.
Speakers at the conference, sponsored by Ward’s Automotive, agreed that quality is the price of entry for any new vehicle in the fierce, post-recession market where annual sales are forecast to hit 13 million this year. To win over the savvy buyer, a car’s beauty must be more than sheet metal deep.
“The level of importance placed on the interior is far higher than it has ever been,” said Mike VanNieuwkuyk, executive director of global vehicle research for J.D. Power and Associates.
“We’re drawn to the exterior, but the interior determines how well we like the vehicle.”
Even sales are often and early for the new 2011 Ford Explorer Consumer Reports finds more than a few flaws in the new vehicle. Our review found the Explorer to be refined but also a far departure from Explorers of the past. We wrote ” Designing a new Ford Explorer from the ground up can’t be an easy task. Ford took a chance and created a crossover that shifted from Explorer’s past to meet the needs of the SUV driver today. I use the term crossover because the new 2011 Ford Explorer is more Ford Taurus than Ford F-150 – the changes are that significant”
Time well tell on this Ford offering but so far the bigs at The Blue Oval must be feeling pretty good despite the low marks from CR.
From USA Today:
Ford Motor says it can’t keep the redesigned Explorer SUV in stock, but the latest Consumer Reports ratings makes you wonder why.
Despite some good points, C.R. says, Explorer manages to rank only 17th among 19 similar vehicles.
Ford replies: “We’re very proud of the new Explorer, which in January was awarded the trophy for North American Truck of the Year by a jury of 49 automotive journalists from the United States and Canada. We take all feedback – including Consumer Reports’ – seriously and will use it as we continuously improve all of our vehicles.”‘
Is it too little too late for Ford in China? The Truth About Cars discusses.
Ford is finally waking up from sleeping through the fact that China became the world’s largest car market 2 years ago, and that China will most likely grow explosively for the next 20 years. Ford will introduce 15 new vehicles in China by 2015, the company told Automotive News [sub]. Ford will also more than double the number of its 340 dealerships in China by 2015. Ford furthermore is looking at doubling the work 1,200 strong workforce at its joint venture with China’s Chang’an.
This year will see pretty much nothing of these ambitious plans. The first of the 15 new cars for China will be the all-new Ford Focus compact. Ford will start Chinese production of the new Focus in 2012. An initial capacity of 150,000 units is planned at a new joint venture plant with Changan in Chongqing. AN says that Ford is “expanding rapidly to close the gap on rivals such as Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. in the world’s largest auto market.”
