Ford Corporate and Financial

[Peter Weber]

Since this new forum got started indirectly by the Land Rover news (Paul and Stephen), I'll start a topic for strictly corporate wheeling and dealing and financial news from our favorite automotive company.



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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Peter Weber]

First tidbit:
As I posted already on the old Land Rover threads, I heard a rumor this morning on CNBC that GM might make a counter offer to BMW.
I know I'm being repetitive, just trying to get it concentrated into one area.

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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Stephen]

Yep that is true. If you ask me though I think it will take a lot od coaxing to make BMW sell to GM or Ford.

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Stephen Withrow
StephenLS400@aol.com
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97 Explorer Limited 4X4 SOHC V6
98 Lexus LS400

 

[Peter Weber]

Do you know a Ford employee?
From Yahoo Business Headlines:

<Ford Workers Can Share Car Discounts

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) says its salaried employees now can give vehicle discounts to others.

Under a modification of the so-called X plan, 54,000 workers can sign up three people a year for the savings on Fords internal computer network, Ford said.

``There is no management approval needed and no paperwork,'' said company spokesman Ed Miller.

Vehicles bought under the X plan cost 4 percent more than those bought through the A plan, Ford's popular discount program for employees and their families.

A Ford Taurus SE retailing for $19,700 cost about $18,000 under the X plan and $17,300 under the A plan, Ed Jolliffe, general manager of Gorno Ford in Woodhaven, told The Detroit News.

Some high-end models are excluded from the X plan.>

Wonder if Explorers are included in these high-end models?



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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Stephen]

Wow! I actually do know a Ford employee, not very well though Dead Link Removed I'll have to take him to lunch Dead Link Removed My brother lives in Alabama, he has a friend who works at the ML plant. All plant workers get a loaded ML320 for $400 a month including insurance.

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Stephen Withrow
StephenLS400@aol.com
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97 Explorer Limited 4X4 SOHC V6
98 Lexus LS400

 

[Peter Weber]

Don't call em workers, I thought they are all 'associates'.
Also, a friend of a relative of mine in Germany works at MB. They get one vehicle per year at a greatly reduced price, which everybody sells off at the end of the year for a pretty good profit.
Most of the other car manufacturers in Europe have the same kind of benefits. There is a whole subtrade industry in these so-called 'Jahreswagen' (year cars).


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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Stephen]

Ah thats right! Associates! Kinda like "Custodial Technician" (Janitor)

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Stephen Withrow
StephenLS400@aol.com
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97 Explorer Limited 4X4 SOHC V6
98 Lexus LS400

 

[rustytr]

Once again in my opinion I hope that Ford or GM never gets their hands on a car company like BMW. Not that it is bad but I don't like what Ford did to the Jag. True they made it a much better running car and made it a ton more reliable, but they also make them cheaper in interior quality, the Jaguar S type has a lot of plastic inside now that Ford got a hold of it. Again not that it's bad but hey it's a luxury car that has plastic where leather wrap should be and cheap looking and feeling plastic at that. It's just plain black flimsy plastic. Sorry about the side track and again I'm not getting down on Ford but I guess you take the good with the bad

 

[Stephen]

I agree with you rusty. Anyone heard about the rumor that Roger Penske is trying to buy GM?

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Stephen Withrow
StephenLS400@aol.com
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97 Explorer Limited 4X4 SOHC V6
98 Lexus LS400

 

[Peter Weber]

Stephen:
The latest I've been able to dig up on the Penske rumor:

The latest rumor -- from Web site autoextremist.com (http://www.autoextremist.com) -- reported multimillionaire investor Roger Penske's interest in GM's North American auto operations in the event of a breakup. Penske was a champion race driver in the early 1960s and now owns stakes in auto supplier Detroit Diesel Corp. (NYSE: DDC), auto dealers, a car-service chain, a truck rental firm and what is probably the best-known racing team.

Penske Corp. spokesman Dan Luginbuhl dismissed the report as speculation. "It's so ludicrous that I even have a call into GM to see if they'd like us to issue a formal statement" of denial, he said.


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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Carolina Express]

rustytr and Stephen,

Personally, I'm glad Ford is putting teeth back in the Jag, at least from a motorsports standpoint. I've always viewed the Jaguar as a performance sports car, with a touch of luxury. Ford's got a very good racing pedigree with a history of championships in Le Mans, F1, SCCA Trans Am, Nascar, Indy car/ CART, rally's, off-road racing, etc. The injection of a little US racing blue into the British racing green is great and will hopefully bring Jag back to the forefront in motorsports. The "new" Jaguar F1 team will hopefully get on track (pun intended) soon and get some good finishes. With Ford and Jackie Stewart in the mix, it's bound to happen.

