Breaking: Ford Fusion sales spiking, DC off another 3.2%

After a really bad introduction, there appears to be a glimmer of hope
for FoMoCo. Reports on CNBC and in the press are, and are confirmed
by sitings locally, that sales of the mid-sized Ford Fusion are
starting to take off like a rocket. Sales for the compact Focus are
also starting to take off. According to sales figures for October,
FoMoCo has outperformed not only GM and DC, but also Toyota and Honda
with an 8% sales increase in October, traditionally the worst month of
the year for car sales. I've yet to see a new Dodge Nitro on the
road, and, as has been seen in here, dealers appear to be trying to
foist them on customers. DC doesn't seem to "get it"...it's over for
trucks and truck-based SUVs, as well as the gashog Hemi Magnums and
300s. Just yesterday, I saw no less than five new Fusions and their
L-M twin, the new Montego, as well as a handful of new Focusi. The
only place you see new 300s is down in "de ghetto," and DC dealers
can't give away new Dodge trucks, just as GM dealers can't give away
new Suburbans and other gashogs.

I bought Ford for $8.30 today...I'm not going to miss an opportunity
like I did with Chrysler at $2 a share! Had I made the move I have
contemplated back then, I'd easily be a millionaire today. That's the
last time I listened to Republican "fear mongering."

 

SIGHTINGS....LOL!

 

I'm looking for the bottom too. I'm just not sure they're really going to
pull it out. Your method of spotting the turnaround, such as sales figures
of the eye, or seeing black folks driving 300's, etc., might not be the
smartest, but the behavior of the stock sure says that other people think
it's turning around too.

 

It depends on if Mulally runs the Ford family out of the board room or
not. If the Fords keep meddling, FoMoCo is finished forever.

Well, those are "rubber meets the road" features, and they are
relevant and real...the market, at least in October, was right for
Ford, bad for GM and DC, not so hot for Toyota and Honda. One thing
the market is figuring out for itself is that a Fusion offers
equivalent car vis à vis a Camry for about $3K less, and doesn't have
the still-vanilla visage and cachet of the Camry name. One GOOD month
doth not a turnaround make, but it may make for a good, small, short
play.

As it is, Ford has enough cash to get through, IF Mulally wins his
battles with the Ford family. If not, down the crapper they
go...taking common stock holders with them. Also, do not forget these
two factors. First, Ford's pension obligations aren't nearly as
onerous as those of the horrendously bloated GM. Second, there will
be regime change in Washington, despite what shills like Larry Kudlow
and kOOks like Flush Limpdick say. Should that be reality, the Big 3
may eventually get Federal Pension Guarantee Board partial pension
fund relief in return for, say, government mandated fuel cell or other
alternative fuel development and marketing projects. Bill Clinton has
already advanced that exact idea, and it has support of the minorities
in both the House and Senate now. Due to mismanagement by the
Bushies, FPGB is now severely under funded, and that can be rectified
as soon as the US pulls out of the Iraq quagmire/money pit. When the
Dems become the majorities, the idea will get a lot more ink but no
action, due to veto pen power by Bush. Once Bush is gone, it could
quickly become a reality, thus freeing participating manufacturers
from billions in unfunded pension obligations.

This benefits GM more than either Ford or DC, surely, but GM has other
endemic problems that are larger than their pension under funding
crisis...their own corporate "culture." GM, so far, as proven
resistant to change, only giving shareholders lip service so far that
they really can do so. A record of botched new model roll-outs, poor
quality, refusal to accept the end of the petroleum era in terms of
product development and unintelligent plant closures show they're
continuing to reward stupidity over at the "RenCen" HQ of GM. I do
believe, however, especially with the pullout of Billy Ford, that
major Ford powers-that-be are genuinely concerned about the direction
and management of the company. Remember, King Henry II almost tanked
Ford in the late '70s and early '80s before he got tossed out, pushed
into a drunken retirement not-so-gently by William Clay Ford and other
family members. Ford came back to really light a fire in '84 with the
Taurus and Tempo roll-outs which set GM on its corporate ear. However,
complacency and family meddling again started to sink the SS Ford to
where they are now, but the pickup in Fusion sales, as well as major
shutdowns of useless F-150 and Expedition/Navigator assembly lines,
shows that Ford is taking the major market shift seriously now. You'll
note that Ford's backlog inventory of trucks and gas guzzler SUVs is
less than half of DC's. Those are Chrysler products packing the
fairgrounds and storage lots all over Michigan...not Fords.

