How the Auto Bailout Is Punishing Ford

[Americanhero1]

Ford Motor Co.'s latest earnings report doesn't mention General Motors or Chrysler, its crosstown rivals. But those competitors have a lot to do with Ford's surprising $1 billion profit in the third quarter.


Ford attributes its better-than-expected performance--its first quarterly profit since 2005--to aggressive cost-cutting, popular new products like the Taurus sedan and Fusion hybrid, a cash-for-clunkers bump, and improvements at its financing arm. But Ford also is a clear beneficiary of the woes at GM and Chrysler, both trying to recover after bankruptcy filings earlier this year. Ford cited a market share gain of 2.2 percentage points compared with 2008, which helped offset a shrinking market. For a mature industry like the car business, that's a huge gain in a short period of time. And there's little doubt that many of Ford's new customers bailed on the other two domestic automakers as they shambled toward bankruptcy and wolfed down billions in taxpayers bailouts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20091102/ts_usnews/howtheautobailoutispunishingford

[cjd]

Ford is making good products... Their Fusion and Focus cars are very reliable moderately priced cars world class cars. The company itself is a great company to work for. They are excellent employers who are very fair with their people. Unlike GM and Chrysler they saw what was coming down on them about 3 years ago and started positioning themselves for the downturn. I have a Ford car that has 300K on it and have had to do very little to it besides normal service. The foreign car companies can go to h-ll my next new car will also be a Ford.