[ZTWsquared]

OAC_Sparky,Sep 15 2006, 12:21 PM Wrote:If as you said, Ford is a #1 product abroad, why is it not making money...?

Anyone? Anyone?
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Not sure what your premise is ... but Ford in Europe is profitable -- making approximately $200 million in the first half of this year ... and that's with a market share of about half what Ford NA has.

The enormous loss that Ford is reporting all comes from North American operations and that's the harsh reality. Ford in Europe and Australia have done a much better job than Ford NA ... for example:

Ford of Europe has three major things going for it that Ford NA doesn't:

1) a production capacity that's comparable to their sales volume - most of their plants operate at 100% capacity and above.

2) a product lineup that is competitive and accurately aligned with consumer requirements (and the European market is a lot tougher than NA with many more manufacturers and many more models available)

3) Because of the products they've offered over the years, the Ford brand in Europe stands for exciting, affordable and good quality vehicles on par with other European and Japanese makes -- the Ford brand image in NA is not good - damaged by everything from the Firestone tire recall to the launch of the Focus and a dozen other things we are all aware of.