Terminate Jim Farley as leader at the next meeting

[Explorer69]

JF has made excuses for years now and demonstrated that he is not qualified to lead Ford. Now they want to cut middle management incentives to save money? No Jim, you need to be fired and no golden parachute either. Farley has also been blaming Ford's bad performance on tariffs and Donald Trump. That is the wrong move, you need to be proactive and make good moves. Stop trying to change the company from affordable cars and trucks, instead turning it into a competitor with Tesla. The dealer prices on the F150 are outrageous and normal citizens cannot afford a basic truck anymore. The E is killing Ford. So next meeting there needs to be a vote to fire JF so the shareholders can speak. Ford is on the brink... ACT NOW!

I am not the only one saying such things.

https://247wallst.com/investing/2024/11/21/ford-mistakes-pressure-ceo-farley/

 

https://247wallst.com/investing/2024/07/25/ford-falls-apart-under-ceo-farley/

 

https://newrepublic.com/article/177669/ford-ceo-jim-farley-biggest-loser-2023

 

[jpd80]

I’ve been critical of many if not all of Ford’s CEO since Nasser in the early 2000s.

 

I have to keep reminding myself that the CEO works hand in glove with the wishes of the board and Bill Ford has a big say in what the company’s direction will be…… he fired Mark Fields because he didn’t move quickly enough with electrification plans….as it turns out, Fields was probably right to be cautious….

 

Getting the pace of change right is so important. Too slow to market and you miss being the major product, too quick to market and there’s not enough buyers…,.

 

Today, the the issue is balancing quality fixes against warranty costs and accountants that show its sometimes cheaper to do less than eliminating a problem…

Edited February 20 by jpd80

[DeluxeStang]

Jim Farley is one of the best CEO's of any car company right now, I don't understand all of the hate he gets. Sure, Ford isn't perfect, but most of the issues with Ford currently are deeply rooted into the company culture, and existed before he came in. Quality issues? Check. EV losses? Yep. Killing off their entire car lineup? The decision was made before he became CEO. 

 

He's making serious changes to the company culture to improve product quality, to improve EV profitability, but these things take time, years and years. He's also leaning into passion products which is the best product approach Ford has ever had, they just need to find a way to tie that into affordability as well.

 

It's not just Ford concerned about tarrifs, it's the entire auto industry. You gonna blame all their CEO's for having concerns as well? 

[akirby]

1 hour ago, DeluxeStang said:

Jim Farley is one of the best CEO's of any car company right now, I don't understand all of the hate he gets. Sure, Ford isn't perfect, but most of the issues with Ford currently are deeply rooted into the company culture, and existed before he came in. Quality issues? Check. EV losses? Yep. Killing off their entire car lineup? The decision was made before he became CEO. 

 

He's making serious changes to the company culture to improve product quality, to improve EV profitability, but these things take time, years and years. He's also leaning into passion products which is the best product approach Ford has ever had, they just need to find a way to tie that into affordability as well.

 

It's not just Ford concerned about tarrifs, it's the entire auto industry. You gonna blame all their CEO's for having concerns as well? 

You’re partially right - both the Rivian and VW EV deals were done before he became CEO.  But he owns closing Oakville and killing Edge and Nautilus and pursuing the 3 row EVs.

[7Mary3]

Are all the CEO's bad, or is there another common denominator?

[Chrisgb]

29 minutes ago, 7Mary3 said:

Are all the CEO's bad, or is there another common denominator?

I'm coming to the realization that it must be a disconnect between the C-suite and what's going on 11 floors below. Why build Blue Oval City and then schedule EV production elsewhere (Louisville Dearborn, Oakville)? And lately JF realizes that some of the most brand loyal buyers of any make have been waiting almost three years for their F250-350? Bless their floating axle hearts for saving OAP. Augmenting Super Duty production there might be the one of the brightest decisions JF has made. That customer demographic I would bet votes and contributes to conservative interests and could be vocal if their Platinum SuperCrew dually goes up 25 grand.

 

GM doing away with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in their EVs I think will turn out to be the 21st century's AMStereo; technically possible, but who cares? I think GM's,and Ford's  practice of embedding the hardware and charging a subscription to use it will not yield the profits they're counting on. 

 

Stellantis gets parted out in 2029 or sooner. You read it here first.

[akirby]

23 minutes ago, Chrisgb said:

I'm coming to the realization that it must be a disconnect between the C-suite and what's going on 11 floors below. Why build Blue Oval City and then schedule EV production elsewhere (Louisville Dearborn,

Originally they thought they needed all that capacity for T3 which was supposed to supplant F150 sales in 10 years.  And since F series is the cash cow it made sense at the time.

 

But why they’re sticking with that plan given where we are today is a little baffling to me.

