| U.S. Cars Rise in Reliability Ratings | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 6:46:23 PM by Blog57 Team | | Ford's new Fusion model earned high marks from both Consumer Reports testers and consumers who rated its reliability, the magazine said in its 2007 new car preview, showing that U.S. automakers may be making strides in initial quality. Asian automakers once again dominated the closely watched reliability ratings, but U.S. automakers are steadily improving, David Champion, senior director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, said Thursday. "You're almost chasing a moving target," said Champion, who presented the findings from the magazine's annual reliability survey and testing in Detroit. "The quality of cars has improved dramatically." The Fusion and the Mercury Milan were among the top-ranked family cars for predicted reliability, on par with the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry.... | |
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| | | Thirty enter the fray in £1bn fight for Aston Martin | | Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 12:48:14 PM by Blog57 Team | | THIRTY bidders, including the private equity giant Permira and wealthy Middle Eastern investors, are lining up in the £1 billion bidding battle for Aston Martin, the luxury British carmaker, put up for sale by Ford this year. UBS, the investment bank handling the sale of the marque made popular by James Bond, is believed to have sent out about 30 initial information memorandums to interested parties at the end of last week with a view to securing initial bids by the beginning of next month. .... | |
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| | | Ford to stop making Taurus sedan | | Posted Friday, October 20, 2006 10:45:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | Sometime next week, the assembly line at a Ford plant near Atlanta will come to a halt, signaling the end of a family sedan that changed forever the way cars look, feel and drive. Say goodbye to the Taurus. After 21 years and about 7 million cars, Ford Motor Co. is giving up on what some call the most influential automobile since Henry Ford's Model T. The Taurus is credited with moving America away from boxy, V-8 powered, gas-guzzling bedrooms-on-wheels to aerodynamic, more efficient cars with crisper handling. To many, the Taurus' death was slow and painful as Ford in recent years focused instead on high-profit trucks and sport utility vehicles. ''When that thing came out, it was a big deal,'' said Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University.... | |
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| | | Ford transforms itself in Europe, but competition does too | | Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2006 2:46:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | PARIS, France -- As American buyers shun Ford Motor Co.'s gas guzzling products, pushing losses towards $9 billion this year, its European subsidiary is making money and building a reputation as a manufacturer of attractive, small, fuel efficient cars. Ford Europe's performance looks terrific compared with the missteps of its North American parent, caught by surprise as consumers suddenly demanded smaller vehicles mainly built by Asian manufacturers. Unfortunately, despite Ford Europe's impressive product turnaround, it is still caught up in a desperate race for sales because of the weakness of its brand, and only savage discounts or price cuts move the metal. "The European operation is grimly discouraging for Ford," said Professor Karel Williams of Manchester University's Business School.... | |
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| | | Trickle-down from Ford cuts | | Posted Sunday, August 27, 2006 8:54:59 PM by Blog57 Team | | It never hurts to have a backup plan when dealing with the Big Three - Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler. With the announcement of production cuts at Ford Motor Co. likely to affect volume at many of the auto manufacturers suppliers and dealers in the coming weeks and months, the trickle-down could reach local businesses before the end of the year. With Fords volume facing tremendous cuts - and additional cuts expected within other automobile manufacturers - auto industry suppliers are faced with the dubious task of filling in the holes it creates on their own product lines. Opinions on the ramifications, and how it will affect these suppliers, are quite varied. "Our biggest user is Ford, so this is going to have an impact on our production volumes," said John Torinus, CEO of Serigraph Inc.... | |
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| | | INTERVIEW - Ford India sees better roads slowing small cars | | Posted Saturday, August 26, 2006 2:45:51 PM by Blog57 Team | | CHENNAI (Reuters) - The head of Ford Motor Co.'s India operations said on Thursday he expected a shift away from small cars as roads improve and entry into India's most popular vehicle segment was not a prerequisite for success. "India is a small car market today, and it is driven by other things besides what the customer wants - it's driven by the quality of the infrastructure," Arvind Mathew, president and managing director of Ford India, told Reuters in an interview. "I still remain convinced that infrastructure will improve, and when that happens, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities will grow, and then you're not going to see so many small cars here," he said. Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. have all said a small car was a must to expand sales in the rapidly growing Indian market.... | |
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| | | The death of the electric car | | Posted Saturday, August 05, 2006 12:45:52 AM by Blog57 Team | | Electric cars were once widely touted as the solution to all our pollution ills and energy concerns. Now they're not. A new documentary asks what happened? The General Motors EV1 had a top speed of 80mph. It had a range of over a hundred miles. It could do 0-60mph in under eight seconds. And it was an electric car. Not a milk float or a rinky-dink little two-seater runabout, but a normal car, and a milestone in the development of the electric vehicle, something that could swing the battle against air pollution in California. And yet the ignominious demise of the GM EV1 is charted in a new film, Who Killed the Electric Car? In his documentary, film-maker Chris Paine, says cynical and conspiring car makers and oil firms, as well as apathetic consumers and weak government and regulators, helped end the electric dream in California.... | |
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| | | Toyota edges Ford in U.S. market | | Posted Thursday, August 03, 2006 10:46:08 AM by Blog57 Team | | DETROIT (AP) -- Amid steep gasoline prices, Toyota Motor Corp. rode its reputation for fuel-efficient cars to a double-digit sales increase in the United States in July and outsold Ford for the first time. Honda Motor Co. also reported robust sales. U.S. automakers experienced a moribund July as sales plummeted from a year ago, when heavy discounts spurred a near record month for the auto industry. For General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, the steepest declines were in trucks and sport utility vehicles, the high-margin items on which the three companies are heavily dependent. Both Honda and Toyota credited their reputations for fuel efficiency and strength in small cars for boosting them during a period when retail gasoline prices have been near $3 per gallon in most parts of the country.... | |
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| | | Ford the talk of the town | | Posted Thursday, July 13, 2006 12:46:11 AM by Blog57 Team | | You would think that Ford Motors would be but a whisper on anyone's tongue with all the merger talk about an alliance between General Motors and Renault/Nissan. But according to the Keller Fay Group, the Blue Oval is actually the most talked about brand among in America at the moment. The marketing research and consulting company, which measures brands via word of mouth advertising, ranks the automotive company ahead of wireless company Verizon and computer maker Dell. But being the talk of the town is not all good news. Ford failed to crack the top ten for positive word of mouth. Rival Toyota Motor Corp scored the number one spot in that list. Interesting, Wal-Mart scored second after Toyota despite all the negative press about the retail chain. So how important is word of mouth? According to Keller Fay Group CEO Ed Keller, nearly half of the consumers who participated in these surveys are likely to buy a brand because of what other people say about the product.[Source: Associated Press via Canton Repository] .... | |
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| | | Ford's Success in Brazil Offers Template for U.S., Journal Says | | Posted Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:45:47 PM by Blog57 Team | | July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co.'s success in expanding its market share and earnings from Brazil could serve as a model for reorganizing U.S. operations, the Wall Street Journal reported. Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford told the newspaper in a recent interview that the automaker's success in South America offers shows what can be achieved by starting ``with a clean sheet of paper,'' the Journal reported. Ford South America has become one of the company's biggest successes since 1999 with 12 percent of the local market and providing $1 out of every $5 Ford earned last year, the Journal said. Industry consultants say Ford needs to transfer the procedures the company used in Brazil, including closing inefficient plants, opening efficient, low-cost factories and making cars that meet consumer tastes, the Journal said.... | |
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