Ford: Profits Best in 11 Years

[Audrey]

Ford Earned $6.6 Billion In 2010; Best Profit In More Than A Decade : The Two-Way : NPR

Ford Reports Largest Profit In 11 Years With $6.6 Billion : NPR

$5000 to 40,000 hourly employees via profit-sharing. Nice! It's the new models, refusal of government loans, and missteps by competitors. A little bit of the Fiesta out there has helped, I think/hope. (: Way to go FordMoCo!

[BondiBlue]

Ford is doing everything right for now!

[Bobby]

..Ford's profits were up..in the US...but didn't meet expectations, and were down from the same period last year. And, their profits were down in Europe. Alan, et. al., still have some work to do.

The spinmeister machine can make anything look good...but, clearly there's a misstep or two not only in reporting..but understanding the data.

The Fiesta is a great car, perhaps the best in the NA stable..yet Ford has yet to capitalize on that..and in Europe, where this segment is so hotly contested, they've refused to match competitors discounts...which only confirms that you need not only a great product, but great pricing as well. Ford's response of not matching the competition's 'incentives' can only be seen as arrogant..or stupid. Let's hope they see the error's of their ways and make some really fast course corrections.

*Still waits for advertising in the NYC metro area*

[GapBoyPCS]

Originally Posted by Bobby

..Ford's profits were up..in the US...but didn't meet expectations, and were down from the same period last year. And, their profits were down in Europe. Alan, et. al., still have some work to do.

The spinmeister machine can make anything look good...but, clearly there's a misstep or two not only in reporting..but understanding the data.

The Fiesta is a great car, perhaps the best in the NA stable..yet Ford has yet to capitalize on that..and in Europe, where this segment is so hotly contested, they've refused to match competitors discounts...which only confirms that you need not only a great product, but great pricing as well. Ford's response of not matching the competition's 'incentives' can only be seen as arrogant..or stupid. Let's hope they see the error's of their ways and make some really fast course corrections.

*Still waits for advertising in the NYC metro area*

I think it's best if everyone was looking at the original Ford press release for reference. I think a lot of websites and sources aren't really looking at all the numbers behind the good/bad behind whatever headline is generated.

It didn't help that the troubles in Egypt are causing investors to get worried. Even if the Ford put out awesome numbers that day, there'd be enough pull from outside factors resulting in Ford stock falling.

A lot of people consider one of the Big 3's failings to be deep incentives that make the car makers offer to move more product and make lots of money (i.e. low price = high sales volume). There hasn't been much news about what toll this behaviour is having on companies now that decide to fight the price war on their products. If Ford (finally) realized that discounting the heck out of their products contributed to nearly going bankrupt, then they will be doing everything to never repeating that mistake again (i.e. be tight on offering incentives). For all we know, the other car companies in Europe could be following the same path Ford and others took here in North America. Just because everyone is jumping off the cliff doesn't mean Ford has to - especially if they think it'd mean their demise.

The Fiesta brand will probably play a bigger factor this year versus last year, only because the 2011 Focus won't be there to undercut the Fiesta in price. Then again, when some members post about B-class segment sales figures, it seems that some places aren't really ready to embrace the Fiesta or its B-class competitors - no matter how much brand capitalization there is behind the product. Maybe Ford just needs a nudge from oil futures to further spur the Fiesta movement.

[deuce]

A good number of that can probably be with the help of Ken Block, and his fiesta.