[7Mary3]

1 hour ago, Chrisgb said:

I'm coming to the realization that it must be a disconnect between the C-suite and what's going on 11 floors below. Why build Blue Oval City and then schedule EV production elsewhere (Louisville Dearborn, Oakville)? And lately JF realizes that some of the most brand loyal buyers of any make have been waiting almost three years for their F250-350? Bless their floating axle hearts for saving OAP. Augmenting Super Duty production there might be the one of the brightest decisions JF has made. That customer demographic I would bet votes and contributes to conservative interests and could be vocal if their Platinum SuperCrew dually goes up 25 grand.

 

GM doing away with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in their EVs I think will turn out to be the 21st century's AMStereo; technically possible, but who cares? I think GM's,and Ford's  practice of embedding the hardware and charging a subscription to use it will not yield the profits they're counting on. 

 

Stellantis gets parted out in 2029 or sooner. You read it here first.

 

Can't say I disagree with any of that, but I wonder if the common denominator is a particular individual or group of individuals.  Anyway.....

 

Your comment about Stellantis duly noted!

[Bob Rosadini]

1 hour ago, 7Mary3 said:

Are all the CEO's bad, or is there another common denominator?

Ok 7M, I'll bite😎

.....Govt regulation ?  And inability to anticipate future regulation?

     And you could add CARB with its sway over the industry?

 

.....DEI?  Now in decline but how many positions have been filled based on that                 objective vs best person for the job?

.....Influence of the media or should I say the financial press?

..  

 

 

 

[7Mary3]

9 minutes ago, Bob Rosadini said:

Ok 7M, I'll bite😎

.....Govt regulation ?  And inability to anticipate future regulation?

     And you could add CARB with its sway over the industry?

 

.....DEI?  Now in decline but how many positions have been filled based on that                 objective vs best person for the job?

.....Influence of the media or should I say the financial press?

..  

 

 

 

 

Mary Barra doesn't seem to having too much trouble managing all that jazz. 

 

If Bill Ford Jr.'s last name was Jones......

 

Don't get me wrong I think he's a good guy and is smart enough to know he can't run Ford but sometimes I wonder if the Ford family's control over Ford is hindering their ability to get good CEO's.

Edited February 21 by 7Mary3

[Sherminator98]

56 minutes ago, akirby said:

Originally they thought they needed all that capacity for T3 which was supposed to supplant F150 sales in 10 years.  And since F series is the cash cow it made sense at the time.

 

But why they’re sticking with that plan given where we are today is a little baffling to me.

 

I think its a multitude of things...I think Ford's new EV programs are offering them a way out of doing business like they've have been doing

Ford CEO Jim Farley Says Company Hasn’t Been Cost Competitive Since 2009

 

Also I'm wondering if the automotive press is conflating information for the T3 and CE1. Given Ford's comments about larger vehicles not being a good candidate with current EV tech, why would it make any sense to have two different products that would compete against one another for buyers...figuring the T3 would be roughly the size of an F-150 and the CE1 pickup a slightly larger Maverick or slightly smaller Ranger. 

I think that Ford's plans (as we know them now) are going to change and BOC will be the EV only plant and Louisville will get P/E/HEV C2 based products that will take that plant till the middle of next decade at least.  

[akirby]

19 minutes ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

I think its a multitude of things...I think Ford's new EV programs are offering them a way out of doing business like they've have been doing

Ford CEO Jim Farley Says Company Hasn’t Been Cost Competitive Since 2009

 

Also I'm wondering if the automotive press is conflating information for the T3 and CE1. Given Ford's comments about larger vehicles not being a good candidate with current EV tech, why would it make any sense to have two different products that would compete against one another for buyers...figuring the T3 would be roughly the size of an F-150 and the CE1 pickup a slightly larger Maverick or slightly smaller Ranger. 

I think that Ford's plans (as we know them now) are going to change and BOC will be the EV only plant and Louisville will get P/E/HEV C2 based products that will take that plant till the middle of next decade at least.  

T3 is in between F150 and Ranger

[mustang84isu]

Ford at the executive level has been rudderless since Alan Mulally left.  I had high hopes for Jim Farley, but he's been there now, almost 5 years?  And the execution still is not there.  The company is way too reactionary to the whims of the market at whatever moment in time and it doesn't feel like there is a truly a multi-year plan to improve and grow back lost market share.  Lots of bad product decisions, including letting nameplates wither on the vine that used to be very competitive, and then finally killing them off with the excuse that it is the market's fault and not Ford's for failing to invest and keep it fresh.  It's the same old Ford story, just a different decade.

