pjbrunk

Random thoughts on saving Ford Motor Company 1) Build exciting products. From the bottom up, from the least expensive car, go after class leadership and take no prisoners. What do I mean? Base model: You need a Civic beater. This means you need a smooth, variable valve twin cam motor that makes 1HP/Liter that is quiet and smooth and makes lots of torque too. Supercharging is cheap. Take a look at the WRX from Subaru and get those seats and steering wheel into the vehicle too. Mid-size Restyle the new Ford Fusion front end. Fast. No-- faster. It is ugly. I hear great things about the interior. Interior styling only sells after you get someone into the car. Exterior styling get's 'em to look closer. Go back and re-negotiate with Yahama and get the old V6 4-cam motor out of the storage bin and start refining it from there. Get the V8 model too, and add supercharging to both and you'll have wild HP and torque figures, and MPG to boot. Full size: Dump the Crown Victoria. I don't care if you make money on it. Just bury the tooling and cover it in concrete. Resurrect the LS platform and stretch it a bit if you have to, but don't kill the best thing you've made in 25 years and throw it away? Build that new Marauder one of your employees talked about. Paint it red, put some chrome wheels on it, and be sure to offer a six-speed auto AND manual trans. It's got to get 30mpg on the highway and still hit sub-14 in the quarter mile. You'll have to see it for $30K or less or forget it. Truck: Get a Caterpillar Diesel Engine plan going. International's image is tarnished by the 6.0 mess. Caterpillar has the best brand-- combine with them and win. Turbodiesel hybrid solves truck economy issues. No less than 15MPG city and 24HWY for an Excursion-sized vehicle. Family SUV-- Get some decent economy out of the Explorer and Expedition. Call the new Excursion "Enterprise" and get Shattner to drive it! Power it with a hybrid diesel with direct injection (as soon as our fuel catches up). Get some head room into the Explorer-- what is going on in the interior's group? A 6' male has to look through the top 2" of the windshield to see out! I've got more headroom in a 1984 CRX! Dealerships? Old worn-out dealerships don't compare to new ones. Find a way to build new dealerships. Provide a REAL price on the sticker, and stop the cycle of rebates and incentives. Save those for year-end. Above all-- do a better job of benchmarking your competition. Make them come to you down the road. Right now you need to catch up to them. You know who they are.