banker55

Once it is scheduled, if you know the VIN, you can find the rotation number and it is easy to find in system. Off line before shipping it is harder to find. Your boss's computer can pin point the unit in system. Unless things have changed since I retired, pictures can get you fired.

I agree the new Malibu will be a better car. Looking at the numbers, the overall market was up 6% and midsize sedans was up 1%. Malibu sales were down 6%. This segment will be close to flat for 2015, my guess. The top 5 cars make up 70%. The big five sales were up 4 to 6 percent. Mazda, Subaru and Kia sales were up. The new Chrysler sales are up for the past 4 or 5 months. New Optima is coming. That leaves Malibu and Passat(down 11 or 12 percent). The new Malibu has to compete with the old Malibu in the same sales space. The only way they can succeed to plan is to take sales from the other players. I think the two Chevys' together may see increased sales to a point,but this is a crowded space.

!.3 billion before US tax

Long time boss of Intel, Andy Grove said "Only the paranoid survive." He was a smart man. My first job in the car business was in 1965 and I never gave a second thought to the Germans, the Japanese and least of all the Korean's. Fast forward to 1974 nothing changed, but I started with the Ford Motor Company. Over the next 30 plus years I saw the following assembly plants close ...Los Angeles , San Jose,Mawa, Edison,Norfolk,Atlanta,Twin Cities, Loraine, St. Louis, Oakville Truck, Wayne car, Dearborn Mustang , Wixom and St Thomas . I worked at 8 of these plants plus some that are still open. I won't list all of the supporting Ford Plants that also closed. I never thought of Russia or China as possible competitors. Beware of all of your competitors ,even VW. They know how to build trucks...VW, Scania and Man. Are they a screwed up company? Yes. Can they fix it . Yes . Most of the people I worked with in the above plants thought they had a job for life. Their families and their communities counted on the success of Ford and the local operations and all of the supporting jobs.

Did you go to Miller's for lunch?... may have seen you there

Stay at the Dearborn Inn. It was built by Henry Ford and has lots of history. I stayed there many times and it was always very nice. When I stayed there it was owned by Ford. It is now Marriott. It is also next door to everything you will visit. Probably $200 a night. Ford always paid my bill, but if I was to stay in Dearborn now it would be at the Dearborn Inn. Note that the rooms are small.

That is why I like free cash flow as a financial metric.

I only verified the Ford numbers from the annual report. The 6.282 billion is pre-tax. It does not include minus 1.94 billion in special items but does include 1.854 billion profit from Ford Credit. Ford and GM do not play with the numbers outside of GAAP. The CEO must sign the Financial reports and they are Federal reports. Get caught and you lose your bonus, stock options and get jail time. Lie to the SEC and you go to jail and it is years not months.

Yes it is an average. It is an accurate metric, but it hardly tells the whole story. The figures are skewed because of the yen and other currency adjustments. Being a multi-national company like Ford has lots of plus's, but it is never all good. In my well over 30 years working for the Ford Motor Company I never saw a year when we fired on all cylinders. If you could take Ford of Europe out of the equation today the Ford average would be much higher. I remember in the early 80's, Ford of Europe helped us keep the lights on at Ford. That is how we paid the bills'.

Pretax profit, excluding special items, including Ford Credit was 6.82 billion...so that is a match

The only numbers I have will be Ford numbers from the annual report . The 6.321 million unit number is from Ford's 2014 Annual report. The 994 number was from the paper. If you multiply the profit 994 times the units you get 6.283 billion profit for Ford . I will go back to the report and do some calculations and will get back to you.

From the Feb 20 Detroit Free Press. Profit per unit world wide Toyota $2726 Ford 994 FCA 850 GM 654 Ford built 6.321 million units in 2014 so the Ford number is close. I imagine the person who did the calculation used the same formula for each company.

I believe it is very similar to Cadillac's 928. They are not stand alone dealers either. I would guess low 300's for Lincoln and high 300's for Cadillac as stand alone dealers. As a stand alone dealer you would need a large population base. I listed the numbers for the competition. I do not know stand alone numbers. Chambersburg Pa defeats my theory. MB 364 BMW 339 Lexus 235 Audi 281

Last week Lincoln president Kumar Galhotra said there are still 909 Lincoln dealers in the U.S.

