Ford posts deepest loss in its 103-year history

[IDemo]

Loss for 2006 of $12.7 billion was biggest ever; more losses seen in 2007

AP -Updated: 12 minutes ago

DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford Motor Co. lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter amid slumping sales and huge restructuring costs, pushing the fabled automaker’s deficit for the year to $12.7 billion, the largest in its 103-year history.

The annual loss reported Thursday surpassed its previous record for a year of $7.39 billion set in 1992. The 2006 loss amounted to of $6.79 per share versus a profit of $1.44 billion, or 77 cents a share, in 2005.

The Dearborn-based company expects more losses for this year. It expects to burn up $10 billion in cash on automotive operations through 2009 and spend another $7 billion to invest in new products.

The fourth-quarter loss was the worst final-quarter loss in Ford’s history and its second-worst quarterly performance. Ford lost $6.7 billion in the first quarter of 1992, due mainly to accounting rule changes on health care liabilities.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16804725/

[n2doc]

1. Why won't these companies push for health care reform?

It is killing them. A single payer system would save them billions. WTF is wrong with these idiots?

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Well--addressing the question in general, not in the Ford context--

Big companies get health care for their workers a lot cheaper than small cos. do. It's one of the major factors that keeps the playing field tilted toward the big companies, and prevents small startups from happening all over the place.

[n2doc]

6. But they just took a multibillion dollar hit on health care

The Auto companies are moving factories to Canada specifically because health care costs are covered up there by the Government. One would think that they would be pushing for the same deal down here.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Indeed they did, and the problem manifests differently in

different industries. That's why I said I was speaking in general rather than in terms of Ford. Nevertheless, lack of a national insurance plan s a major, major factor in keeping small startups from threatening the big industrial dinosaurs. It's just that much harder for a lone genius to hire a few friends to gather in his garage with a little investment capital & start building cars propelled by his new perpetual motion machine. Frankly, the economic and structural problems of the American auto companies are a lot deeper than their need to provide health care.

[llmart]

22. That's not the problem..........

I worked with upper management in benefits in the early 90's during the Clinton years for a huge auto supplier. I saw the behind-the-scenes wrangling and hundreds of thousands of dollars that the guys at the top of the company spent to fight universal health care just because it was a Clinton proposal. It was vicious. They staged these p.r. campaigns at all the big suppliers and the big three back then. I remember thinking to myself, what idiots.

It's not the health care costs that caused their decline. That's just what they like to blame so they can take more and more away from the workers and funnel it to the top 1%.

[madrchsod]

5. they tried to talk to george about this

but look what they got-nothing. bush does`t give a shit about anything so why would he care about our auto industry? ford makes good cars but it is hard to compete against others who have no pensions and retirement health care costs.

[hadrons]

8. the bigwigs are still philosophically opposed to that ....

type 'big governement' and 'creeping socialism' nonsense ... plus these people have other finanical interests that blinding this shitheads to your comman sense statement

[tabasco]

16. Because they are too short-sighted.

Just like their insane insistence to continue to build huge inefficient vehicles in the face of Japanese competition that was growing by leaps and bounds by producing efficient vehicles. Corporate management is preoccupied with the short-term bottom line. Stupid fools and the workers will suffer for it.

[htuttle]

3. To put that in a little perspective

They lost an amount of money equal to nearly three times the entire national budget of Bangladesh. They lost more money in the fourth quarter than most countries in the developing world spend in an entire year (Bangladesh spends roughly $4.5 billion per year, while Nepal spends only a paltry $800 million or so). Granted, those aren't the richest countries in the world, but still...gives you some perspective.

Heck of job!!

[Justyce]

4. Well, apparently they haven't heard that

our economy is BOOMING..... sigh

[Tesha]

26. Our economy is BOOMING like this, though...

[msongs]

7. car companies are the enemies of the American people because

they insist on pushing obsolete technology that is more than 100 years old, in the name of money and greed,
when new technology is abandoned or deliberately destroyed (the electric car) because the new technology will not
generate enough money to pay exhorbitant ceo salaries.

good riddance to Ford, it is getting the fate it deserves based on management decisions. sad for the workers, though.

