Copyrighted material deleted.

I would like to see you do better. Ford  is saddled with legacy costs that
its foreign competitors don't have, like pension and health care costs and
stupid union rules.

GM and the old Chrysler Corp  aren't do much better.

And Ford is coming out with some pretty nifty cars.

Jeff

I would not write Ford off too soon.

Check out Ford in 1926, 1954, 1978.....

More so than any other car company Ford has shown the ability to turn things
around quickly.

At this moment my family members own the following vehicles:

- 1997 Honda Civic - not a bad car, but soon to be replaced with a new
Escape
- 1999 Ford Ranger - Good Truck, in 8 years the only repair has been 1 IAC
- 2001 Ford Escape - Has needed one coolant level sensor (warranty) and 1
Cruise Control Cable ($13). This is my Sisters vehicle. It compares very
favorably to my SO's 2007 Toyota RAV4.
- 2005 Ford Freestyle - zero problems so far. This is my Mother's car. I
drove it on a long trip earlier this year and was very impressed.
- 2005 Honda Accord - This is my older sons car. It was purchased used when
1 year old. It is a good car, but certainly nothing so outstanding that I
would pay thousands extra for it.
- 2006 Nissan Frontier - This is my farm truck. Nothing wrong with it, but
after owning it for a year, I wish I had bought a Ranger instead.
- 2006 Ford Mustang - This is my younger Son's car. It is basically a
stripper. The only option was the exterior decor group (spoiler and spinners
on the wheels) and a tape stripe. Despite this the car is very well
equipped. The Mustang was $3000 cheaper than the 1 year old used Accord. I
am still amazed how well equipped it is. It drives very nicely and has not
had a single problem so far.
- 2007 RAV4 - This is my SO's car. It is a very nice car, but I don't
understand why it costs thousand more than an Escape (I've driven both
extensively). She prefers Toyotas, so I understand why she bought it, but I
think Toyota is ripping people off. The car has been flawless so far (5
months)
- 2007 Ford Fusion - my new car. I've only had it for a month, but so far it
is great. An Accord or Camry with Similar equipment is unavailable (I have
AWD). But even without AWD, an Accord or Camry with the same equipment would
cost thousand more. And in my opinion, the Fusion drives much nicer than
either of the other two.

So, at least based on the Fords I am familiar with, I don't understand why
Ford is suffering so much.

Ed

Ford, GM, Chrysler all need to learn how to spell QUALITY.

With American car companies, it is just a crap shoot when you buy a new
car-you just can't know what's going to be recalled, what's unsafe, etc.
That's why people are shying away from American automobiles.

Sure, Toyota and Honda sometimes have their problems, but not nearly as many
as American cars.  The next car or truck I purchase will probably be Honda
or Toyota.

But I have two Fords now (one is 25 years old).  In general, I like both of
my Fords.
Congratulations Bill Ford, and the Ford Board, for turning an American Icon
into scrap metal with poor engineering, styling, quality and product mix
decisions.  The folks on the floor are stuck with it while you float down on
your golden parachutes.

R.I.P. Ford Motor Company.

Ford Loses Record $12.7 Billion in '06
http://tinyurl.com/29lp4j

DEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 25 - The Ford Motor Company had the worst year in its
history in 2006, losing $12.7 billion and suffering sharp erosion of its
share of the United States auto market.

Ford lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter alone, the company reported
today. In the same period a year earlier, it lost a comparatively trivial
$74 million.

The company took in $160.1 billion in revenue in 2006, 9 percent less than
in 2005.

Ford's full-year loss, equivalent to $6.79 per share, far exceeded the $7.39
billion it lost in 1992, the worst previous year in its 103-year history,
and it even surpassed the $10.6 billion loss posted by General Motors in
2005. But it is still short of the $23.5 billion that G.M. lost in its worst
year, 1992.

Most of Ford's red ink in 2006 came from the cost of shrinking and
reorganizing the company, buying out workers and writing down asset values.
Those charges accounted for $9.9 billion of the full-year loss after taxes.
But Ford's day-to-day business did very poorly as well, with a loss of $2.8
billion on continuing operations, compared with a $1.9 billion loss in 2005.

The figures were an unwelcome surprise to many Wall Street analysts, who on
average had forecast a loss of about $2.5 billion for the year, excluding
restructuring charges and other costs that Ford considers one-time items.

