Ford gets a clue

I have been blasting Ford for abandoning their long time model names like the Cougar, Thunderbird and, most of all, the Taurus. Now it appears that Alan Mulally (Ford's new CEO) is wondering the same thing I have been. This guy might be showing some promise.

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Reply to
Michael Johnson
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Great. I can't wait to buy a new Pinto.

Actually, I've been blasting Ford for moving a lot of their assembly lines and factories to different countries. Is it because domestic labor is too high? Tell that to the foreign manufactures who now have factories in the states.

Reply to
Kruse

1) Everybody else in the US is doing it. 2) UAW contracts with all sorts of nonsense that cost Ford a lot of money don't apply to the foreign competition.
Reply to
Brent P

Yea, I know. What started all this is when the government allowed foreign manufactures to build in the US. While the domestics had to pay for health care for aging workers, the foreign makers hired young employees that cost them virtually nothing give them insurance. And while the foreign makers can take a foreign-built part and simply paint it or put a sticker on it and call it domestically made, that isn't right either. It also isn't right that Ford can built a transmission/engine/whatever halfway around the world and make it cheaper than they can domestically. I will never buy a new Fusion or Focus. I can also say that while I have purchased new Fords in the past, I probably never will in the future. Maybe Ford should just have their cars built domestically by a foreign maker and just put their name on it.............

Reply to
Kruse

I doubt you will ever get the chance. The Taurus, OTOH, has great, positive name recognition with millions upon millions of past customers. It's good to see that someone in Ford realizes this and is doing something to correct the error of their ways.

The UAW is killing the domestic automakers as much as a poor marketing and products. What is the big difference between the foreign automakers and the domestic who have assembly plants in the USA? It is the unions that control the Big Three's work force. Protectionist policies won't solve any problems, keep jobs here or be good for the consumer. If you want everyone to be on a level playing field then eliminate the UAW.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

You're looking back at a cheap little car built in the early 70's, when all cheap little cars were CRAP.

The Chevy Vega and the Gremlin were the Pinto's main competition.

Actually, a 2008 Pinto, built with all of the technological advances of the past 30+ years, might not be a bad little machine...

Hatchback would be nice.

dwight

Reply to
dwight

As Brent stated, Ford isn't close to the first manufacturer to see the writing on the wall. Look at where most of the day to day stuff we use is manufactured. It isn't here. Our standard of living is the result of utilizing cheap third world labor to manufacture goods for our own consumption. Automobiles are no different than sneakers, underwear, or TVs. Know why Toyota makes cars and trucks here? Because it is cheaper than making them in Japan. If the Big Three effectively use Third world labor to sell car

The fact is we don't have the workforce to manufacture all crap we consume. We also don't have a workforce that is willing to do all the tedious, boring and low paying jobs to product all that crap at affordable prices. This is why there is such a demand for illegal immigrant labor. Automobile manufacturing is going to leave this country as it will leave Japan too. It has happened with many other industries, like cloths manufacturing for instance, and it will happen with many more over time. It is inevitable and evolutionary.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

"dwight" wrote in news:qcqdnTSiw8iJsFTYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

I'm going to tell my '75 Bobcat with 650,000 miles on it what you said.

Reply to
elaich

The problem is, that isn't sustainable. It's great for short term profits but eventually you eat your own doing it. The same is true with what the UAW did. It was great for them short term to bend the big 3 over when they could, but it wasn't sustainable long term.

Actually we could manufacture most of it here, that is if we wanted to put our minds to the task. Automation allows one worker in the US to do what many do in China.

False. We don't have a workforce willing to do it at the wage of someone in China. People in the US are there to do all sorts of crappy jobs. It's not like working in the walmart, target, or home depot putting the crap from china on the shelves is a less boring, tedious, and low paying job than making the crap would be.

There is no demand for illegal immigrant labor. Illegal immigrants come in and undercut the going wage. If there was a demand for more labor, wages would be going up faster than the illegals could get here to fill to the jobs. Instead the supply of labor is increasing greater than the demand and wages are going down.

I won't drive some car made in china. Too much experience with the way things are done over their to trust my life to something made there.

Reply to
Brent P

As I understand it, the foreign makers factories in the USA have rather good compensation and benefits packages. Of course there isn't any 'job bank' crap, or anything like that, but as jobs go, I haven't heard anything bad about it. I could be wrong though. And that's what has really rendered the UAW obsolete. At least the perception that the job market is much different than in the old days. People aren't being treated badly in the non-union factories. Plus, those manufacturers don't have that old mentality of the UAW where if you start screwing in taillights at age 18, you retire doing that at 65.

Reply to
Brent P

I would love to see modern, quality, rear wheel drive sub compacts. Be they japanese or domestic. Just those early 70s small car 'themes' with good guts.