Since 2000, nine losing years totalling 8.629 billion and six winning years totalling 2.6 billion. It appears they try to cover the extra overhead with higher list prices. Base Focus is 13995 pounds or 22200 us dollars Ranger Double cab 27700 pound or 43000 us dollars. Base Focus in Germany 16810 euros..about 21000 us dollars. I did not look at shipping or taxes or rebates..just list price. They did help us keep the lights on in Dearborn in the early 80's.

Question for Biker. What color is an orange? Hint. The answer is in the question. Question for Biker. What color is an apple? Thats not so easy. That is..thats ..its apples an oranges

Cadillac is a very dysfunctional group inside a disorganized company. They are the best thing Ford could ask for ask for, as they fix Lincoln.

Good article on Cadillac in WardsAuto a few weeks back. Use Wards search function to find it. It actually has numbers and facts that may support some of your positions. Learn to read the free cash flow statements(easy) for both companies and they will tell you a lot over time. ..At least a years worth.That will give you a running score card with less accounting bs. With good numbers you can actually make a good argument. Without the numbers, you are just someone with an opinion.

It is hard to quantify when the most popular description in your letter to shareholders is "on a non-GAAP basis"

Its less mirky if you follow free cash flow from the cash flow statement. If you wish to compare two companies for any given time frame from an investment perspective , you can calculate free cash flow over enterprise value or free cash flow over market cap.Ford has been a real cash cow over the past few years and it will continue into the future. By following free cash flow over the next 18 months you will see the effects as Ford works through its many launches and than comes out the other side. GM is showing improvements in free cash flow in recent quarters and may morph into a cash machine as well. You still have to read any fine print on the reports but free cash flow is much less encumbered with accounting clouds. Negative free cash flow is not always bad as long as the money is invested wisely. GAAP are followed religiously by both Ford and GM. The rules are general, but it all comes out in the wash. Ford reports sales differently than Navistar for cash flow in relation to their financial arms , but it eventually reaches the bottom line. The CEO and CFO must verify and sign the financial statements. A restatement of these reports due to accounting irregularities may require the return of the past years bonus . An independent auditor also has to approve the statements. Accounting crimes are federal crimes. When the IRS, SEC and FBI are done , someone will be in prison. Also, some ambulance chasing lawyer will have a shareholder class action.

For a quick improvement in its financials, GM should hire Tesla's accountants .

The CVPI looked very similar to the retail CV, The FBI version looked identical. Same car EBFLEX ? Not so much. It has the following unique parts: Police frame,doors,front suspension ,rear suspension,radiator, silicon hoses,stronger roof and b-pillar wheels , 6 ply tires, seat frames, seat covers, seat foam, seat bracket hinges, engine, transmission,cooler, kevlar shields,fire suppression system, wiring , battery, alternator, mirrors, roof bow, a-posts, rear lazy back stamping,deck appliqué etc, etc For confused people like EBFlex, we even painted them special colours and added lights and sirens. special cornering strobe lights ,package tray lights, licence plate strobe and lights behind the unique grill. Still confused EB. Ok,we will add a pair of spot lights.My guess is the two new police units have similar upgrades and will make great taxis after they are resold.

I agree with you 100%. Someone at Ford knew and I would bet it was on someones problem matrix. It just was not addressed. ...or ignored. The headliner installation process was a government mandated critical process and was audited every shift by a process inspector. I am not familiar with the padding. I would have guessed it was part of the headliner itself.

The pattern and amount of headliner glue always was a critical process for roof strength . It is a robotic process. However, glue drums have to be changed and glue gun tips have to be cleaned nightly. There also can be a problem with cut ins(adding a unit in) or cut outs (removing a unit) when you run in-line vehicle scheduling. If done wrong the following units will be done wrong. You are also at risk of a wrong headliner pick from the vendor or material handling can load the wrong rack of headliners into the robot yielding a large number of wrong headliners. In the system after installation, headliners can be damaged and have to be changed. A repair person may not follow the process to save time. The units with the sunroofs have a different process as the glass installation process creates the roof strength. Similar process requirements are followed for windshield and backlite ( rear glass) install as they are critical for roof strength. The computer controlled process can be thrown out of whack by a passing thunderstorm from a slight power outage. The shut down procedure has to be followed properly so you don't have glue drying on unistalled headliners over night or over the weekend.

Just exaggerating for effect . I don't feel too guilty as I posted all the numbers a few months ago.