 

With the current political environment we are in, I think the CE1 program is going to be another uphill battle.  Meanwhile, Ford continues to send nameplates like Escape to the dustbin right as buyers are looking for affordable vehicles to counter inflation.  The current generation Mustang is not aging well and is too expensive.  Ford is SUV heavy when sedans made a significant comeback in sales in 2024 as consumers are looking to scale down.  GM has also been doing very well with the Buick and Chevy small crossovers while Ford will soon be MIA in that segment.  Negatives aside, the one good thing Farley has done is monetizing Ford Pro and telematics.  That is a very positive step to mitigate the normal automotive boom and bust cycle.  So I will give him kudos for that, but everything else leaves much to be desired and I think many of us are getting impatient with the continued excuses for mediocre execution.

Edited February 21 by mustang84isu

[akirby]

13 minutes ago, mustang84isu said:

Ford at the executive level has been rudderless since Alan Mulally left.  I had high hopes for Jim Farley, but he's been there now, almost 5 years?  And the execution still is not there.  The company is way too reactionary to the whims of the market at whatever moment in time and it doesn't feel like there is a truly a multi-year plan to improve and grow back lost market share.  Lots of bad product decisions, including letting nameplates wither on the vine that used to be very competitive, and then finally killing them off with the excuse that it is the market's fault and not Ford's for failing to invest and keep it fresh.  It's the same old Ford story, just a different decade.

 

With the current political environment we are in, I think the CE1 program is going to be another uphill battle.  Meanwhile, Ford continues to send nameplates like Escape to the dustbin right as buyers are looking for affordable vehicles to counter inflation.  The current generation Mustang is not aging well and is too expensive.  Ford is SUV heavy when sedans made a significant comeback in sales in 2024 as consumers are looking to scale down.  GM has also been doing very well with the Buick and Chevy small crossovers while Ford will soon be MIA in that segment.  Negatives aside, the one good thing Farley has done is monetizing Ford Pro and telematics.  That is a very positive step to mitigate the normal automotive boom and bust cycle.  So I will give him kudos for that, but everything else leaves much to be desired and I think many of us are getting impatient with the continued excuses for mediocre execution.

Cars didn’t make a comeback - cheap vehicles made a comeback.  Honda Accord was down to 164K.  Market share and volume based on cheap cars is worthless if you have other options.  

[Rick73]

11 hours ago, akirby said:

Cars didn’t make a comeback - cheap vehicles made a comeback.  Honda Accord was down to 164K.  Market share and volume based on cheap cars is worthless if you have other options.  

Interesting distinction because Corolla, Civic, and especially Camry at 310k outsold Accord.  Granted, CR-V and RAV4 did even better, which begs the question of what exactly are “some” buyers looking to buy?  I don’t know, can only guess.  If we exclude pickups from list of top 25 best sellers, most remaining vehicles are relatively affordable, but not necessarily at bottom of price spectrum.  There are a lot of even cheaper vehicles below RAV4, CR-V, Camry, etc. not on this list.  For buyers who don’t need or want a big truck, what do most of the rest of vehicles on list have in common?  For what it’s worth, in my opinion Explorer stands out a little.

 

https://www.kbb.com/best-cars/top-10-25-best-selling-cars-trucks-suvs/

 

Anyway, I think Farley is trying to move Ford in right direction, but whether he can or not, or has enough time, is yet to be seen.

[Explorer69]

If you think all auto CEOs are worse than JF so that makes him good, then.... Rudderless is a great analogy @mustang84isu. The majority of Americans do NOT want an EV but JF mentions in meetings that they do. It reminds me of the any party, when they lose an election instead of asking the voters what they want, they double down and try to force their own agenda down peoples throat. I think we all knew what would happen at the last election if it was legit. We also knew what DJT was going to do. SO why was Farley NOT better prepared at least in things he said to the media? I know he can't change the company overnight but Ford should move most of its manufacturing in the states and stop pushing to battle China EVs. Americans have been screaming about Ford quality and prices for at least 3 years now. JF needs to announce Ford is returning to its roots and will start producing good affordable F150s and Mustangs again. Total inventory 85% combustion, 10% Hybrid (SUV/Cars), 5% EV cars only. 

[Sherminator98]

31 minutes ago, Explorer69 said:

 JF needs to announce Ford is returning to its roots and will start producing good affordable F150s and Mustangs again. 

 

Average transaction price for a new vehicle is $49,740 as of January of this year.

 

There is zero chance that you'll get a Mustang for $14K like you could back in 1993-which was 33 years ago

Affordable is a nebulous term-where I live, "affordable housing" is nearly 250K (which there is none) and the average transaction price of a house in my area is $500 to 750K 

The used car market is tight because manufactures aren't flooding the market like used to back in the 1990s with fleet specials, so a average used car is now $27K, so how are manufactures actually going to make $$ on selling new cars that cost almost the same as a used car?

What it ultimately boils down to is people have sticker shock when they buy something new after not having a new car for 5-7-12 years or whatever the average is these days. Hopefully your income has kept pace with the costs of everything. 

 

Unless the market see a major contraction, prices aren't going to come down that much, because they want to make a profit.