I've heard estimates of a floor being anywhere from $2 (unlikely) to
$8 (somewhat likely.) Reality is probably that it'll form a bottom
around $7, and then trade sideways until a real economic recovery is
obvious, not the fake one happening in the present. From there, it
either climbs up, or the company goes under from mismanagement. The
one I REALLY worry about going under is GM. Their unfunded pension
obligation exposure is roughly thrice that of Ford's, and they do not
seem, at least from the outside, to be making any progress toward
fixing their long-festering management problems at all.

Recent GM bright spot which hasn't hit the press yet: The Chevy
Malibu "hatchback sedan." Dealers can't keep them in stock, and I've
seen them all over the place just in the last few weeks. The regular
sedan version is a slug, but is outselling last year's version
according to GM's sales figs. Also picking up for GM: The HHR has
finally started to sell somewhat well. This is bad for DC, as sales
of this are direct defections from the PT Cruiser market.

Further signs of American stupidity: SUV sales were up in October
from all three makers. Evidently, idiots think the decrease in oil
prices is somehow going to last past November 8.

 

BEWARE- DeserTBob is a useless troll, he collects SSI, and is
destitute- the only stock he has, is his socks- he drives a 1978 HONDA !

 

this is charley nudo from drums, pa. he's mad that bob ruined his
ebay scam business and now is disrupting news groups every where he
is. turn his fat stupid ass in to to have this
his current google accounts shut down. they have shut down about 15 of
them so far and he still does not learn.

 

http://groups.google.com/groups/pro...AARpSXqTSFSWIofJLBbAB5_pbyajUBv9M9XLUB2gqkZmQ

above is link to "viper's" actual contact info

he also used "tracker from hell"- see his posting history here:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....d7974/d0bc354ab6f72f7a?hl=en#d0bc354ab6f72f7a

he's a foreign scumbag from Germany, that came to the UK, then to
Canada, then snuck into the USA over the border illegally- he posts
from a library

he is using (2) google accounts- he's a FOREIGN SCUMBAG

 

http://groups.google.com/groups/profile?enc_user=u3vYOgwAAACM9QqI_zes_37XEjCWlp2U&hl=en


viper the pathetic troll, wishes he could afford a viper- but he can't
even speak "Engleesh"

 

I looked at is and drove the V6 a few city miles . I was impressed,
it's on my short list. If only they had a SW.
The smooth V6 and 6 sp transmission is very responsive.

The Focus is a very space effective car, particularly the SW, but I hope
the NA models are quieter than the noisy Focus SW I rented for 3 weeks
in the UK this spring. It appeared rear wheel noise was drumming in the
large SW roof.
I've also rented the Focus hatch a few times, it's not noisy.
The fuel mileage of that UK Focus SW wasn't that great either.
The Focus needs a modern engine, which the Fusion now has.

When in my Chrysler dealership a few weeks to look at the new Sebring,
the salesman insisted I get in (climb in) the Nitro. They MUST be
desperate as I'm the last one to buy one of those big ugly gas eating
boxes, with inadequate luggage space for golf clubs.

True. They boxed themselves into ugly large vehicles that are no longer
selling.
When Chrysler Canada went to more than one shift for the 300 plant they
publicly expressed concern about how long they would need more than one
shift. They knew the 300 is a very emotional purchase for "some" middle
age men, and many pimps. Now the plant was shut down for several weeks.
Chrysler needs to stop using truck designers to design cars.

I made a few bucks on that Chrysler recovery in the 80s, lost a few on
Ford a few years ago, I hope you are correct on Ford. Perhaps I'll get
some Ford shares again, now that the Ford family has gone back to
playing rich guy.

