Dear Alan Mulally, here's how to save Ford

[Donny Carlson]

1) Whever a member of the Ford family offers you advice, smile politely, then ignore whatever they said.

2) Find a nice, safe place in the Company for Elena where she can't make strategic decisions. Ditto for the remaining Fords.

3) Revive SVT to what it used to be ASAP and task it to bring out exciting versions of affordable performance cars and trucks. No more $100,000 plus super cars unless it's under the Lincoln badge.

4) Make Mercury a distinctive product line. Have it offer vehicles that are different and unique to the mark, not just Ford's with fancier interiors or tail lights. Offer an upscale performance sedan, coupe and convertible.

5) Make Lincoln a true luxury brand on par with Cadillac and european makes. Offer a luxury performance sedan, coupe, and roadster.

6) Hybrids are fine, keep it up, but don't bet the whole farm on them. Offer a cool, small, fun, fast and highly customizable small car like the Mini. Offer a performance small car that's supercharged.

7) Revive the RWD V8 platform.

8) Base your allocation of new, hot selling vehicles on dealers who sell them for MSRP.... and those that charge over MSRP get their allocations reduced. The Company makes more money the more cars it's sells, and dealers who rape the public hurt unit sales.

9) Offer low cost, low optioned versions of your performance vehicles. Not everybody wants all the bells and whistles.


okay, chime in here people...

[Petrograde]

amen..............

[2003 MIB]

4) Make Mercury a distinctive product line. Have it offer vehicles that are different and unique to the mark, not just Ford's with fancier interiors or tail lights. Offer an upscale performance sedan, coupe and convertible.

I agree in concept but I'd still like to see a Cougar treatment on the Mustang platform.

[shakes_26]

amen..............

Amen, brother, +1

[Rider90]

Sounds okay by me, but everybody is an expert on everything. :rolleyes:

[Meteorite]

5) Make Lincoln a true luxury brand on par with Cadillac and european makes. Offer a luxury performance sedan, coupe, and roadster.
If this were done, would you advocate ditching some or all of the PAG brands?

[dwasson]

Design every car that Ford produces anywhere in the world so that it can be sold worldwide. Why does Ford have platforms in Europe or Austrailia that do not meet US crash standards?

[Dr Caleb]

After 100 years, learn how to paint a car BLACK. If I'm paying $50k for a car, I don't want to see primer or 'orange peel'. I can look at a $30k Black BMW and feel like I'm being sucked into the paint.

This is not acceptable, and don't treat me like I'm an idiot when I point it out to you. I am your customer, and if you continue to ignore me, I won't be in the future.

[Merc-O-matic]

Amen +2 +3 +4:bows:

[duhtroll]

Hybrids are hybrids - screw performance. For now that is, until a cheap way can be had to make them fun to drive also. When hybrids (or replacement vehicle designs) become the norm then we can worry about making them fast.

Other than that, I agree with everything on there.

[gpfarrell]

Quit spending millions to de-content your product.

When I'm getting my 2005 Ford Gomobile serviced at a dealer, I'll likely wander through the showroom to see what makes the new 2007 Gomobile special.

As an owner, I'll notice the goodies that have been stripped out of the car. First time buyers might not notice the clock, map pockets, brake release, etc are all missing, but your loyal customers will. I'll be more inclined to keep my old one, less inclined to buy a new one, and more likely to shop elsewhere.

In fact, you should add stuff as the years go buy to give me an incentive to upgrade. I already like your product, tempt me with a new and better one and I might forget you have any competition. Honda & BMW seem to do okay with this strategy.

[michael ward]

Amen +2 +3 +4:bows:+5+6+7+8:bows:AMEN I hope the ford people read this...do they know about us??

[crouse]

A Mercury Cougar on the Mustang platform with a retro 67-69 look would be very cool.

[2003 MIB]

A Mercury Cougar on the Mustang platform with a retro 67-69 look would be very cool.

That's what I'm talking about!!!:beer:

[Zack]

Listen to Steve Babcock more often

[Bigdogjim]

Lets all hope the "new" guy brings some speed to Ford..................

[VNMUS]

Now, if only the people at Ford were as smart as us they'd be No1 again! :D

[junior]

Well lets see what happens. I worked under Mulally at Boeing and he may not be the savior you're hoping for. Wait till the 787 Dreamliner debacle hits the fan. Mulally is gettin out just in time.

[buickconvert]

Well lets see what happens. I worked under Mulally at Boeing and he may not be the savior you're hoping for. Wait till the 787 Dreamliner debacle hits the fan. Mulally is gettin out just in time.

Not so sure the 787 will hit the fan like you think. . .

[junior]

Not so sure the 787 will hit the fan like you think. . .

It has to be built first. They're promising delivery and 40% of the engineering design work isn't done yet. That will make a lot of customers happy.:help:

[prchrman]

Some people want fuel mileage and Mr. Mul why not make a small 4 door vehicle with a turbo charged diesel (small diesel pickup would be nice also) that will get 50 mpg and forget about the high dollar plug in models...and if you go plug in plug in all the way with total electric that has a 300 mile range...many people would buy to commute to work and back...the technology is here and now...and obtw get some paint that will stick to the car, especially a $35,000 car for crying out loud...and take ownership of your screw ups and not just say "we will do what the dealership says" and have some people to get into these sorrrrrry dealers business because it is hurting your business...my next new car will probably be a HONDA...gosh that hurts but my CVR was $19,000 and 3 years older than the merc and it still has paint and no issues...willie

[Mad4Macs]

Sell the Detroit Lions... to Daimler Chrysler :lol:

[O's Fan Rich]

Do better on your warranty terms, stretch them out a bit.
How about some nice diesel cars for fleet use?
Allow your clients to pick and choose options more, not so many "packages" be flexible here.
Give real car guys the job of developing cars. Engineers should work under real car people. Heck, they are out there, buy their ideas and thoughts if you need to.
Keep Boyd Cottington, Sean Hyland and any of the Orange County Chopper guys away!
Get that Stacey Guy who had the GOOD Trucks! show on your payroll!


Oh... where the heck is the '49? I wanna buy one.

[ctrcbob]

Don't make the mistake of giving your cars models a bunch of letters, or numbers, or an alphanumeric mumbo jumbo of both. Give your car models NAMES.

I have a friend who is a self made millionare. He and his wife have four cars. A Porsche and three Cadillacs. When I asked him what Caddy's they owned, he gave me a bunch of letters and I had no idea what he was talking about.
When Caddy had DeVille, and Seville, etc, I knew the car right away, but with their new lettering system, not only do I not know what the car is, I have no interest in owning one.

Look at Acura. At one time, they had Legend, Integra, Vigor, etc., and you not only knew what the car was, but they sold great. Now they have that alphanumeric mumbo-jumbo and if someone tells me they have an Acura "xx", I have no idea what it looks like.

When Lincoln starts with their MKZ, MKS, MKX mumbo-jumbo, its just going to hurt sales.

(Wish I still had my 64 Ford Galaxie 500 or my dads 65 Galaxie 500).

[mr.continental]

Sell the Detroit Lions... to Daimler Chrysler :lol:

Unfortunately, he will have no control over the team.

They're owned by the Ford family, not the company.:cry: