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mackinaw

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Everything posted by mackinaw

  1. I think Bill Ford would agree with you. That's why he stepped down as CEO back in 2006 and hired Alan Mulally to run the company.
  2. Out of the Detroit Three, Ford by far has/had the best relationship. Interesting interview with Bill Ford in the New York Times earlier this week. He cautioned the Ford bargaining team not to take any comments made public personally, and to be patient. He went on to say that he knows many of the guys on the UAW team, and plays hockey with several of them on a local beer-league team, and considers them friends. I suspect they could hammer out a contract fairly quickly if it wasn’t for Mr. Fain.
  3. Mr. Fain slams Ford, and says there's real movement at GM and Stellantis. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2023/10/20/uaw-president-shawn-fain-bargaining-update-strike-day-36/71253055007/
  4. But, but, but....they have one million orders! Adam Jonas, auto analyst at Morgan Stanley, figures the Cybertruck is a niche vehicle that may sell 50,000 units/year. I question even that number.
  5. Not exactly words of encouragement from the company CEO. https://www.autoblog.com/2023/10/19/elon-musk-we-dug-our-own-grave-with-the-cybertruck/
  6. Not with 18% margins they aren't. With margins like that, Tesla is the envy of the industry.
  7. Also, one of the investment firms is estimating that Ford is losing $44 million dollars/day, and GM $21 million dollars/day.
  8. It was a good speech, but it will fall upon deaf ears. Fain's already dismissed it. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2023/10/16/bill-ford-speaks-publicly-about-uaw-talks-for-the-first-time/71199918007/
  9. I read someplace many years back that they deconstructed what they had built. The Mexican government would still like to use the site for something and didn't want a partially constructed plant still standing.
  10. There was a book written in the 90's that contrasted Ford and Nissan. I read it years ago, so this is from memory. The oval Taurus was talked about. My recollection was that Ford Design wanted the "oval" design, which also required complex and expensive stampings. Trotman was asked to approve the funding for the stampings, which he did.
  11. The original 1986 Taurus didn't clinic well. They even came up with a more conventional front-end design that incorporated a grille. William Clay Ford decided to be bold and went with the design we know today.
  12. Locking out all UAW workers would never happen. If GM and Stellantis did the same, it'd plunge this country into a deep recession and none of the Detroit Three would want to be responsible for that.
  13. I enjoy, and agree, with Nolan Finley on a lot of what writes. I subscribe to the Detroit News. What I quoted, was from his "Nolan Out Loud" newsletter I get a few times a week. There's nothing more to his quote than what I posted. Not that it matters, Finley has been driving F-series trucks for decades.
  14. Nolan Finley, and editor for the Detroit News, has suggested this: "The United Auto Workers again expanded its strike , shutting down Ford's vital Kentucky Truck Plant. President Shawn Fain may shut other plants today. The automakers should respond to the escalation by locking out the UAW from all plants and pulling their offers from the table."
  15. Or perhaps they'll walk away from the proposed Marshall, Michigan battery plant.
  16. Looks like Kentucky Truck could be the next factory to walk out. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2023/10/11/uaw-strike-day-27-talks-continue-following-end-of-gm-strike-in-canada/71141087007/
  17. So how does this work? Do you, and others, tell your main union rep that you'd like to vote on the latest proposal? Or does the bargaining committee control everything and they decide when a proposal merits a vote?
  18. And yet Ford leads the industry in brand loyalty. https://fordauthority.com/2023/06/ford-brand-loyalty-highest-in-industry-through-april-report/
  19. How about three hours? I decided to give it a real test and asked for a rendering of a 1958 Edsel combined with a 1970 BMW 2002 (both with feature a vertical grille). After three hours of waiting I pulled the plug.
  20. From today's Detroit News. Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley on Friday accused the United Auto Workers of "holding the deal hostage" over the automaker's four planned battery plants in the United States. “Here’s the bottom line from Ford’s perspective," Farley said during a news briefing Friday. "First, Ford has offered an incredible contract that would change the lives of over 57,000 workers for the better. Second, we believe the UAW is holding up the deal over battery plants that won’t come online for another two to three years. And finally, we still have time to reach an agreement and avert a real disaster — but not much more time, given the fragility of the supply base.” "Keep in mind, these battery plants don’t exist yet. They’re mostly joint ventures. And they have not been organized by the UAW yet because the workers haven’t been hired, and won’t be for many years to come," Farley said. "They won’t scale until the next contract.” https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2023/09/29/farley-claims-uaw-is-holding-the-deal-hostage-over-battery-plants/71004708007/
  21. Off topic, but interesting. Digital camera sales peaked worldwide in 2010 with 122 million cameras sold. In 2022 only 8 million digital cameras were sold. Cellphones. are the new cameras.
  22. Rural northern Michigan. We're on I-75, so see a fair amount of Tesla's stopping to juice up at our Supercharger. Maybe have seen two or three Rivian's this year. I've seen several Lightnings, but not many Mach-E's. Bronco's are very popular. Addendum: After Tesla, the most common BEV I've seen has been the Lightning. I'm about 225 miles from Dearborn, which may be part of the reason.
  23. The NIMBY's are also raising quite a ruckus in Marshall which may, or may not, be a factor.
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