Ford continues to struggle...

IMO, Ford's marketing is in the toilet.





Coming from a marketing background, Liz and I poke fun at Ford's bland, boring, and just plain poor print and video ads. For god sakes, nobody wants to see Ford Explorer's driving up animated buildings. In the beginning of the summer they aired some ones with Spike Lee and Jeter racing and driving like Mustang's should be, but they saw about a month of play and they are gone. I also saw a good one with the Dad and his kid doing burnouts in the parking lot...COOL! They can sell the Mustang, fine, but what about the rest of the line....Ford, ENTICE ME!



Having just watched the Audi Q7 commerical, Ford needs to take a page...hell, the whole book, from someone like Audi. Being an SUV, gas-guzzler, heavy, and overpriced (IMO), the Q7 *still* sings to me everytime I see it, mainly because of that video ad.



http://microsites.audi.com/q7-globe/html/flash.php?lang=en&trk=&anz=&log=&altKey=&fl=
 
The people who run GM and Ford are investers and bankers not car people. Have 1 detailer and 3 mechanics run the companys and you see how good cars can be.
 
lawrencea said:
The people who run GM and Ford are investers and bankers not car people. Have 1 detailer and 3 mechanics run the companys and you see how good cars can be.
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The people who run GM and Ford are first and foremost in the car business, and should therefore be savvy enough to make the companies work. The fact that perhaps they ARE run by bankers and investors could be the primary problem.
 
[quote name='rjstaaf']First and foremost is the Japanese auto industry is heavily subsidized by their government.



Second they do not have any kind of retirement or pensions.
Well, I don't know where you get your "information" from, but it's completely wrong. Japanese companies, including the auto industry, have pension plans just like in the U.S. Not only that, but they also pay their workers twice-yearly bonuses, which averages several thousand dollars a year. Many companies have cut back on the bonuses due to the weak economy, though.



One advantage they do have is they aren't being strangled to death by the outrageous extortion of the UAW, whose only purpose seems to be to damage the Big Three in whatever way they can



I would, however, be interested in seeing some documentation of the Japanese government actually "subsidizing" their auto industry :nixweiss ?
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rjstaaf said:
Over the years it seems even our own government has done its own fair share of sabotage on the US auto industry. Toyota was able to establish their foothold here in the US at GM's expense...
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That was a pretty interesting excerpt.





rjstaaf said:
I honestly can see a future for my kids where there won't be a GM, Ford and people just don't seem to care.
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I see that also, with the entire American manufacturing industry. Not only do people not care, they seem to be oblivious to it. And as noted, some seem to revel in it.





Tasty said:
One of the real problems is that unions suck the life out of these companies.
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I think the unions were originally responsible, then management was the problem (executive pay/bonus, stock shenanigans, leveraged buyouts, spinoffs, etc.), now the unions figure they are entitled to their share of the outrageous excecutive compensation and are back in line.
 
percynjpn said:
[quote name='rjstaaf']First and foremost is the Japanese auto industry is heavily subsidized by their government.



Second they do not have any kind of retirement or pensions.
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Well, I don't know where you get your "information" from, but it's completely wrong. Japanese companies, including the auto industry, have pension plans just like in the U.S. Not only that, but they also pay their workers twice-yearly bonuses, which averages several thousand dollars a year. Many companies have cut back on the bonuses due to the weak economy, though.

[/quote]



I do stand corrected on that point. I thought it was kind of far fetched, should have checked more than one source... Here is a great source of information on the Japanese retirement income system. http://www.bc.edu/centers/crr/issues/gib_4.pdf



One advantage they do have is they aren't being strangled to death by the outrageous extortion of the UAW, whose only purpose seems to be to damage the Big Three in whatever way they can
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Unions did have their place at one time but that time has passed.



I would, however, be interested in seeing some documentation of the Japanese government actually "subsidizing" their auto industry :nixweiss ?
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It is not so much that they hand them a big fat check every month. I think one of the biggest issues right now is the Japanese governments manipulation of the value of the Yen. This alone allows them to sell cars cheaper here than they can even in Japan.
 
rjstaaf said:
Unions did have their place at one time but that time has passed.
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I agree completely, in the case of (many) American unions; ones like the UAW have no purpose today except to extort money from companies, without any fair/equal return in performance from the beneficiaries of their largess.
 