Reply to
Brent P

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Brent P) wrote in news:WY-dnS4kZKuAo1TYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

The closest things now are the S2000 and Miata. Unfortunately, both are considered "upscale" now.

Reply to
Joe

IMO, we can no longer look at our economy on a vacuum. It is intertwined with the economies of many other countries with each one carving out their niches. We aren't the only country going through this transition in manufacturing bases.... just the first and the furthest along in the process. Plus there is nothing that is being done now that can't be reversed. I don't see shifts in manufacturing as a problem.

Automation can't always compete with cheap labor. Why is a requirement or a good thing to manufacture everything we consume? It isn't necessary and it isn't good for the global economy.

This is just your opinion. The fact is we don't have the manufacturing workforce to remotely compete with the Chinese. If all the shelf stockers were making widgets then who would stock the shelves? The Chinese?

Illegal immigrants aren't undercutting anything and there is definitely a demand for their services. In the construction industry the immigrant labor (legal and other) is in huge demand. We aren't talking about low paying jobs either. Many are skilled labor positions like stone masons, drywall, carpentry, plumbing etc. I got news for you... immigrants work hard, learn very quickly and do high quality work. If immigrants were taking jobs from the rest of us then the unemployment rate wouldn't be in the 4.5% range. Wages aren't going down at all.

That is the great thing about a free market economy - you can choose. Keep in mind that is what many said about Korean cars just 3-5 years ago. I bet the Chinese can make a very decent car for a fantastic price and the quality of their cars will increase substantially with ever new model release. I wouldn't underestimate them.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

This is one place we can agree. The domestic automakers are at a severe disadvantage when manufacturing in the USA due to the UAW. In some ways they have no choice but to move manufacturing outside the country. It is the only way they have to leave the UAW behind. Maybe once the UAW dries up and blows away they can return and be more competitive.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

See, I never did understand this. If it's a matter of life or death for the company, why can't Ford just shut down and tell everyone the union contracts are now null and void. Anyone who wants a job may have one for a reasonable and normal salary and reasonable benefits. Bye... I mean it's not like there is a gun to someones head is there?

We used to have Kroger grocery stores here. The cashiers were paid at or above all other stores here. They apparently got greedy and when they couldn't get what they wanted decided to go union. They were warned. When they voted to bring in the union the day the rep came for the meeting they closed the store here and moved out of Louisiana. Boom all the greedy people had no jobs.

Reply to
WindsorFox

If we make nothing, we are nothing. What does the world need us for when all the knowledge has been transfered to China?

We can never make -everything- but we should make a significant amount of it. And what that isn't good for is those who'd prefer there wasn't such a thing as a middle class. That's why people in the US have been placed in wage competition with those in China.

And what is the claim of 'work americans won't do' but your's?

Yet we still have welfare roles, jobless, people who think that raising the minimum wage will help them from their plight.

Bullshit. Wages where significant numbers have moved in to do the jobs at best remain flat as inflation marches on. Most go down.

In the terms of lowest bidder, sure. But there's someone left waiting in the home depot parking lot that doesn't work.

I didn't write low paying, I wrote work for less.

Did I say otherwise? No. So you introduce this for what exactly?

Then why hire an illegal alien? Illegal status alone carries a risk, abit a small one, to the employer. This is reflected in a lower pay rate.

Wages go down when labor supply increases. The reduction of wages due to illlegal aliens is well documented btw. Unemployment rate doesn't track reduced wages nor does it track unemployed illegal aliens.

Spoken like someone who has never had to have product made over there. If you knew how many of the parts manufacturers operated, you won't want your brake calipers coming from china, let alone the engine block. Or the assembled engine for that matter.

Reply to
Brent P

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Reply to
Big Al

We still manufacture plenty of goods. The reality is we have transitioned into a service economy from and industrial economy. It has been this way since approximately 1980. It isn't a bad thing it is just evolution. Other countries are doing the same thing. We were once an agricultural based economy and then went industrial. I'm sure some people thought it was the end at that time too.

We consume far more than any other country on earth. I just can't see how we can manufacture this quantity of stuff economically. The middle class is still alive and well here. The work force has to adjust to changing economic times. Somtimes this adjustment is easy and other times it is painful. It has always been this way.

Here are a few jobs: janitorial work, construction labor, migrant farm labor, fast food positions, garment manufacturing.

The unemployment rate is 4.5%. It can't get much lower.

The unemployment rate is 4.5%. If large numbers of American workers are being displaced then this number would be much higher.

Around here if it wasn't for immigrant labor not much would get done. They get paid minimum wage or what the market will bare. Just like everyone else. Plus, we don't owe any of them a job.

Less than who? If there is no one competing with them except other immigrants then who exactly is getting hurt?

