Ford

[nick8086]

Any one see this?

 

Ford Motor Co. was dealt a blow by Moody’s Investors Service, which cut the carmaker’s credit rating to junk .

 

They own more than one car Companies?

 

At one point in time, Ford owned or had major stakes in Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercury, and Aston Martin. Not sure what they own today..

[mike6024]

I saw these all over San Francisco last time I went there. They are the Ford GoBike. You rent them with your smart phone and unlock them.

 

 

Forbes:

 

As the company transitions from a manufacturer/financer of vehicles to a provider of mobility services, an entire industrial infrastructure will have to be dismantled.  Ford has pegged the restructuring costs at $11 billion over a three-to-five year period, including $7 billion in cash costs. Ford's annual dividend payout for 2018 was $2.905 billion.  So, Ford could fully finance its restructuring by eliminating the common dividend.

Moody's also mentioned the move toward electrification in automotive, but no one is making profits on BEVs now—certainly not Tesla.  Electric vehicle sales have been disappointing in the Western markets, and the one market that has shown decent—near 5%—penetration for BEVs, China, is currently crashing.  China's vehicle sales fell for the 14th month out of the past 15 in August, and sales of New Energy Vehicles (BEVs and hybrids) actually posted a year-on-year decline.  

So, Ford is losing money on the few BEVs it currently sells around the globe and losing loads of money in China, where the company's marketing strategy has failed miserably.

[mike6024]

Maybe they should stop talking about "mobility services" and focus on making pickups like the F150 and F250 and the Ranger.

[Frantz]

The mobility services has been in the works for a few years and it's shown nothing but bad news. Ford no longer has controlling share of any car brands other than Ford and Lincoln. They divested under the much better leadership of Mulally ahead of the recession. All the car companies are trying to get rich off being woke and getting new patents, rather than what they got rich doing, making cars the public wants. I don't understand the obsession with transitioning out of being auto builders. The industry isn't going anywhere. I just sell cars, but I'm not losing $11b either...

[Locomobile]

It's going to be interesting to see where all this leads to. It doesn't make a lot of sense, these large multinational companies making drastic changes to appease a very small portion of their customer base. Dwindling EV sales and pushing their operations in to that sector is not going to end well. But a stock rating of "junk status", this was really surprising. GM is already closing several plants due to restructuring, not looking good for Detroit. Oh and the UAW is about to go out on strike at GM. They are closing plants and laying people off and the UAW is ready to strike..

 

An old machinist friend of mine told me "I've worked for five union shops in my life and they all had one thing in common", I asked "What's that?" he replied, "they all went out of business".

 

Just two weeks ago the FBI raided the home (mansion) of the UAW President, there is 300 million dollars missing out of the UAW pension fund. Not one word in the news about it since.

 

-Ron

 

Edited September 11, 2019 by Locomobile (see edit history)

[Buffalowed Bill]

No matter how hard they tried the Big Three has not been able to convince the American buying public that there offerings were as good as those that were coming out of Asia and Germany. Years ago Ford chose to leave the world car market when they chose to sell off their overseas holdings. Ford chose this route rater then accept a loan, like GM took from the federal govt. (which GM paid off quickly). Was that a major misstep? I guess that history will be the judge.

[Ed Luddy]

Ford has  decided to get out of the sedan market and devote all the $$$ to EV's (bad move) and depend on the F 150 to keep them afloat until they can figure out what to do next.

Not a great strategy for a 116 year old car company.

[mercer09]

and the Ranger.

 

 

 

well they brought it back and it costs more then a new f150............ so not sure how that is going to fly. the people who run these companies are out of touch......... redundancy.

 

a 15-18k ranger that is basic trans would sell- but 30-40k????????????? dream on.

[8E45E]

Don't be surprised if Ford and VW strengthen their relationship; especially when it comes to exhorbitant development costs to bring a vehicle to market.

 

Craig

[Frantz]

Ford still has a huge overseas division. They sold their "Premier Automotive Group". And while some of these brands are doing well now it's no thanks to Ford and Ford would not have seen the regrowth. They weren't investing any money into them. If you can't run a brand right selling it is a smart move.