Also, in SCCA Trans-Am competition this year, Paul Gentelozzi has switched from his championship winning Mustang to a Jag and will be a leading contender again this year.

By the way, DeTomaso is back with an all new Mangusta, driven by Brian Simo, who finished second in a Mustang last year. This new Mangusta won the first Trans-Am race of this year, and continues an honored tradition - it's Powered By Ford!

Ain't life great if you're a Ford racin' nut!

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92 XLT
There's a FORD in your future!

 

[Peter Weber]

Jackie Stewart is unfortunately not running the team anymore. He resigned and Neil Ressler is now chairman of Jaguar Racing. Paul Sewart, Jackie's son, is still COO. The announcement back at the end of January stated that Jackie will continue to work closely with the team. In what capacity was not made clear.
Ressler was (and still is) Fords chief technical officer and the chairman of Cosworth Motors. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt for now in running an F1 team. Time will tell.

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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Paul B.]

Peter, it doesn't sound like Ford gives a very big discount for their employees on vehicles. One of my brothers works for a very large Co. which was own by GM and have a plan called Option 1 or 2. The saving was quite a bit more then Ford. I have boughten a few Chevy trucks and cars in the pass couple of years through this plan, and the savings was great. It was usually about $5,000.00 off of the sticker price. It also made buying a vehicle very easy and hassle free. I can still use this plan, but right now I am happy with my Ford trucks.
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1991 Ford Explorer 4x4 4 door XLT/Modified
1999 Ford F350 SuperDuty Crew Cab Dually

 

[Peter Weber]

Paul:
You're right, a little over 12% for employees and about 8.5% for 'friends' isn't really anything to crow about. You can do just about that well thru some of the available buying programs (Costco, CAA, or online). What I was wondering about (see the last sentence of my post)was, are the higher priced and popular models like Expedition and Explorer included in the program. I got my 99 Sport 17 month ago, when SUV's were still really popular, at a 7% discount. I guess years of experience in dickering with car salesmen does pay off sometimes. Dead Link Removed
By the way, I don't want this to develop into a 'I got a better deal deal than you, nahnahnahnah' thread. I mention it only to make the point that the 8.5% offered under the 'friends of family' program is really not such a big deal.

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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Peter Weber]

Ford to sell a hybrid SUV in 2003.
Just saw a little clip on TV. Mileage supposed to be 40mpg. Not sure which model, but I believe it's the new Escape.

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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Peter Weber]

Some more Land Rover activity:

Land Rover sets price on entry-level SUV sold in U.S.

DETROIT, April 20 (Reuters) - Land Rover on Thursday set the base price for its new Discovery Series II SD sport utility vehicle at $33,350, down 2.5 percent from a Discovery Series II model.

The price of the entry-level Discovery Series model does not include a $625 delivery charge, a spokesman said. Land Rover is a unit of German luxury automaker BMW [BMWG-news], which has agreed to sell it to Ford Motor Co. [F-news].

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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[xr600boy]

Here is one for you. The new CEO of Hewlett Packard is upgrading all their sales reps to Jags from the Taurus, and giving Ford HP PCs at a huge discount. Also Ford has dipped it's hands in the motor cycle world. Ford backs the Harley Davidson VR1000 race team in the AMA Super Bikes.

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92EB 2wd with chip and Flowmaster catback system, and open air box.

Jim
"The older I get the faster I was."

 

[Stephen]

Hey thats interesting. Looks like Ford is widing its horizons a little bit...

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Stephen Withrow
StephenLS400@aol.com
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97 Explorer Limited 4X4 SOHC V6
98 Lexus LS400

 

[Peter Weber]

Anybody who's interested.
The specs (including price) for the 2001 Escape are up on Edmunds http://www.edmunds.com/newtrucks/2000/ford/



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Peter
'99 Sport 4wd SOHC

 

[Stephen]

Looks good. I like the sound of that roof rack, sounds interetsing. Pricing is about where I thought it would be, I would have liked to have seen the side airbags be standard but, what'cha gonna do.

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Stephen Withrow
StephenLS400@aol.com
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97 Explorer Limited 4X4 SOHC V6
98 Lexus LS400