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"How GM got better"

punjabiplaya said:
I was going to say similar reasons.

Alan Mullaly came in and Ford sold off everything they had so they could focus: Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Volvo
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Ford started "The Way Forward" back in the early 2000s, they knew they had to act then which is why when the economy tanked they were able to muscle through it. 🙂
 
Howard said:
I want to know how Ford got better.
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The effectively securitized their whole business, borrowing at record low rates to recapitalize the company and put a lot into R&D for new vehicles and modernizing plants. As others have said, that was all well and good but Mullaly was the leader, the money was his tool.
 
Ford Saw it coming basically and basically sold everything they could, and morgaged the rest so they would be liquid enough to come out the other side.
 
I like the part about internal GM regulations that required wheels pulled way into the fenders to prevent paint chips, and small wheels for meaty tires
 
punjabiplaya said:
I was going to say similar reasons.

Alan Mullaly came in and Ford sold off everything they had so they could focus: Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Volvo
Click to expand...

I went to lunch with my old ford credit branch manager the other day, and we got to talking about the "good old days". I mentioned that it was my belief that Mulally was very intelligent, but he was also quite lucky in that ford just ran out of money before GM (chrysler had other issues and was likely saved by the recession and consequent fiat merger). When he sold/rented/mortgaged everything under the sun he was still able to obtain quite good terms, though if you recall ford stock took a serious hit when he did it. If they had run out of money a couple of years later they would have needed as much as and possibly even more than GM. So, in a nutshell, timing is everything.

btw, a friend of mine got to fly with lutz in his fighter jet a couple of years ago. He said that luzt (78 at the time) buzzed the lake michigan coast at an alarmingly low combo of speed/altitude. Bad ass dude. My friend wasn't supposed to get a zr 1 at his chevy store, so Bob (even though he was already retired at the time) sent a text msg to somebody at GM to "help out". My friend got the zr 1.
 
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bryanW1995 said:
btw, a friend of mine got to fly with lutz in his fighter jet a couple of years ago. He said that luzt (78 at the time) buzzed the lake michigan coast at an alarmingly low combo of speed/altitude. Bad ass dude. My friend wasn't supposed to get a zr 1 at his chevy store, so Bob (even though he was already retired at the time) sent a text msg to somebody at GM to "help out". My friend got the zr 1.
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I love hearing stuff like this about Lutz, and I absolutely believe it. It's like last year when he was challenging people to race him in a CTS-V.
 
bryanW1995 said:
My friend wasn't supposed to get a zr 1 at his chevy store
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Why not? Do they limit which dealers can sell them? I know Ford limits SVT vehicles to certain dealers that (supposedly) meets minimum customer service requirements.
 
bryanW1995 said:
I went to lunch with my old ford credit branch manager the other day, and we got to talking about the "good old days". I mentioned that it was my belief that Mulally was very intelligent, but he was also quite lucky in that ford just ran out of money before GM (chrysler had other issues and was likely saved by the recession and consequent fiat merger). When he sold/rented/mortgaged everything under the sun he was still able to obtain quite good terms, though if you recall ford stock took a serious hit when he did it. If they had run out of money a couple of years later they would have needed as much as and possibly even more than GM. So, in a nutshell, timing is everything.
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Bingo. Mulally deserves a ton of credit for turning their product and marketing into what it is today, but the talk that "he saw the housing and auto meltdown coming" is utter nonsense. Ford had mortgagable assets and a good economy when they had their "oh crap" moment, therefore they were able to get loans to ride them through. Financial institutions were going under themselves when GM ran out of cash therefore only government was able to lend them the money.

In the end it works out for both. Ford has the goodwill of the people for not taking government money, but GM is actually in better financial health of the two (Ford's debt is accumulating a lot more interest than GM's). Not to mention unions are sure to come after Ford with more gusto with all the recent quarterly report headlines essentially saying "hey everybody, look how much money we're making!", while GM is a bit more discreet.
 
Zap said:
Why not? Do they limit which dealers can sell them? I know Ford limits SVT vehicles to certain dealers that (supposedly) meets minimum customer service requirements.
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its likely like that.

although it seems ford is changing how they do that, because the local NON SVT dealer has had a few Raptors
 
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