ricers-shaft-blueoval

its very sad all the same and my guess is that th f 150 will meet the same fate as its brethren.

the tundra will do to the f 150 what the camry did to the taurus tacoma did to the ranger sienna did to the windstar corolla did to the focus lexus did to lincoln

does that remind one of Ford? and GM? I see the Tundra at 200k--with the new Texas plant what is the Indiana plant going to produce? another 100k to start with!

For instance, their profits in a very large part are due to sustaining sales volume for the Camry in a segment that is slowly shrinking, and which is drawing more and more competitive entries The Accord already outsells the Camry on the retail side.. And how well is yesterdays champion the mighty Taurus doing? Moreover, they have recklessly built a plant with 250k units of production capacity for a truck that has never sold more than 130k units, and in a segment that is extremely competitive, and which has not seen a major change in marketshare in over a decade. Maybe they plan on meting out the same sort of punishment to the F 150 as the Tacoma handed out to the once mighty Ranger!

Its quite amazing how Yoda has, with effortless ease, applied a chokehold on the small pickup market with the unfortunate Ranger being its prime victim! Small pickups are another story. This is a shrinking market, but Toyota is now the leader: 169,000 sales last year compared with 163,000 for GM and 121,000 for the Ford Ranger. How did that happen? The domestics came into the small pickup market years after the Japanese and then failed to keep their entries competitive. Ford, which had been the best seller, let the Ranger grow old. GM hurt itself by building its new pickup with an engine compartment so small that the biggest motor that fits is an inline five-cylinder; there is not enough room for a six. Small pickups are just one of many markets where Detroit played it dumb and lost How did the Ranger, which once was the unquestioned King of small pick ups, reach such an unfortunate status? Is it likely that todays champ the F 150 will meet the same fate as its smaller sibling? Detroit has played dumb and lost many a time in the past. Where is the evidence that this time will be any different?

well you can't force people to buy what they don't want, can you, in a democracy? btw there is no tarriff on imported cars in japan at all! zilch! till the end of 2000, all japanese cars were restricted to 10% of total sales by law in the EU! now tell me who is protectionist and who is not! the japanese sell about 1.5 million cars (and increasing every year) in the EU; their current market share is about 13.5% nothing wrong in that; the detroiters have a european market share of about 22%.

This clearly proves that there is no governmental protection for the domestics against foreign competition: The fact that BMW, Mercedes and Audi are doing well is because they make good cars which are desirable; If govt protection had anything to do with the lack of success of foreign cars in the JDM then the moment Lexus made an entry the Germans would have been forcefully eviccted from Japan! The Detroiters tried to sell their ghastly products in Japan and fell flat on their faces; instead of giving credit where it is due they were quick to blame the govt for erecting protectionist barriers when the truth was far simpler! ie that the detroiter's products were simply not good enough! I think the so called theory of governmental protection that the detroiters so love to propound is now finally laid to rest!

Lets be realistsic: the tundra will increase its sales year after year and toyoda will make a profit on each truck it sells; more profit per sale than an F 150; whether or not it outsells the f 150 is irrelevant: toyoda's motto is the same as that of the brown bomber "they can run but they can't hide" !

at least this proves my point! toyota is democratic; not a stainist dictatorship like ford forcing the workers to buy a ford or we'll make you walk a mile in the freezing cold to work and back" every day

I have absolutely no doubt that it will work! i predict that the 2006 camry sales will be significantly better than the 2005.

no else gves a jck$hit about what you say! toyota employyes are the happiest and the most productive amogst all american auto makers; the uaw were shown the door each time they tried to organise in kentucky; toyota is putting meat on the table for hardworking americans; paople are very grateful for this and showing thier gratitude by buying shedloads of toyotas year after year!

aha I see! you are trying to explain on his behalf! does that mean that he will not drive a car at all because the fuel that is used to propel todays automobiles almost invariably comes from the middle east? or will he not buy clothes, underwear, DVD players, computers, TVs because these are made in china? or drink coffee (because this is grown in non democratic countries?) perhaps you could care to expalin on his behalf what he meant!