[Explorer69]

It has nothing to do with my income, Ford needs to sell cars to the average Joe and their average salary cannot afford 45k Mustangs. Your statement makes no sense, "so how are manufactures actually going to make $$ on selling new cars that cost almost the same as a used car?" I sell homes and there are new homes being sold for the same price as existing homes and guess which ones get sold. So if builders can do it why can't the automakers? They can make a profit the problem is they are being greedy with the high sticker prices plain and simple. Stock in Ford is tanking because of JF's comments at the last meeting.

[DeluxeStang]

4 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

Average transaction price for a new vehicle is $49,740 as of January of this year.

 

There is zero chance that you'll get a Mustang for $14K like you could back in 1993-which was 33 years ago

Affordable is a nebulous term-where I live, "affordable housing" is nearly 250K (which there is none) and the average transaction price of a house in my area is $500 to 750K 

The used car market is tight because manufactures aren't flooding the market like used to back in the 1990s with fleet specials, so a average used car is now $27K, so how are manufactures actually going to make $$ on selling new cars that cost almost the same as a used car?

What it ultimately boils down to is people have sticker shock when they buy something new after not having a new car for 5-7-12 years or whatever the average is these days. Hopefully your income has kept pace with the costs of everything. 

 

Unless the market see a major contraction, prices aren't going to come down that much, because they want to make a profit.

The goal should be to try and stabilize prices rather than massively reducing them, CE1 is the only exception to that more or less. A 50k mustang gt is acceptable, but if that price keeps climbing by thousands with each model year, that's really gonna hurt it. 

[Bob Rosadini]

18 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

 

Mary Barra doesn't seem to having too much trouble managing all that jazz. 

 

If Bill Ford Jr.'s last name was Jones......

 

Don't get me wrong I think he's a good guy and is smart enough to know he can't run Ford but sometimes I wonder if the Ford family's control over Ford is hindering their ability to get good CEO's.

Ah, get your point...but he did hire Mulally....but then again he hired "furniture man"🤔

[fuzzymoomoo]

21 hours ago, Explorer69 said:

stop pushing to battle China EVs.

I haven’t given this much thought until now. The world knows with Trump in the white house we have at LEAST 4 years of Chinese brand cars being barred from import to the US so why the rush to beat them at their own game?

[Sherminator98]

On 2/21/2025 at 3:30 PM, Explorer69 said:

It has nothing to do with my income, Ford needs to sell cars to the average Joe and their average salary cannot afford 45k Mustangs. Your statement makes no sense, "so how are manufactures actually going to make $$ on selling new cars that cost almost the same as a used car?" I sell homes and there are new homes being sold for the same price as existing homes and guess which ones get sold. So if builders can do it why can't the automakers? They can make a profit the problem is they are being greedy with the high sticker prices plain and simple. Stock in Ford is tanking because of JF's comments at the last meeting.

Ford stock is worth next to nothing because the Ford family owns a controlling interest. There is no way their stock goes as high as GM or Toyota because of that. 
 

Your real estate example is completely flawed. I live in an area that has limited ability to expand because vast majority of areas that can be developed are. I bought a house that was built in 1990s about eight years ago that has basically doubled in price since then. 
 

Any new construction in my area starts at 750k and I’ve seen some at 900k. You have to cover the costs of the lot, which I’m assuming is around 200k, if not more, then the costs of materials labor etc of building houses. 
 

Those same thing apply to building vehicles-materials, labor and development all factor into cost increases. If there was so much profit built into making these vehicles, why isn’t other manufacturers who might have a better pricing structure exploiting that to sell their vehicles for cheaper to build market share? 

[Sherminator98]

On 2/22/2025 at 8:09 AM, fuzzymoomoo said:

I haven’t given this much thought until now. The world knows with Trump in the white house we have at LEAST 4 years of Chinese brand cars being barred from import to the US so why the rush to beat them at their own game?

Because quit thinking this is a North American only issue. Unless Ford decides it doesn’t want to sell cars in the EU or China or other places around the world, they are going to have to face Chinese competition in some form. 

[mackinaw]

3 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

Ford stock is worth next to nothing because the Ford family owns a controlling interest. There is no way their stock goes as high as GM or Toyota because of that.....

 

Being from Dearborn, I love the fact that this is still a family-controlled company.  There's no Mr. General Motors or Mr. Stellantis.  There is a Mr. Ford.

 

Stock price is one thing, but don't forget about dividends.  Old folks like me love getting those dividends every year.

[fuzzymoomoo]

6 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

Because quit thinking this is a North American only issue. Unless Ford decides it doesn’t want to sell cars in the EU or China or other places around the world, they are going to have to face Chinese competition in some form. 

Ford sales are Dismal in Europe and not any better in China. I don’t think they’ll be in either market much longer if the trend keeps up.