Tasty said:
I'm not gauging it like a car. Torque is what moves your vehicle off the line, the F-150 doesn't have enough of it IMO. Nissan and Toyota get more HP AND torque out of their V6s in midsize trucks than Ford does in its FULL size.
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NOT TRUE

Nissan and Toyota's don't have the horsepower or the torque they are """"""low geared""""" and under powered by small engines.



Ford & Chevy’s is what made America, you don’t see Nissan and Toyota's with a lot of weight towing trailers and if you do they are going slow at a snails pace going up a small hill.
 
From the Nissan site:

The 5.6-L 305-hp V8 Endurance engine produces up to 379 lb-ft of torque. Available towing up to 9,500 lbs of maximum capacity.
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From the Ford site:

5.4L Triton® SOHC 24-valve V8 300HP@5,000 Torque (lb.-ft. @rpm) 365@3,750 with towing capacity up to 9,900 pounds.
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Yep, the Nissan is wimpy and underpowered for sure....
 
rjstaaf said:
Judge for yourself which truck is built for work and which is built for play :D
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Yeah, except that 90% of the people who buy trucks (& SUV's) buy them for play. Half the housewives around here drive Suburbans or whatever the equivalent is now, and all they have in the back is 3 8 yo's and if we have 2" of snow the thing sits in the driveway because the schools are closed. Kind of silly to have a 4WD truck that's built to carry a ton of cargo and use it that way.
 
Don't forget that insurance is usually cheaper on SUVs and trucks because of their size. It doesn't make me look good, but part of me getting a truck was because the insurance payments were so much lower than if I had gotten a coupe. If I were to drive headon into a car, I'd probably come out with less bruises, and if a car were to rear-end me and I had my towing hitch jutting out from under my bumper, I'd be able to drive off without any damage.



So, it's sort of a selfish thing. But hey, I think that's part of living in America. We all do little things to put us at an advantage over the next guy.



But I have used my truck for hauling many times, and it has proven to be very useful in college with all the moving I do.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Yeah, except that 90% of the people who buy trucks (& SUV's) buy them for play. Half the housewives around here drive Suburbans or whatever the equivalent is now, and all they have in the back is 3 8 yo's and if we have 2" of snow the thing sits in the driveway because the schools are closed. Kind of silly to have a 4WD truck that's built to carry a ton of cargo and use it that way.
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I am just suggesting that people need to look at ALL aspects of these trucks. If the price and power are comparable then why wouldn't you want the truck that is built tougher? Did you actually look through that site? Forget that it is Ford propoganda, it is interesting to see what each truck looks like under that bodywork...
 
Bob, I checked out the site and watched almost all of the videos. I'll just say that it's interesting that some of the competitors are left out of some comparisons.
 
SpoiledMan said:
Bob, I checked out the site and watched almost all of the videos. I'll just say that it's interesting that some of the competitors are left out of some comparisons.
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Haven't looked at the site in a while, which ones in particular?
 
It varies from comparison to comparison. Nissan seems to be left out of a number of them as well as Dodge. There are others that Chevy or Toyota are left out of.
 
SpoiledMan said:
It varies from comparison to comparison. Nissan seems to be left out of a number of them as well as Dodge. There are others that Chevy or Toyota are left out of.
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I think what they tended to do is compare the Ford to what they thought was the weakest vehicle in each area. I imagine each video would be rather long if they compared every vehicle in every area.
 
rjstaaf said:
I think what they tended to do is compare the Ford to what they thought was the weakest vehicle in each area. I imagine each video would be rather long if they compared every vehicle in every area.
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Or omit the vehicles that were stronger in those areas?
 
SpoiledMan said:
Or omit the vehicles that were stronger in those areas?
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Name a couple of areas because I just don't see what you are talking about but, then again I have been called Captain Oblivious by loved ones before :D
 
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