now lets clarify this: you are european and will only buy european or united states of american goods; ie are willing to consider "foreign" providd these goods are produced by certain caucasians but not those manufactured by the "other races" why is that? is it because the other races-negroid, mongoloid and various others that make up the non caucasian populations of the world have no right to earn a living? or do you suggest that caucasians have an inherent god given right to a better standard of living than other "non white" races of human beings? presumably yuou consider such races as inferior to the caucasians? would you care to explain further.

i'd rather back a camry (or an accord) that is built with the blood. sweat and toil of hardworking american workers than a fusion that is built in mexico; and i don't believe that one can hold so much contempt for assembly line workers: they are doing a job just like any one else; to look down one's nose on such jobs with disdain and consider them inferior to that of an engineer smacks of hypocrisy! every job is intrinsically equally worthwhile as long as it is done well. it is quite clear from comparing the efficiencies achieved at an american toyota or honda plant as compared to a ford plant that a toyota or honda worker is harder working and more motivated than his ford counterpart!

excellent deduction my dear friend! now chew on this most interesting piece of information: Ford's five-year funk: The relentless march of Toyota and other import brands has hurt Ford far more than GM Amy Wilson Automotive News / January 9, 2006 - 6:00 am DETROIT -- There's no doubt the past five years have been brutal for the Detroit automakers. But you may not realize just how unevenly the pain has been felt among the Big 3. The relentless U.S. sales onslaught by Asian automakers -- revealed starkly again last week when final 2005 figures were released -- has taken widely divergent bites out of General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler group. The bloodiest victim? Ford, by a staggering margin. Compare the 2005 and 2000 sales figures: Ford Motor, including its foreign brands, lost more than a million units of sales in the United States, a quarter of the automaker's 2000 volume. Sales of the Ford brand alone fell by 823,955 vehicles. Lincoln and Mercury also took severe hits. Put another way, Ford Motor lost the equivalent of three full Mercury divisions since 2000, which was the industry's biggest sales year on record. Mercury sold 359,143 units in 2000. By contrast, General Motors, including Saab, dropped 461,373 units during the same period, down 9.4 percent. But GM had bright spots. Its largest brand, Chevrolet, gained 46,419 units amid the Japanese onslaught. Cadillac and GMC grew, too. The Chrysler group suffered early in the five-year period but is newly resurgent. The Chrysler brand has gained sales, and the group's market share is up from 2004. The Big 3's plunge can't be blamed on the decline of the overall market since 2000. The U.S. record of 17.4 million sales of cars and light trucks in 2000 was nearly matched in 2005, the third highest year with nearly 17 million light vehicles sold. The real problem for Ford, GM and Chrysler during the five-year period: steady growth by Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai as they lured U.S. car buyers out of domestic vehicles. Nameplates plunge Ford's five-year free fall occurred almost across the board, led by once-vaunted nameplates: The Explorer SUV lost 205,369 units, down about 46 percent. Ford's minivan -- the Windstar in 2000 and the Freestar in 2005 -- lost 144,713 units, a 65 percent drop. The Ranger pickup lost 209,167 units, down about 63 percent. The meltdown is all the more striking when you consider that Ford was surging in the mid-1990s. Alex Trotman, Ford's CEO at the time, even set his sights on overtaking GM as the world's largest automaker. With Ford and GM on the downswing, the juggernaut known as Toyota is now the obvious pick to gain the No. 1 spot. Some speculate that could happen as early as this year, given Toyota's plans to increase global production another 10 percent in 2006. Toyota will start production at its San Antonio pickup plant in late 2006, adding another 150,000 units of capacity. A Toyota franchise is something almost no dealer would turn down. Still, it's way better to own a Cadillac or Chevy store these days than Lincoln, Mercury or Ford. So just what happened at Ford? 'We lost our way' "In short, we lost our way," said Mark Fields, Ford Motor's fourth new head of North America in the past five years, at last week's Los Angeles Auto Show. "We lost touch with our customers -- particularly our car customers." In 2005, Ford regained some traction in car sales, helped by the debut of the 2006 Ford Fusion sedan. But that didn't offset the collapse of the Explorer and other trucks, allowing the Chevy brand to grab the U.S. sales crown for the first time in 20 years. The pain doesn't stop there. Last year marked the 10th straight year of market share decline for Ford's domestic brands. In 1995, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury held 25.7 percent of the U.S. market -- nearly identical to GM's share in 2005 of 26.2 percent. By 2005, Ford Motor's domestic brand share had plunged to 17.4 percent. It's time to "change or die," said Fields, the man tapped by CEO Bill Ford to turn around the company's U.S. fortunes. Bill Ford will reveal Ford Motor's latest turnaround plan, including plant closings and job cuts, on Jan. 23. Bolder design and better brand identity, plus new crossovers and small cars, are all on the long-term agenda. Mr. Fields: Your marching orders are clear. But the path ahead still looks muddy. You may e-mail Amy Wilson at awilson@crain.com Lost and found U.S. unit volume lost and gained, 2005 compared with 2000 Ford Motor –1,050,420 GM –461,373 Chrysler group –217,862 Toyota Motor Sales 641,090 Nissan North America 324,581 American Honda Motor 303,612 http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...efsect=AMERICAS "sad but true" !

