You Can Sum Up Why Bailouts Were Bad In One Word

FORD

Comments

[A.G.Gilmore]

Chris,

What worries me about Ford posting such a big profit lies in the question of how much was due to the Cash for Clunkers program?

There's no indication that Cash for Clunkers actually fixed anything. It surely cost Americans a lot of money, and I would be interesting to see sale levels without the artificial stimulus.

[Chris]

I work in the car industry, for a rental car company, and trust me I see all the cars from all the companies, this is no accident. Ford completely revamped their line of cars - changing the way the Taurus and Focus run and look, and adding the Fusion as standard size car in between. The new Edge crossover and the small SUV Escape are also well made, look good, and run well. When compared to Chevy and to a much greater extent Dodge/Chrysler its not even close. Dodge and Chrysler products, past minivans, are junk that was put together on the cheap and always go into the shop. Its not an accident Ford is doing better, because they reevaluated themselves, had good management, and came up with a solid new product. Thats how it should work.

[A.G.Gilmore]

All well and true. I personally think a big boost to Ford was dropping Hummer, Jaguar and other companies from their portfolio.

I will be convinced come the next quarter if they do it again.