[reldridge]

The huge loss is good and bad... If you look at the fine print, $5.3 billion of it is labeled as "North America Long-Lived Assets", which is being speculated as dumping all of the hardware that was used to make trucks and sport utes and retool for the new compact cars.

The loss is causing Ford (and others) to take notice and realize that to make money like the Japanese automakers, they need to BUILD CARS LIKE THE JAPANESE AUTOMAKERS.

Look at the C car segment... Civic, Corolla, Mazda3, Impreza, Lancer, Sentra... All WAY more content and better fit and finish than anything offered over here from the 'Big Three'. The Cobalt/G5 are tin cans, the Caliber family is mediocre at best, and the Focus has as many detractors as fans. The only thing that could compete is the Saturn Astra, but it appears to have been decontented and 'de-fun-ified' to the point that it is just another GM small car.

The B car segment is worse... Fit, Yaris, Versa... What's over here? Aveo/Wave... Wow. Doesn't look good.

Ford, unlike Chrysler and GM, has a HUGE advantage. They have GREAT cars elsewhere. With the Focus and Fiesta, Ford is taking the right steps in making sure they remain in business and might return to profitability. GM and Chrysler will be playing catch-up once Ford unleashes Europe on them!

*Just my thoughts...*

Ryan