I entirely agree! and very hard too!

i post here to remind all of you how certain well run companies are doing-and how badly certain others are doing in comparison; eg the best amongst these is worth upwards of $175 billion while others of a similar turnover and unit sales are struggling to achieve a market valuation of $13-14 billion. if you want to know further details let me know, i can always elaborate; or maybe you can ask mr know-it all jensen; (unfortunatley he has a tendency to get very confused and befuddled by facts)

toyota has earned $10.9 billion each year for the past 2 years and as per their guidance will exceed this figure by a small amount at the end of this financial year (31 march 2006). last week their share price reached $100 giving them a valuation of $180 billion (as compared to less than $13 billion for both Ford and GM Toyota has an AAA+ rating by all the major agencies as opposed to the junk ratings that are accorded to Ford and GM. if richard jensen wants to delude himself by considering the above figures as being apalling; he is welcome to his opinions; essentially the rest of the world does not really cares what he thinks; his knowledge of both the auto world as well as the financial world appears to be as good as ability of the CEO's of Ford and GM with respect to running their respective companies; I purchased ADRs of toyota at $75 around this time last year; right now they fluctuate between $97-100. If on the other hand i had bought the shares of this know-all's favourite company the price would have sunk from $15 to $8 :D any time you want to give finacial advice to people feel free to do so rich; i can become "rich" pun intended; ha ha ha by following the exact opposite of what you say :D

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5120201377.html Mr. Ford's Wrong Turn Why U.S. Automakers Can't Blame Japan By James P. Womack Sunday, December 4, 2005; Page B01 On Nov. 22 after a speech at the National Press Club, Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford told the media, with apparent earnestness, that his company "can compete with Toyota, but we can't compete with Japan." What makes this claim so extraordinary is that Japanese companies, led by Toyota Motor Corp., are thrashing Ford by building vehicles in North American factories with North American-made parts and North American workers, who receive American-style wages and health benefits. And increasingly, these Japanese brand vehicles are engineered in America by Americans. Consider a few facts about Toyota. About 65 percent of the vehicles the firm sells in North America it assembles in North America, and it would assemble a much higher proportion here if it could only keep up with its rapid sales growth. Toyota will open its seventh North American assembly line in Texas next summer and an eighth line in Ontario in 2008. It may start assembling vehicles at a Subaru plant in Indiana in 2009, and it is said to be looking for yet another assembly location. In addition, it has three engine manufacturing plants and is looking for a site for a fourth. By the end of the decade, Toyota will be able to assemble about as many cars as Chrysler does in North America, and it is closing in on the capacity Ford will have after plant closings that are widely expected to be announced in January. What's more -- and this best describes Bill Ford's problems -- the leading Japanese car companies are making more money than their U.S. competitors not only because of lower costs, but because their lean design, production and purchasing system is turning out vehicles so desirable that Toyota and Honda can charge much higher prices for products in the same segment of the market. Indeed, these Japanese companies are giving wages and health packages to current workers in North America similar to those provided by their U.S. rivals, but they're selling vehicles today for $2,500 more than comparably equipped cars made by Ford and GM. This revenue difference, more than the production cost issue, lies at the real heart of Motown's problem. It's little wonder that money-losing Ford doesn't have the funds to invest in new technologies and is asking Washington for help. Meanwhile, Toyota is generating such enormous profits (more than $9 billion worldwide this year) that it can invest in new products and new technologies at a level far exceeding anything Japan Inc. could throw into the equation. But no amount of government assistance can rescue U.S. auto companies unless they become better competitors. In fact, Ford had it exactly backwards when he spoke to reporters last month. Japan isn't his problem; Toyota is. And the answer for his company, like the challenge to it, lies here at home. Author's e-mail: jwomack@lean.org James Womack is co-author of "The Machine That Changed the World" (Scribner) and the recently released "Lean Solutions" (Free Press). He is president and founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization in Brookline, Mass.