Ford has deliberately rejected new technology that would benefit the human race and the planet.

just think, electric cars do not need oil filters, oil changes twice a year...the dinosaurs will do everything possible
to keep us back in the auto dark ages.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[MindPilot]

9. Electric cars will not be maintenance-free

Of course they won't need oil filters, but they are still machines and machines break. They will still need tires, brakes and probably a host of routine repair parts no one has even thought of yet.

[ntesla]

11. Electric Motors

Electric motors have less moving parts so they are *almost* maintenance free. Changing tires and brakes are trivial compared to fixing gaskets, timing belts or adjusting cylinders in a regular combustion engine.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Maintenance would be simpler as electric motors require

less maintenance than internal combustion, but you're right, there will be a host of peripheral needs. There will be regular maintenance, there will be fender-benders requiring body shops; the economy will not tank when we abandond the ICE.

In fact, with the auto companies being able to sever their umbilical to the oil industry there's no telling where it could go.

It's not the auto industry that's the dinosaur - it's the oil industry, which is holding them back. Anybody have any idea about the amount of cross-pollinization between big oil and big auto corporate boards?

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. If they'd quit cranking out Expeditions...

like nobody's business and begin investing mmore in alternative fuel vehicles and their construction...they might catch up to the rest of the world.

Their behemoths are some of the worst offenders in killing the planet. If they quit MAKING THEM, people will have to QUIT BUYING THEM. Offering people economically priced vehicles that are greener would be their first step in changing their image and changing the way people look at cars.

But no....gotta keep cranking out soccer mom transport. :eyes:

[aquart]

14. Bet the CEO is well paid.

[maxsolomon]

15. hire al gore as a consultant

he might have some ideas you haven't thought of.

building armor plated excursions with rims for rapper & mercenary transport is not a business model with a future.

[nebula]

17. I don't know if I buy the 'healthcare costs' excuse

I believe Japanese car companies also experience rising healthcare and benefit costs similar to what Ford has to deal with, since all Japanese cars sold in the US are also built by American workers. Shouldn't the accounting rule changes effect the Japanese makers as well?

Despite the rising costs in worker healthcare and benefits, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan all still manage to turn a healthy profit. Is it nothing more than the latest excuse for Ford and GM's constant failures?

[sendero]

23. Exactly..

... the American automakers are suffering from BAD MANAGEMENT, period, end of story.

They do everything for THE NEXT FEW QUARTERS instead of the long term. And now, the autoworker will pay the price.

[nebula]

24. Good riddance

The sooner they go out of business and cease to exist as a business, the better!

Ford and GM, with their ingrained culture of greed and mediocrity, have been nothing but a CURSE upon this nation, the environment, and the planet. They, along with Big Oil, personify all that is ugly and rotten about Corporate America.

DAMN them all to the very deepest depths of hell!

[slackmaster]

18. They'll make up for it in volume this year

:crazy:

[MindPilot]

19. Yeah, once Castro is gone....

Cuba will have to replace all those '59 Impalas.

[liberal renegade]

20. try buying a 59

Chevy Impala here. If it's a 2 door hardtop in fair condition, it's gonna cost several thousand bucks.

[Czolgosz]

21. Ford posted a big loss? Fewer people want to buy Fords? That's a shock! Why could that be?

[nebula]

25. Ford vehicles are rolling death traps

no doubt about it. Even after all these years, they still rate among the worst in safety and reliability. It amazes me they have manage to stay in business this long. American consumers are fucking retarded.

[underpants]

27. Clearly it is because of the workers and their health plan

:sarcasm:

[Odin2005]

28. Ford = Fix Or Repair Daily