Ford Posts HUGE 3rd Quarter Profit

Good for Ford. I firmly disagree with the bailouts and believe the weak companies should have been allowed to fail no matter how big they are.

I remember back in the 70s or 80s when many airlines went out of business - Pan Am, TWA, etc. The result is that we got consolidations and stronger businesses, and we got Southwest, which was good for airline competition. Should have let the same things happen for the auto industry.

Since I drive a VW diesel and would probably never drive a North American car unless they start building them better, I couldn't agree more. The bailout companies got themselves in trouble so should have been allowed to fail. If you cannot run your business well, then you deserve to fail.

Glad to hear it - my hubby's 1997 VW Passat is too and runs perfectly and my 2001 VW Jetta is lovely. I think of Ford Rangers when I do my twice monthly fuel fill-up. I drive 50 km to work and 50 km home every day, 5 days a week plus weekend chores and running around and still only need to fill up twice a month. I love it.

I saw this too and was really happy. I come from a Ford-driving family. My Escort has been known to average 40 miles a gallon on long trips.

Btw, the Ford Rangers are really small trucks that get fairly decent gas mileage, because most of them are just 4 cylinder vehicles. The Ford F150+ lines are the gas-guzzlers.

The only Ford I ever had was a Crown Victoria and I had nothing but trouble with it - it brought to mind the saying that FORD stood for "fix or repair daily".

Having said that, the Thunderbird, Galaxie and old cars were lovely.

After having a Chevy I will not have an American car for a loooooooonnnnnggg time! THAT was TRAUMA. Have had my Nissan for 5 years, and never had a problem with it... will stick with the Japanese for a while, that's for sure.

Whatever - if you want to call throwing thousands of your hard earned dollars in the trash lack of patriotism, go right ahead.
For me, that is not what that is about. I worked extremely hard for that money, and I have the right to spend in something that is not going to cause me trouble. I bought a chevy who with less than 50,000 miles I had the engine, transmission and suspension replaced. Shame on THEM for fabricating bad cars. THEY IMHO are the ones who are not the patriotic ones by not respecting the American people who are spending hard earned AMERICAN DOLLARS on them. Not me. There is nothing unpatriotic about buying a Japanese car - it generates American Jobs, it pays American Imposts, generates competition, forcing American Companies to hopefully realize that we do deserve and DEMAND quality. Putting money back into the economy is patriotic, Cindy.

Ford did an amazing job. Between 2005 and 2007, they cut 10,800 jobs (in North America). In 2008, they cut another 12% (they had 23,700 N. Am workers at the end of 2007). They've closed or are closing a total of 10 plants by 2011. They've closed 14% of the dealerships, and reduced the number of suppliers from 3,400 to 1,600 - they plan to take it down to 750. No bonuses are being paid to anyone in 2009, and they're not paying "merit" increases to salaried employees. I don't know what happened to the healthcare/benefit packages to retired employees.

...and they sold the 5 planes.

With putting that many people out of work and closing all those plants, it's no wonder they could make a profit (at least on the books).

I just hope this does not lull them into a false sense of security and they resume their wasteful ways

Normally I would agree that the big automakers deserve to fail. however, what they have done has been to push their suppliers to the point where their backs were to the wall. If you own a small business and have to deal with a large corporation, it's like Bambi meets Godzilla. The big guys dictate the terms, dictate the price and often string out payments. The result is that the little guys who did everything right lose their customers if the bug automakers go out of business. Isn't that how it works these days? If you're a small business and you fail, it's mismanagement. If your big enough, you're not allowed to fail.

I do agree about it being "good for Ford" that they are doing better, but I'm not about to buy an American piece of poorly engineered and sloppily assembled junk just to keep the union workers in Michigan happily making over $70/hr.

