It is not good times for our favorite brand.  I say we should be
grateful for the great Mustang/GT500 that we currently have and just
hope that Ford has enough capital to give us some performance products
in the future.

Read on for the depressing news.

---
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News

DEARBORN -- Ford Motor Co. says it will accelerate its North American
restructuring effort after posting a $123 million loss for the second
quarter of 2006, meaning more job cuts and plant closings could be
ahead.

The struggling automaker has already announced plans to shutter 14
factories and eliminate as many as 30,000 factory jobs in the region by
2012.

"We need to go farther and faster," Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr. said
Thursday. Ford said he has asked Ford Americas President Mark Fields to
accelerate the 'way forward' plan announced in January and the company
will release details within the next 60 days.

Fields said he remains committed to returning Ford's North American
automobile operations to profitability by 2008.

"If we have to move faster and cut deeper, we will," Fields said.

Though Wall Street has taken a dim view of Ford's turnaround efforts in
recent months, the second quarter loss was much worse than most
analysts had expected. Excluding one-time charges and special items,
Ford's loss from continuing operations was still $48 million, or 3
cents per share, compared to profits of $936 million, or 47 cents per
share, for the same period last year. The consensus among analysts was
that the company would post a profit of 12 cents a share for the
quarter, according to Thomson Financial.

Ford moved to shore up its liquidity last week by slashing stock
dividends and cutting board compensation, moves the company said would
save approximately $375 million annually. That did not stop Moody's
Investors Service from cutting Ford's credit rating deeper into
junk-bond territory.

Ford posted a first quarter loss of nearly $1.2 billion, attributing
most of that decline to costs associated with its North American
turnaround program. While Ford made $2 billion overall last year, the
automaker lost $1.6 billion in North America, where it has been
unprofitable for six of the last seven quarters.

The company stopped giving financial guidance to Wall Street in
January, but has promised to return its North American automotive
operations to profitability by 2008 -- a goal more and more analysts
doubt Ford can meet.

In January, Ford announced plans to shutter 14 factories and cut as
many as 30,000 factory jobs in North America by 2012. The company says
it is on track to eliminate between 11,000 and 12,000 hourly jobs in
the region by the end of the year and expects to eliminate at least
that many positions next year.

Ford's shares have lost about 18 percent of their value in 2006.

Ford says it still has plenty of cash -- $23.6 billion including cash
equivalents, marketable securities and loaned securities. But some
analysts expect Ford's problems to get much worse.

David Healy of Burnham Securities Inc. expects Ford to burn through $24
billion over the next couple of years, a rate that would deplete the
company's reserves.

The Arizona-based analyst says Ford is struggling to move what he
characterizes as "absolutely the most boring product line" in the
industry by offering zero-percent financing that Healy estimates costs
the company more than $1,000 per vehicle. Rebates and price reduction
are also taking their toll on Ford's margins. He expects Ford to spend
$10 billion of its cash reserves in 2006 and another $14 billion in
2007.

Despite this pessimistic prognostication, Healy likes Ford's 'way
forward' strategy, but he doubts the automaker can afford to see it
through.

"It will take a long time, but they do have an excellent program,"
Healy said. "They're going to bleed all their cash unless they get some
help."
---

To me this sounds like a possible merger with someone in the future.
But who?  Does anyone think Ford will be able to pull out of this
nosedive?  What's your guess?  Chime in.

Patrick