 

Mulally MUST control the board and shut the Fords up if he's going to
be effective. If you look at the Ford crash of the early '80s, it can
be completely laid at the feet of King Henry II, who almost destroyed
the company with his capricious expenditures (like the "RenCen", a 67
story hotel/office complex smack in the middle of deepest, darkest
downtown Detroit...a huge loser) and his xenophobic and prejudiced
hiring/firing practices. Firing Iacocca was a minor screw-up compared
to a lot of the screwball things King Henry did to Ford, and the
product line showed his deluded, alcoholic personality was too much in
control.

Once William Clay and others demanded that King Henry step down,
FoMoCo got really busy on the mid-'80s recovery, and the Taurus and
Tempo products were the quick result...and they saved Ford. However,
later refusal to keep the Taurus fresh, refusal to fix problems with
the Tempo/Topaz mess, as well as refusal to really market anything
except SUVs and useless pickup trucks, has almost doomed the company,
and those decisions are, yet again, traced back to the Ford family.
Nassar was another Ford family screw-up...he knew how to kiss ass, and
that was about it, but that adulation was enough for the Ford scions
to like him and put him in command...a near-fatal mistake.

if Mulally can get the Fords out of the board room and perhaps
leverage them into ceding voting control of the company, he may
succeed. If he can't, FoMoCo is doomed. I'm pretty convinced that he
can go mano a mano with the Fords and win. We'll see. If not, I'll
be taking a big tax write-down and crying the blues!

My trip to the local Ford dealer confirmed the news...not a Fusion V6
on the lot, and very few 4 bangers! I drove the 4 banger, and it has
adequate power for my needs when only two occupants and not luggage
are in the car. Loaded, I'm not too sure it wouldn't feel sluggish,
but economy should be pretty goodf or that sized car. They're
advertising 31 MPG on the road for the 4. The V6 is somewhat
wasteful, with only 26.

 

True. He needs to get some control in Ford, it's out of control now.

Those 3 money losing UK brands need to be dumped, but who would take
them? UK vehicle manufacturing is toast. BMW even took the UK's Mini to
Germany. >

Tons of Mazdas being sold here, I don't need to read of their success.
Not my kind of car though, sells mainly to the young. Very aggressive
styling, the Focus needs some of that styling.

Volvo, good technology, but trying to do too much with one engine block.
Is Volvo making money?
The pricey bottom end Volvos are too small for my body.

$10B loss expected for the yr. Ugly!

From Business Week:

 

Billy Boy Ford was like a kid in a candy store, buying up losers like
Jag and Volvo.

Some say Jag might make some money down the road, but I don't see it
at all. Mulally may just opt to shut down the lines rather than try
to sell them.

The oriignal Focus styling was on the "edgy" side, and then Billy Boy
supposedly (per various sources) thought that the edgy styling was
scaring away too many "conservative" buyers. Duh! The Focus would be
selling a lot better now if they'd have just left the styling
basically alone with a slight refresh. It would've save Ford a ton of
money, as well. Despite the watered down styling, the Focus IS
selling now. People want that fuel economy.

No.

 

" a FOREIGN SCUMBAG"

A really relevant description. A number of us here do not live in the USA.
Thanks for the compliment, sonny boy.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

 

You could be reading too much into that, Dori. For example, if someone
were described as a "French barber", that would not mean that all French
are barbers - just like not all foreigners are scumbags. Or maybe he
did mean that?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Don't mind him. It's just paranoid delusional rightard Charlie Nudo
of Drums, PA, who is foaming at the mouth this Election Day, thinking
that all his dreams about a US Nazi state are swirling down the
crapper. Once the election's over, he'll go back into his bunker to
go bonkers...hopefully sans a computer.

 

____Reply Separator_____

Wait until Ford comes out with their new hybrid, a cross between the
Contour and the Fusion.
It will be called the Confusion.

 

Or they could do a Mercury version: the Mystaque

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Very good, my morning chuckle!