Bill Ford: Ford Australia has "Long term Future"

[caz_375]

I was reading somewhere today that the Government isn't too impressed with Ford slashing jobs having given them $50 odd million dollars.......

As to Ford and exports....i can't believe that the Falcon still hasn't been engineered for LHD. As someone else pointed out earlier (too buzzed to check back ) you'd have thought that Ford would've jumped on the wagon in exploring export opportunities to compilment and take pressure off the local sales.

It's worked for Holden, allowing them to develop the Statesman And Caprice whereas this probably wouldn't have happened without exports. It's also allowed Holden to, apparently, focus more on private sales...especially of the up-spec models which have a higher profit margin.

Ford should really go all out in chasing the export dollar...it adds many things including economies of scale and also provides a buffer to the local sales...something which may have avoided the latest job reductions.

[fpv_gtho]

Well if Ford want the same calibre of exports as Holden posesses, they need some help from Detroit. They need to pull the Crown Victoria out of markets such as the middle east, otherwise Ford will simply be adding models to compete with themselves in overseas markets. Since Ford US is making heaps of profit on the CV, of course theyre not going to be so quick to retract it from particular markets, which has given little need for the Falcon to be LHD, and so the money hasnt been spent to engineer it to have that capability.

GM never had that problem as when the VT came around, Chev, Pontiac etc were full of FWD's, pickups and SUV's. Holden were able to take that opportunity as it hadnt been previously filled with another GM product.