Buy Japanese
I wish we had, had a Toyota Plant in Newark…
Still, the automaker is exceptionally rich and well positioned for the future. It has about $47 billion in liquid assets, the lowest manufacturing costs in its industry and global leadership in fuel-sipping hybrid cars such as the Prius. It announced this week that it will build a seventh factory with its joint-venture partners in China, where sales, although slowing, have jumped 24 percent so far this year.
Oh, wait, I know why they are beating us! It’s because, because…waaaahhhhhhh, our health insurance costs are so high per person….waaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.
Mr. Ford?
“Yes?”
“Do you think your company needing 25 billion to be bailed out is because your cars are total shit? Don’t last long enough, you sacrifice quality for short term profit, have absurdly low resale values and are gas guzzlers with no Hybrid fleet?”
“No, it’s the Unions fault and the cost of Health Care!”
I rest my case….
Tell me sir, what is the labor cost per vehicle for the Japanese?
Tell me sir what is the profit per Ford Explorer…
Tell me sir the sticker price of a toyota camry compared to the Ford 500?
Not to stick up for Ford, but I have a new one and I’ve been pretty happy with it…
They’ve really come around, but maybe too little, too late.
Ford has hybrids.
Not sure I’d buy one, but they have them.
There is no more Ford 500.
More germane, how much of the cost of Japanese health care benefits and pensions (both part of the overall labor costs) are paid for by the Japanese government?
Even more germane, how much does healthcare cost in each country?
(or what do call 10,000 personal injury lawyers lying dead at the bottom of a cliff?)
Oh, no 500? that helps my case even more actually.
Cas,
you are right, but I like to make the counter arguement that the profit margins are just enormous at 5000 to 7000 per vehicle in some cases.
You can’t blame Healthcare costs on a reduction in sales when you are getting 30% return on the sale of the car, which is not including the money that GMAC would make on the loan, or the money the dealership makes…
Ford 500 is now the Taurus, which is what it always was (stupid marketing idiots).
BTW, the Taurus was the model that kicked in the teeth of all the Japanese cars in the 1980s and 90s.
I won’t defend the push to the Explorers, Expeditions and Excursions, but you’re just name-dropping, and like most skills, you’re very bad at it.
The Taurus revitalized Ford after a disastrous 70s and 80s. It emasculated Japan right at the moment they could not afford to be punched and pummeled and cruelly left for dead. We should have finished them off then. Regardless, Ford could do well to focus there again.
And speaking of bad name-dropping, I don’t believe you can get GMAC financing on a Ford.
And you have no idea of profit margins within a larger context of a manufacturing fleet. Even at 5K to 7K, those offset many margins as low as $500, or those which suffer a loss.
I know…..you like to spread the wealth around, right?
YES! Sarah Palin and I were meant for each other! If only that Republican Mike Castle would have taken some of the profits of Chrysler!
my little Ford Ranger is the best vehicle I’ve ever owned.
Chrysler New Yorker
VW Bug
Hand-me-down Impala
Dodge one-up from the Neon [I forget its name since it was totalled 3 months after I took it off the dealer’s lot]
Subaru station wagon’
Best of all Ford hands down even though an 8 cylinder Impala was more fun to drive
BTW, the Taurus was the model that kicked in the teeth of all the Japanese cars in the 1980s and 90s.
It’s 2008, just in case you wanted to know.
The Taurus revitalized Ford after a disastrous 70s and 80s. It emasculated Japan right at the moment they could not afford to be punched and pummeled and cruelly left for dead. We should have finished them off then. Regardless, Ford could do well to focus there again.
How could they have finished them off when “quality” has steadily declined since then for all US Manufacturers? How would the US have pummelled them with the simple fact that they took a step back, built better cars and now what do we have?
And you have no idea of profit margins within a larger context of a manufacturing fleet. Even at 5K to 7K, those offset many margins as low as $500, or those which suffer a loss.
I want to know what car you’re talking about that has a 500 dollar margin.
This has nothing to do with spreading the wealth. You should ask yourself why we’ve given them a Billion dollars just to bail them out. Let GM, Ford and Chrysler fold. Either that or establish some accountability. Rick Wagoneer (GM Head) has been talking about a “turn around” for years… Where is it? The Hummer?
I’m sorry but the car companies blaming the workers won’t fly with me. The companies agreed to these contracts and they had the books right in front of them. The car companies have only themselves to blame if they agreed to unsustainable contracts and that they make crappy cars that people don’t want to buy.
A few years ago I read that Ontario, Canada was awarded a contract (I think Toyota? Nissan?) over Mississippi because of Canada’s better education and universal health care. This is despite the fact that Canada had unionized workers and Mississippi didn’t.
I know hind sight is 20/20 but had the feds held the auto makers steel makers and other big business US industries accountable for the full freight of their pensions and healthcare costs in the 70s and 80s instead of caving and letting them raid these funds and not maintain full funding we would not be in the mess that we are in now and their costs for these benefits would not be as high
Actual analysis of this problem is here
“Before the 2005 “givebacks,” the Detroit Three companies picked up the entire health-care tab for all their hourly workers — active, retired, dependents and, incredibly, even laid-off workers till they found other jobs. Workers were not required to pay any premiums, deductibles or co-pays-except for routine physical exams and prescription drugs.”
Hopefully workers and elected officials will learn from past mistakes
The car companies had no choice but to cave to the unions and accept the contracts.
What would have happened if they didn’t? Strike.