Ford Sells 20 Percent of its Stake in Mazda

Smart move...they should get rid as much as possible any "excesses" that they don't need for their survival.

Now if only they could get rid of Mercury...
very hard to do in reality but it's necessary.....like GM, they have too many cars in the same price ranges that are similar

strange: 3% of Suzuki is 230m, whereas 20% of Mazda is 540m.
That puts the value of Suzuki at 6.6n, vs Mazda at 2.6bm. Odd.

Must be some special Detroit book-keeping...

Wonder what will happen to the cross company platforms like the Escape/Tribute?

Perhaps Ford should have killed the Flex, that'd raise some capital...

@ lowest iq

That "special Detroit book-keeping" is probably what put them in the situation they're currently in.

Mercury is all but dead. At least Lincolns looks different, although it could just be their cheesy grills blinding me. Ford needs to trim the fat and terminate Mercury. GM should follow suit, kill Pontiac, and offer performance add ons to their current line of vehicles so the performance crowd, that Pontiac is supposed to cater to, can still be satisfied.

I don't know about Saturn. They're supposed to be the entry-level car company and I think they've differentiated themselves from Chevy enough to survive. (I could be wrong though)

Good move. No need to drag Mazda down with you.

Isn't Mazda actually profitable? Why would Ford sell off the only part of their holdings that is actually making money? Mazda is making some of the best cars on the market today.

I don't know if I would call Mazda one of the best cars on the market today. I own a 04 Mazda6 S SportWagon and while I love the car, it has a finicky automatic transmission, my drivers seat is broken, a wheel bearing just went out and the fan control module needs to be replaced. The car only has 64k miles on it too... Comparing this to the 92 Honda Accord with 195k miles on it that the Mazda replaced... I would go back to the Accord. Better gas mileage too!

Exactly. Ford needs to lose Mercury and GM needs to sell Saab and shut down Pontiac, Saturn, Buick and GMC and have just Chevy and Caddy. Pattern themselves after Honda, Toyota and Nissan by having a volume, entry level brand and a luxury, high end brand. Dump the unions and pay the same market driven salaries and benefits as Honda, Mazda, BMW, Mitsubishi and all the other foreign brands making cars and profits here in the USA. I think then both GM and Ford would have a chance. Oh yeah, then load up the boards of directors and upper management with passionate car guys who like cars and want to build good cars.

Exactly. Ford needs to lose Mercury and GM needs to sell Saab and shut down Pontiac, Saturn, Buick, Hummer, and GMC and have just Chevy and Caddy. Pattern themselves after Honda, Toyota and Nissan by having a volume, entry level brand and a luxury, high end brand. Dump the unions and pay the same market driven salaries and benefits as Honda, Mazda, BMW, Mitsubishi and all the other foreign brands making cars and profits here in the USA. Then load up the boards of directors and upper managements of both companies with passionate car guys who like cars and want to build good cars.I think then both GM and Ford would have a chance. Chrysler, well, is there any hope for them at this point?

GM needs Buick in China as of yet. They sell well there and make money for them. Not sure they are needed in the US anymore though.

I like how they release this info the same day as the early release of the Mustang pics...

Chrysler is certainly doomed. They have almost nothing in planning or production that could turn around their sales or image.

If Capitol Hill does approve a bailout (25 billion won't be enough for all 3) it's going to come with some major demands on how they do business.
In my opinion, part of that bailout should include buying out whatever automakers currently owe to the UAW and other union workers as far as medical and retirement. Then give 'em the boot. They've been collecting steep fees from their members for ages. Surely they have billions of $$ saved up after all these years. Isn't that the purpose? (i hear laughter from someone)

Then all those employees can fill out applications at the automaker, piss in a cup, and collect hourly or salary depending on skill and ambition. Just like the rest of the world!

The Flex did hurt Ford. But it was pretty far down the pipeline before the shizz hit the fan. Better to eat a little more schizz now so you can recover some costs. Other than that, they've been taking fairly small steps since the GT. They've got some new stuff coming soon that will sell well, and some popular models now. Best chance of survival until next spring/summer.

GM on the other hand has cranked out some crazy shit in the same timeframe, and more just recently. Things like the SSR and new Camaro. The SSR was old underpinings on a new body, and the Camaro has been in production so long that i expect to see a Mr.Fusion on the options list. Weird stuff like the Aztek and Crapalanche. Both mainstay underpinings with a bad haircut. Why? Who approved this crap? Chris Dodd asked the same questions today.
Agreed with all. Axe everything but Chevy and Caddy. Although with Saturn sharing platforms now, i can't say wether ditching them is a good idea. They've gone a good direction, and i'll bet sales are close these days.

The US can survive the Big 3 going down if it happens. What we can't survive is shipping jobs overseas anymore. Sad to see jobs go away so we can get poisonous crap from China.

No doubt that the UAW has to go to make the BIG3 competetive, but it's going to take Federal government union busting to do that. With a democrat in the whitehouse in a few months, it's not going to happen and our economy is just going to get worse

as said before:

GM
1. Saturn is the new Chevy. Call it what you want, but only one volume brand (so: Chevy)
2. Cadillac, as so-called luxury brand. Nevermind it cant even compete with Acura/Infinity. But lets say positive...maybe they can lead in Hybrids.
3. GMC ie Agri division: trucks and white vans.....
4. Split company in GM Industry (makes cars/trucks for anyone that wants it) and GM Vehicles (develops/sells cars/trucks)

Opel and Saab do a joint buy-out: 1.2bn. Opel does contract development for GM Vehicles.
Suzuki, sold for 230m
So, one more month to live....

Ford
1. Ford Fiesta, Focus, Modeo 'untouched' from Europe.
Add one old platform volume runner. Ford is famous for pissing in its own soup with old written-off platform competing with new platforms, but what do you expect....
No more small/medium/intermediate car development in the US.
Add one big Ford (Volvo S80 derived). This one can be developped by the US-team.
2. Mercury: Gone
3. Lincoln: kill-it
4. Agri-division: trucks and white vans....all proudly developped here.
5. 4-Cyl/6-Cyl/Diesel engines: developped in Europe.
8-Cyl and agri-engines: US.

Sell Volvo to Hyundai, BMW for about 1bn
Jaguar, Mazda, Landrover etc rest was sold already.
3 months more to live. Unless Hyundai buys the whole Ford thing (listen to the rumours.....)