Ford's financials on the other hand seem to be in excellent shape: :D http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?...WW%2EFord%2Ecom Net loss of 15 cents per share, or $284 million. Loss from continuing operations of 10 cents per share, or $191 million, excluding special items.* Worldwide automotive pre-tax loss of $1.3 billion, excluding special items. Financial Services sector pre-tax profit of $1.1 billion, excluding special items. Full-year earnings results expected to be at the low end of the current guidance range of $1.00 to $1.25 per share from continuing operations, excluding special items. GM's financials appear to be even better: http://www.gm.com/company/investor_informa...ings/index.html DETROIT - General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) today reported a loss of $1.1 billion, or $1.92 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2005, excluding special items and a tax-rate adjustment. These results compare with net income of $315 million, or $0.56 per share, in the third quarter of 2004. Revenue rose more than 5 percent to $47.2 billion. Including special items, GM reported a loss of $1.6 billion, or $2.89 per share in the third quarter of 2005. The special items include a non-cash charge of $805 million for asset impairments primarily in North America and Europe and restructuring charges at GM Europe of $56 million. These were partially offset by a tax-rate normalization totaling $311 million. I too along with Richard Jensen greatly sympathise with the apalling state of Toyota's financials: http://www.autonews.com/article.cms?articleId=55270 Toyota operating profits falter as spending rises By James B. Treece Automotive News / November 07, 2005 TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. spent its way to lower operating profits in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Most of the added spending was in Japan. Launching the Lexus brand in Japan, adding factory capacity at home and abroad, and developing new models all ate into operating profits. Toyota raised its forecast for North American vehicle sales in the October 2005-March 2006 second half of the fiscal year. Operating profits fell 3.2 percent to 404.3 billion yen, or $3.58 billion at current exchange rates, in the three months to Sept. 30 compared with the year-earlier period. Net income rose 2.1 percent to $2.68 billion. Revenues rose 10.1 percent to $43.92 billion. Toyota now predicts North American sales of 1.3 million in the six months ending March 31, up from 1.15 million a year earlier. http://www.toyota.com/about/news/corporate...finresults.html TMC estimates that consolidated vehicle sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006 will be 8.03 million vehicles, an increase of 60 thousand vehicles from the forecast announced in August 2005. TMC also announced amendments to its annual prospects for unconsolidated financial results. The company's exchange rate assumption was revised from 105 yen to the dollar to 110 yen. TMC's net income projection was increased by 170 billion yen to 670 billion yen compared with the previous projection announced in May 2005. Kinoshita concluded by commenting on the consolidated profit outlook for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006. “Assuming that the U.S. dollar is at 110 yen per dollar, we aim to exceed last year's revenues and profits. We will also strive to offset the increase in business expansion costs through marketing and cost reduction efforts.â€