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The issue with Ford is gross inefficiencies in manufacturing and non value added expenses. Toyota is the efficient low cost manufacturer that has its supply chains in line, an area that Ford has neglected to rectify time and time again as a good fiscal quarter would gloss over it until the last year saw a severe downturn in truck and SUV sales which are Ford's bread and butter.
They have almost every asset up as collateral right now to aquire operating cash to turn the business around and restructure. Its do or die time...
Alan Mullaly, the new CEO of Ford recently pointed to a table in his board room meeting as there sat 12 different prop rods to hold up the hoods in various different Ford vehicles. This is classic...the customer doesn't give a rats rear about prop rods yet Ford gets to manage 12 different prop rods and who knows how many other non common parts from one platform to the next.
If I were in the position to buy, it would be an F150 over a Tundra as I do think it is the better truck overall. What confuses me is the F150 in an XL, STX, XLT, Lariat, FX4, or the Harley version, King Ranch, and it goes on and on. Managing all those different models and SKU's is not cheap and one has to wonder if the expenses of doing so get to the point of a diminishing return.
-BG (Ford and Toyota shareholder)
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'84 Carrera Coupe
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