Still, Ford's stock price ticked upward in morning trading, gaining about 20
cents a share to trade near $8.40 a share at midday, roughly where it was a
year ago. The stock has been rising since mid-December, in part because
gasoline prices have eased a bit.

Ford's woes are greatest in North America, where its automotive operations
lost $6.1 billion before taxes, and sales revenue fell by 14 percent to
$69.4 billion. The North American losses, four times as bad as the year
before, more than wiped out profits from automotive operations overseas.

Jonathan Steinmetz, an automotive analyst at Morgan Stanley, called those
results "terrible," noting that the North American figures represent a loss
of $4,700 on every vehicle sold.

"The best we can say for the quarter is that it's over," Mr. Steinmetz wrote
in a note to clients this morning.

The fourth quarter of 2006 was the first full earnings period for Ford under
its new chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, who was hired away from Boeing in
September. With Mr. Mulally at the helm, Ford took the unprecedented step of
pledging nearly all of its United States assets, from its factories to its
blue oval logo, as collateral to borrow more than $23 billion.

The financing leaves Ford with access to $46 billion in cash, although it
expects to burn through $17 billion by 2009. In addition, the interest that
Ford must pay will most likely drive down earnings from automotive
operations even more in 2007. But the company's chief financial officer, Don
R. Leclair, said Ford's overall results will be "substantially better" this
year.

Mr. Mulally insisted repeatedly today, on a conference call with reporters
and analysts, that Ford's effort to overhaul itself, known as the Way
Forward, is on track. But to outside observers, the company's financial
results have yet to give any sign of progress, and Ford concedes that its
market share will continue to slide at least through September.

"We began aggressive actions in 2006 to restructure our automotive business
so we can operate profitably at lower volumes and with a product mix that
better reflects consumer demand for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles,"
Mr. Mulally said. "We fully recognize our business reality and are dealing
with it. We have a plan and we are on track to deliver."

About 40 percent of Ford's hourly workers - some 30,000 employees - have
agreed to leave their jobs this year in exchange for buyout or
early-retirement packages, and the company is also shedding about 14,000
salaried positions. Those cuts, along with plans to close nine plants by the
end of next year, are part of the Way Forward plan, which is meant to return
the company to profitability in North America by 2009.

In 2006, Mr. Mulally said, Ford cut its annual structural costs by $1.4
billion. The restructuring plan calls for shaving off another $3.6 billion
within two years.

Ford's financial deterioration has caused something of a brain drain at the
company, and the arrival of Mr. Mulally has been expected to prompt some
other executives to leave as well. Despite its huge losses, Mr. Mulally
acknowledged today that the company is considering offering bonuses to some
executives to persuade them to stay on.

"At the end of the day, our success going forward will depend on having a
skilled and motivated team," he said, adding that a final decision would be
made in the next few months.

Some analysts said that the action may be intended as much to help Mr.
Mulally attract new talent to Ford as to retain current executives. He has
yet to make any major changes in Ford's top management, although he has
brought in one former Boeing executive as a consultant.

"Everybody has choices, and people are going to look at what Ford offers you
and what others are offering you," Mr. Mulally said in an interview. "With
executives, more of their pay is at risk. If we don't pay them at the market
rate and what their colleagues are making, we're going to lose them."

He said he hoped his comments would "start a dialogue to develop
understanding of competitive pay practices."

Still, the move could backfire by making unionized workers more resistant to
the concessions that Ford wants from them. Ford did not pay any executive
bonuses in 2005, when it made $1.44 billion.

Ford expects to lose its grip on second place in the American market
sometime this year, when it is overtaken by Toyota. Ford's market share has
fallen to 17.5 percent last year, from 25.7 percent a decade ago. By the end
of the year, Ford's internal projections show that the company may even fall
to fourth place, behind Toyota, the Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler and
General Motors, the market leader.

Mr. Mulally caused a stir in Detroit last month when he flew to Tokyo to
meet with Fujio Cho, the chairman of the Toyota Motor Company. Mr. Mulally
said he asked for Mr. Cho's advice on ways to streamline Ford's
manufacturing operations, and the that the two men had discussed cooperation
on some technical matters.

But Mr. Mulally could well have sought Mr. Cho's financial counsel, too,
because the Ford loss for 2006 happens to almost exactly match the profit
Toyota earned in 2005. That means there is a difference of more than $25
billion between the two companies' financial performances.

The biggest blow to Ford in recent years has come from rising gasoline
prices, which depressed sales of the big pickups and sport utility vehicles
it depends on for profits.

Ford posts record loss of $12.7B in 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-01-25-ford-loss_x.htm

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
Ford Motor (F) said Thursday that it lost $12.7 billion last year, biggest
loss in the 103-year-old automaker's history.
In the fourth quarter, Ford lost $5.8 billion, or $3.05 a share due to
slumping sales and huge restructuring costs, compared with a loss of $74
million, or 4 cents a share, in the same quarter of 2005.

The loss for all of 2006, equal to $6.79 a share, marks a sharp reversal
from 2005 profit of $1.4 billion, or 77 cents a share. The previous
worst-ever annual loss at Ford was $7.4 billion in 1992.

WHAT OTHERS SAY: Loss equals Jordan's GDP

About $6.1 billion in pre-tax losses came in Ford's North American auto
operations. There, Ford was hurt by rivals' discounting and by consumers'
switch to more gas-thrifty vehicles from the big SUVs and pickups that
powered Ford profits for years.

Sales for the fourth quarter fell to $40.3 billion from $46.3 billion a year
ago, while annual sales dropped to $160.1 billion from $176.9 billion in
2005.

CEO Alan Mulally, the former Boeing executive who took the automaker's top
job last year, said he expects Ford to return to profitability no later than
2009. Under his direction, Ford is going through a restructuring that
includes buyouts of 38,000 hourly workers and shutting 16 plants, including
big assembly operations in Norfolk, Va., and St. Louis.

Much of the year's loss was due to one-time charges, most related to
restructuring and plant closings. Special items reduced after-tax income by
$9.9 billion, or $5.29 a share.

"We recognize the position we are in, and we are taking the appropriate
steps," Mulally said in a conference call Thursday, after the earnings were
released.

Despite its losses, Ford finished the year with $33.9 billion in cash. It
expects continuing restructuring "outflows" to cost another $17 billion
through 2009, with about half that total showing up this year.

While Mulally said one Ford's key goals is to match production to customer
demand, the reductions could cost more market share.

Mark Fields, in charge of Ford's North American operations, said he hopes to
hold on to the automaker's 10% to 11% share of the retail market - cars sold
one-by-one to individual buyers - even as it reduces the 5.2% share that it
holds selling vehicles to corporate or government fleets.

Late last year, Ford ended production of the Taurus sedan that was one of
the mainstays of its fleet business, even though that model had basically
disappeared from showrooms.

Mulally said despite Ford's massive loss, the company is staying on plan. He
pointed to new vehicles, such as the Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers and
Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs as leading the charge. Next will come
restyled Ford Five Hundred and Focus sedans.

He said Ford's luxury brand group, which includes Jaguar, Volvo, Aston
Martin and Land Rover, is on target for a turnaround. Together, the Premier
Automotive Group, as the brands are collectively known, had a pre-tax loss
of $327 million, compared with an $89 million loss in 2005.

But the unit's performance improved in the fourth quarter. Profit was $191
million.

Ford's 2006 loss was far from the largest quarterly or annual corporate loss
on record. It also didn't surpass the worst annual loss in the auto
industry. General Motors lost more than $20 billion in 1992.

The fourth-quarter loss was the worst final-quarter loss in Ford's history
and its second-worst quarterly performance. Ford lost $6.7 billion in
first-quarter 1992, due mainly to accounting rule changes on health care
liabilities.

Excluding special items, Ford lost $1.50 per share for 2006, worse than Wall
Street expected. Fourteen analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a
loss of $1.35 per share for the year, excluding special items.

Ford mortgaged its assets to borrow up to $23.4 billion to pay for the
restructuring and to cover losses expected until 2009. In addition to the
38,000 hourly workers who have signed up for buyout or early retirement
offers, Ford plans to cut its white-collar workforce by 14,000 with buyouts
and early retirements.

Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair said Ford expects favorable results from
its automotive business in 2007. But because of interest on its debt "total
automotive results are expected to be worse in 2007 than in 2006," he said.

The company is on target, though, to achieve its goal of cutting $5 billion
in annual costs by 2008 compared with 2005 levels, Leclair said.

Mulally said Ford will continue to review its costs, looking for more cuts
as it gains efficiencies from building more cars worldwide on fewer frames
in more efficient factories.

"The more I review the details, the more confident I am that we can continue
that cost reduction through 2009 and beyond," he said.

--
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without
bloodshed,if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not
too costly,you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with
all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival.There may
even be a worse case;you may have to fight when there is no hope of
victory,because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
---Winston Churchill