Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

[cjforumadmin]

http://www.bangshift.com/blog/Shocker-Ford-Sales-Up-30-percent-in-December.html

[studemax]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

Why shock? Doesn't surprise me at all.
The American people may be dumb, but they're not stupid.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

Why shock? Doesn't surprise me at all.
The American people may be dumb, but they're not stupid.

Dumb and Stupid are kinda the same thing, aren't they?

My only other question: since Ford is still losing money on every car they sell, isn't it actually bad news to be selling more cars then?

[IRONHEAD]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

Why shock? Doesn't surprise me at all.
The American people may be dumb, but they're not stupid.

wait till thay have to pay taxes on that 4500.oo government "gift" hahaahhahahahha

[38P]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

My only other question: since Ford is still losing money on every car they sell, isn't it actually bad news to be selling more cars then?

DUDE! Did you miss the memo? Ford's making money now.

Excluding special items, Ford posted pre-tax operating profits totaling $1.1 billion, an improvement of $3.9 billion from a year ago. This marks the company?s first operating profit since the first quarter of 2008. On an after-tax basis, excluding special items, Ford posted an operating profit of $873 million in the third quarter, or 26 cents per share, compared with a loss of $3 billion, or $1.32 per share, a year ago.

Ford?s North American operations posted a pre-tax operating profit of $357 million, its first quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2005. Ford South America, Ford Europe and Ford Asia Pacific Africa also posted pre-tax operating profits in the third quarter.

http://www.ford.com/about-ford/news-announcements/press-releases/press-releases-detail/pr-ford-posts-third-quarter-2009-net-31244

Moreover, your quip indicates a profound misunderstanding of the relationship between fixed costs and variable costs in the automotive business. To simplify, fixed costs are costs that a carmaker generally has regardless of how many units they build and sell. Variable costs are costs that vary (not always in a linear relationship) with the number of vehicles built and sold.

So if an OEM is losing money on the variable cost of its products and sufficient extra units cannot be sold for sufficient revenue to cover the increased variable costs, then selling more units would increase losses. Of course, in some cases "loss leaders" are necessary for other purposes (e.g. Corporate Average Fuel Economy offsets, holding market share, brand integrity, corporate citizenship, niche development, cash flow, supplier contracts, maintaining the supplier base)

But selling more vehicles usually spreads the fixed costs out across all of the sales. Thus, more sales tends to mean each unit sold has to bear a smaller percentage of the fixed costs.

Every carmaker has a "break even" point where, when factoring in the variable costs, the OEM can recover its entire fixed and variable investment through vehicle sales. Any revenue above that level is some form of profit.

Undoubtedly the foregoing oversimplification is abhorant to any accounting types who have mistakenly wandered in here, but kiddies, that's basically the whole ball of wax in laypersons' terms.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

Yeah, sure, whatever. They're "making money" once you consider Adjustments, Restructuring, and factor EBITDA.

I may not have worked in the marketing department like you, but I've spent more than my share of time in big public companies and I am capable of comprehending the difference between "actually making money" and "lots of acronyms so we can tell the shareholders and press we're sorta making money"

How many quarterly losses has Ford posted in the past ten years? Uh, yeah, that's what I thought :


Call it a "quip" if you want, but I'm not the one blathering 3 million paragraphs of senseless Pro-Ford blather every time someone points out a Ford problem.

[BluLightning]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

No but your the first to bash them when they do good. A profit is a profit and they're still the only American company that didn't suck off the government teet. Way to go Ford.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

No but your the first to bash them when they do good. A profit is a profit and they're still the only American company that didn't suck off the government teet. Way to go Ford.

I don't think you get it. That's not a profit. Not even close. To imply that Ford has "turned everything around" and is home free, as Nutzzter implies, is about as far from reality as possible. I'm not bashing Ford, I like PLENTY of their current and past products. I simply cannot stand when someone cites misleading (or bogus) sources or information as they write a 3 million word essay that sounds like a cross between a dejected laid-off marketing dept. staffer and the guy on late night TV trying to sell me a Sham Wow.

Yay for Ford, they're still here, but they're not out of the woods. That's all that needs said about their current state. see how simple that was?

[Mr4Speed]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

No but your the first to bash them when they do good. A profit is a profit and they're still the only American company that didn't suck off the government teet. Way to go Ford.

I don't think you get it. That's not a profit. Not even close. To imply that Ford has "turned everything around" and is home free, as Nutzzter implies, is about as far from reality as possible. I'm not bashing Ford, I like PLENTY of their current and past products. I simply cannot stand when someone cites misleading (or bogus) sources or information as they write a 3 million word essay that sounds like a cross between a dejected laid-off marketing dept. staffer and the guy on late night TV trying to sell me a Sham Wow.

Yay for Ford, they're still here, but they're not out of the woods. That's all that needs said about their current state. see how simple that was?

Thank you soooo much for pointing out how stupid we are all and how wrong we were to be happy about something(again). :


Go Ford go!

[dieselgeek]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

Thank you soooo much for pointing out how stupid we are all and how wrong we were to be happy about something(again). :

There's a finer line between "stupid" and "realistic" than you seem to grasp. And for crying out loud, can you detach from my nuts for a day or two? I need to do some shopping.

[Pumpkin]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

as Nutzzter implies,

you missed my question, is Franklin a "Troll" by your definition? I'd like a reference or two because I don't remember him calling anyone names

Oops, karma is a bitch.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

as Nutzzter implies,

you missed my question, is Franklin a "Troll" by your definition? I'd like a reference or two because I don't remember him calling anyone names

Oops, karma is a bitch.

apparently logic is an even bigger bitch, because your post makes zero sense

[BluLightning]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

as Nutzzter implies,

you missed my question, is Franklin a "Troll" by your definition? I'd like a reference or two because I don't remember him calling anyone names

Oops, karma is a bitch.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

to hell with reality, let's celebrate anyways! :D

[BluLightning]

Re: Shocker: Ford Sales Up 30% in December

as Nutzzter implies,

you missed my question, is Franklin a "Troll" by your definition? I'd like a reference or two because I don't remember him calling anyone names

Oops, karma is a bitch.

apparently logic is an even bigger bitch, because your post makes zero sense

The inference is, that name calling is by definition, the act of a troll. Then you go on to call someone a name, seemingly the act of a troll. Seems logical to me.