You seem to think they are here undercutting American workers which isn't true most of the time. They are here doing jobs that Americans won't do.

Do you know what a low unemployment rate means? It is an indicator of labor shortage. If you can't find a legal to fill a job then you will hire an illegal. These Mexicans aren't crossing the border to sit on their asses. They are coming here to work because there are jobs to be filled.

The unemployment rate is 4.5%. illegals aren't depressing wages. they are filling a demand. They aren't taking jobs from anyone. If they were the unemployment rate would increase.

I have many products that were made "over there". The overwhelming majority work just fine. Funny that your attitude toward China is the same as many had in the 1950s and 1960s regarding the Japanese. Keep up the whining and bitching instead of taking them seriously and your industry will become irrelevant as they run circles around you. I see history repeating itself and you are going to sit there and let it happen and blame everyone but yourself for getting beaten by them.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

I am willing to bet they will sell far more Taurus' than 500s even though they are the same car.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

If we don't make anything, what good are we to the rest of the world? What value does our currency have? If we have nothing they want, if we are a 'service' economy, what good are we?

We did for a damn long time. Most of the factories aren't closing because they cannot meet demand, but that profit margins aren't high enough to satisify wall street.

Just live on chinese wages and we'll be fine.

I've seen americans do everything in that list but farm labor. But when there were still farms around here, in my grandparents day, they did some of that.

Check how it's calculated some time.

Again, did I state unemployed, and still on the unemployment rolls? No. You keep trying to change what I wrote to suit an easy counter argument.

Then we are agreed, increased labor supply brings down wages. The market decides. Flood the market with illegal alien labor and wages drop.

Less than they did before.

The guy who used to do meat packing for $15/hr who went on to some other job for $12/hr because meat packing now pays $8/hr because of the illegal aliens flooding the labor market at the meat packing plant.

Americans used to do those jobs. They used to pay enough money for americans to do them. Now they don't. That's why americans don't do them any more. It's not that they are 'dirty' or anything else, they just don't pay enough because the market, filled with illegal aliens on the labor supply side, doesn't bare the wages it once did.

It's an indicator of political BS mostly.

Could just increase the wage so an american would take the job. But why do that, when mexicans have flooded the labor market and dropped the price.

This seems to be your mantra. You don't seem to grasp that it is irrelevant.

You're not grasping it. Let's say you have a job that pays $20/hr. In your line of work illegals start coming in willing to work for $15/hr. Your employer tells you, you can work for $15/hr or take a hike. You find a job across town doing something else making $18/hr, where illegals haven't yet saturated because it requires a good english speaker or some form of experience they don't have. Have you been harmed by illegal immigration? Are you on the unemployment figures?

How many did you do the development work on?

Try product development with the stuff made over there sometime, here's a hint, they don't. But if you're a typical throw it away buy a new one american, you probably don't even know enough to notice.

No, it isn't, and the two are not comparable. And I am tired of ignorant people trying to say it is the same. Japan was an industrialized nation long before it started sending product to the US. REmember, we fought a modern, industrial supported war against them. They started the war with one of the finest fighter aircraft of the time, of their own design. Their manufacturing and technology was as well advanced as anyone's at the outbreak of hostilities. Japan was not a tyranny in the 1950s or later. Japan didn't use slave labor in the 1950s or later. Japan acted to protect the environment, there is worker safety in Japan, labor wasn't really all that cheap either, land and other business costs were significant. Japan listened to _Americans_ that american companies wouldn't listen to. They applied those lessons. They developed products that american companies weren't interested in (VCRs, smaller cars, etc). Japanese companies competed to make a better product. All of that combined is their success.

China, on the other hand is just cheap labor. US companies relocate manufacturing there and try to teach them how to make the products. The culture in China is to cheat every step of the process to maximize profit and send crap out the door hoping it would not be noticed. China's success is cheap labor, little-to-no environmental regulation, no pressure to meet CO2 targets, no labor safety rules to speak of, and fixed against the dollar currency.

If you had the least bit of experience with either nation's companies with regards to developing a product or their histories you would know better than to say the two are the same.

Japanese companies made better products and won in the market place from a more or less even footing. American companies move their facilities to China, putting american workers in wage competition with the chinese workers. American companies relocate to china and avoid costly environmental regulations, worker safety rules, and a whole host of other basics that cost money. It's complete apples to oranges.

You have something made over there and don't watch them. Faster than I can write this post they'll be overheating a subsitute resin that you didn't approve and a few months later the field returns will roll in. That isn't changing any time soon. Actually that's one place there are some high paying jobs. Babysitting over in China.

There's nothing I can do to stop an employer moving manufacturing to China. Nothing. I learned by experience that adding millions of the dollars to the bottom line isn't even enough, because they'll still think they save more paying slave wages in China.

Reply to
Brent P

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