I'm not sure why it's important to support an "American" manufacturer of cars. Foreign manufacturers build plants here, hire American workers, invest in the infrastructure to support their needs, and pay taxes. "Buy American" is a thing of the 1970s, when we had a manufacturing base and foreign cars were only imported. We may have lost jobs in Detroit - but North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have gained quite a few.

Yes, but to be fair, the market didn't support the number of cars being built, and Ford, GM, and Chrysler got stuck with union packages and benefits that were much harder to scale back than in most industries. The number of cars delivered in 2009 will likely be around 15 million - down from 17 million in 2007.

...before the "cash for clunkers" incentives, the total U.S. auto market was on track to do about 11 million deliveries - a level not seen since 1982.

Much of the problem with American auto firms is they had way too many brands and options, especially GM which had Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, and probably others I can't remember. Then within each brand were the various models, and within each model were countless options and colors. All this required enormous design, tooling, parts, etc. when in reality many of the Pontiac models were nearly identical to Buick models, etc.

I am old enough to remember back in the 1950s when each brand had maybe 2 or 3 models and 3 or 4 colors, period. That is also when the auto companies made the most money. I can tell you from my own corporate experience that when you offer too many options and too many colors, you will never make a reasonable profit no matter what kind of widget you are selling.

Hurray for Ford! My first car was an 89 Escort and I LOVED that thing!!! It got great gas mileage and was a tank!! LOL!! I would have gotten another one if I hadnt found my Chevy for 100 bucks....97 cavalier with less than 50,000 miles on it!! That thing runs like a champ and I beat my cars up!! Probably helps that Ive got 3 mechanics on hand daily in case my car so much as hiccups!! LOL!!! We even just got a 85 F-150 as a wood hauling truck for around the farm cuz Bf is a Ford lover!! Gee even our landlord owns the biggest Ford dealer in the central Pa region!! Woohoo go Sunbury Motors!!!!!

I'm really glad Ford is turning around. We have an '07 Ford Fusion. It has all the safety features, which makes it just as safe as it's Honda and Toyota competitors according to the Insurance Institute crash testing. It was a Consumer Reports Best Buy. They still rate the Fusions very high. I love my Fusion. It's also a fun car to drive.

For those saying a Honda or Toyota would have been better, well price was an issue. They didn't negotiate prices, and quite frankly the sticker price was ridiculous. It was in '07 before the economy turned, so that may have changed by now. The insurance on a Honda Civic was 2x what the Fusion's (or Toyota Corolla's) insurance was. My sister tells me it is because they are the #1 stolen car.

I've had bad enough luck with VW's that the only way I would get another one is if it was a collector car (DH wants another Rabbit Convertible). I still shudder at the thought of the repair & part costs on a VW. It was a factor in ruling out getting one when we were car shopping. Some people love them, but it's just not the car for me.

As Cindy said, there are always lemons. My Ford Crown Vic is a perfect example. Most Crown Vics were rated A+ but mine was awful. It had zero heat in the winter and for Canada that's just "too cool".

We just scrapped a 1995 VW Passat diesel that was still running which we used as a spare car in case one of the others was being repaired. I hit a raccoon and the rad went dry and I drove it without realizing that until it just stopped. Hubby put in a rebuilt rad, a head gasket from a wrecker and the car just kept going. With his 1997 Passat wagon he has had no problems at all. I had a bit of an electrical problem with my 2001 Jetta but it has now been resolved. The 2 Hondas we had before that were fantastic. So our experience with foreign versus North American has prompted us to favour foreign. Yes, they usually cost more initially but they run years longer.

