Saturday, October 30, 2010

Ford Earns $1.7 Billion in Q3, Pays Down Debt

This article talks about how Ford has had it's sixth straight quarterly profit. Ford has a debt of almost 23 billion to pay off, and each quarter is paying about 3 billion here and there to pay of things like retired workers health care among other expenses. This is a good sign for Ford since they basically shut down detroit because of their failure. Do you think it's possible the economy struggling is helping ford? I wonder if people who would normally buy imports and other expensive cars are cutting back and buying cheaper cars like Fords..

7 comments:

Mesaban C. said...

This is truly interesting. I agree that the consumption behavior has changed and thus favors Fords. I am sure that Ford has growth potential, but would this last after the economy has recovered?

Neil said...

In this current economy, consumers are not spending as much money on products. So, Ford is a good option because of the cheaper sticker prices compared to import cars and it is American made. Ford is also trying to produce cleaner cars for the environment. Consumers like to see this as well. It will slow down a little bit when the economy recovers but they are on the right track.

jrosborn said...

with the economy the way it is, its hard for consumers to truly be confidence in spending there dollar, especially on something with such high value. Ford's image is this rugged and relatively inexpensive vehicle and right now consumers are favoring them heavily because they know what they are getting is worth every dollar.

Andrew Martin said...

These are all solid points about Ford, but it should also be pointed out that the actual quality of these cars have improved tremendously. I don't have any stats to back this up but their restructuring of the company, creative marketing tools, and the improvements in their products have all been the keys to their success. They are on the right track but need to make sure when the economy does recover that they maintain efficiency and innovation.

bradymccaffrey said...

Its clear the innovation of Ford's production and marketing tactics have helped decrease their debt. However it is important to note that CEO Allan Mulally said "aggressive cost-cuting helped the company make money despite lower global sales." Referring back to Andrew, it will be the continued efficiency of Ford that determines if they will completely recover from this recession.

bradymccaffrey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott Hellberg said...

i agree with the comment that when the economy recovers, it will be interesting to see if they can maintain their sales.. Hopefully they can keep it up so they pay off their debt..