I would love a VW but Im in a family where we favor the Mopar classics..lol..Im hoping that when Bertha eventually does die (fingers crossed she last a longgggg time though) I would love to go junk yard shopping and find a Jetta that hasnt been wrecked beyond repair and get one to fix. The only problem is the money..VW are sooooo expensive repair and fixing wise so it might not be an option for me when the time comes to replace Bertha!! But Im going to keep my eye out that I can find another amazing deal on a Jetta like I did for my Cavalier..Cant beat a $100 car! :o)
I really have no preferance on foreign over domestic just because I want a car that goes from A-Z with no problems. I do try to go for a car that isnt going to be a pain for BF to fix or find parts for. Cavaliers around here are a dime a dozen so it wont be hard to find a junked one for spare parts when we redo the body this spring and we already have a spare engine and a place to go with a cavalier graveyard to get extra parts and what not for a great deal! But I also have an ideal situation that most people dont have...a trustworthy mechanic on hand for every cough and hiccup my car makes! I also can get extended knowledge on almost every car ever made because BF worked for Sunbury Motors, his dad is a classic car restorer and his brother can work on just about any car and fix it! I hope all of you have a great trust worthy mechanic you can go to for your cars!!!

My hubby does most of the work on our cars like brakes, oil changes, etc. He also has a great relationship with a used VW parts dealer which saves us mega-bucks so our VW's don't cost us a lot of money. He also invested in a diagnostic disc that he just loads onto his laptop and plugs it into the dash so we pretty much know what is wrong, if anything, before a dealership or repair place ever touches the car. One thing to NOT do is go to dealerships - they overcharge IMO unless you can find a good and honest one. We just recently were told of a good and honest one in our area so if we ever need to go to a dealership for anything, then at least we know a responsible one.

I had one of those too. Two-tone blue hatchback. I drove it till the motors bottom end fell out, about 170,000 miles. I didn't think it was ever going to stop.

Ours were older VWs. One ended up with what I liked to call "old car syndrome" It was just so old it was giving out and had some kind of mystery issue we couldn't solve in (I think) '04 or so. It was an '86 diesel golf. The other VW was from the years where it was somewhat known they made bad cars. It was an '89 and a total money pit. The '86 was a good car til it gave out. The other was a lemon from the time I got it, amassing ridiculous repairs. But it was enough to turn me off to the brand. My DH is more forgiving. He did a lot of the work on our VWs. His first car was an '82 Rabbit Convertible, and he really wants to get one again.

I couldn't live without heat in the winter either! We live in Wisconsin.

I agree that there was a definite problem of too many cars available in the American brands.

I did my part, and I love my 6 month old Ford Fusion!

My wife has a 1999 Saturn and I have a 2003. I am really saddened to see the Saturn line go. My wife's car has 185,000+ miles and mine just over 180,000. They both run great. When it does come time to buy another car, to be honest, I don't know what I will get. I love my Saturn, but will not be able to get another one of those.

I don't consider 170,000 miles to be very high mileage.

Anyone I've ever known that had a Saturn loved it. Isn't it so true that when you find a quality product and really like it, they stop manufacturing it. I can only assume there is more money for them in repairs or having you buy a new whatever.

Good for Ford. They still have a long way to go to get out of debt but at least they have been working hard at it through the current financial crisis, which is more than I can say about GM and their sense of bailout entitlement. I'll never buy another GM car as long as I live. Keep up the good work, Ford.

LMAO mine was a two tone blue hatchback too!! Stick shift!! I freaking LOVED Bessie!!! She had 230,000 miles on it when some jerk off smashed my windshield in while it was parked in front of the house and by that time my sister bought a new car and was giving me her 98 Neon so I ended scrapping bessie for about 280 bucks...I almost got what I paid for her which was 500...

**In my current car Im going to eventually have to replace the fuel and brake lines in it (rust from it sitting for 3 years after it was wrecked) the only way for me to get them is thru a dealer and thankfully our landlord and one of BFs good friends and can get us a great deal on custom fitted lines for my car. We priced them at a Chevy dealership and it was about 800 for both lines and then to top it off they said they had to install them..Malarkey BF can install them just fine and dandy thank you very much I told them to keep their fuel and brake lines Ill find somewhere else to go. I can get my new lines from Sunbury Motors for about 100 bucks for both!**