Ford Swears Off SUVs Even If Gas Prices Drop

Now that gas is just a hair under $4 a gallon, US carmakers will go right back to making millions of SUVs, right? Not so says Ford (F), they've learned their lesson, finally (Reuters):

Ford Motor Co's (F) plan to overhaul its North American operations to produce more cars remains unchanged amid recent declines in gas prices, a top executive said on Tuesday.

Of course $3.99 gas is still expensive. We'll see how long that 'fewer gas guzzlers' pledge lasts if gas falls back to $2.

Ford is talking a good game, though.

Read the full story here

-OR-

Read about China's not-so-subtle encouragement for companies to get away from SUVs -- a 40 percent tax.

Comments

[Harrier]

If Ford could make money selling SUV's they would. They can't and now see the message. I hope oil hits $10 a gallon. I want to see this nation forced to find something better. 10 years or sooner, I see one of the major car manufacturers and jobs associated with them disappearing from this country because the automotive industry refused to see the writing on the wall

[RJII]

ford is suffering now for their transgressions.

[allwrite]

Let's not forget who was buying the big gas suckers, and all for ego gratification. Slow to learn, quick to complain when gas prices skyrocket - it's the American way. We are a people in denial, inattentive to cause and effect, uninvolved or disinterested, and we continue with these behaviors at our peril. The handwriting was on the wall long ago.

[ShawnMichel]

Long, long, long ago.

[MajorKong]

I was at the grocery store/gas station filling up today and across from me was a guy filling up a Suburban. After he drove off, out of curiosity, I walked over and looked at the pump. He had put in 30 gallons of gas and paid $98 (the grocery store gives you a discount on gas based on how much you spend on groceries). $98 and he probably didn't even fill it all the way!

[javaman]

They may not sell them here, but I bet you as sure as sh*t they will sell them in china.

it's all reletive boys and girls.

[JBS]

Probably won't sell THAT many with China imposing a 40% sales tax on vehicles with engines larger than 4 liter (i.e. SUVs.), effective 1 Sep 2008.

Ford needs to get a small engine, high mileage hybrid onto the market real soon. Their best hope is to get a hybrid drive into the Focus or Fusion line ... or to bring one of their European lines into U.S. factories.

In the short run, it might pay to license either Honda's or Toyota's hybrid technology and get into the market. Less profit, but they'd get their foot in the door before it closes.

But what I'd really like to see is ANY automobile manufacturer come up with a web site that DOESN'T SUCK!

[coyote4]

Dubai

[mamacat]

Personally, I hope it isn't too late for Ford to turn things around. A lot of people are depending on them for their livelihoods.

[rh654]

Yeah Right - if gas went back to $2 a gallon Ford would switch back to SUV's in a heartbeat. This is the company that brought the Pinto the masses. This is the company that said they learned their lesson back in the 70's when they laughed at a couple of little Japanese companies named "Toyota" and "Honda".

They ain't gonna learn nuttin'...

[trinity]

You're absolutely right...Americans love their gas guzzlers and those lousy 70s didn't change a thing. As soon as gas goes down, Americans will be back buying their status symbols left & right and Ford will be back to making them.

[JBS]

Except that the Pinto got over 35 mpg with an automatic transmission.

[DFL]

SUV = STUPID USLESS VEHICLES

[RememberTheAlamo]

Hi DFL,

So . . . if we changed the abbreviation to something like . . . AWV - All Weather Vehical . . . then it would be okay?

[RevMetheus]

Another Waste of a Vehicle.

[mtredstar7]

Drilling for off shore oil is another example of McCain missing the point. We have to get off the oil addiction once and for all. The answer to the energy crisis is to develop a vehicle that can get 40 to 50 miles per gallon and to teach the public that it is in their interest to ration their fuel. If that can happen, it'll buy us the time to develop another source of energy that is affordable.

[Ozarks]

Already a car that gets 47 miles per gallon. And it only costs $3-4 k. Where manufactured ? India.

[EmperorNoClothes]

Ford and GM have flushed themselves down the toilet with their worship at the altar of fuel wasting, oversized, idiot cars. Ford's stock price is down to $4.88 a share, they have no profits, and they make "Fix-Or-Repair Daily" junk-mobiles. What losers!!

[coyote4]

The modern automobile is obsolete. A hybrid or plugin hybrid only adds complexity and cost to existing obsolete 100-year+ internal combustion solutions. The modern engine is a highly engineered and extremely complex device. The typical gasoline engine is only 20-30% efficient; the rest is wasted as heat and pumped out through the radiator and exhaust. It is all so s tupid.

In 2002 Bosh advertised their 100th anniversary of Robert Bosch's invention of spark plugs for the gasoline engine with full page spreads. I laughed, for it indicated that spark plugs, like the internal combustion engine were hopelessly old. Why have we not advanced in this technology?

The internal combustion engine has a very limited torque-range and necessitates more highly complex and power-robbing devices before the power can get to the wheels.

The parts, complexity and inefficiencies involved in the engine and transaxle unit is n uts when compared to the simplicities soon to be enjoyed by the electric car.

The electric car of the near future will be so simple that car prices should fall substantially and these machines will be faster than existing street rods.

[MorpheusXNYC]

Hear, hear! I'll drink to that. ;-)

[Ray46]

Soon as China starts exporting cars in large numbers to the US, you can say bye bye to Chrysler, Ford, and GM.

[sociocanuck]

I'm not really sure that many Red Blooded Americans would give up their trucks for a Chinese car.

[thefringecenter]

Yeah, and they won't shop at Walmart either.

[MajorKong]

I remember laughing at those funny little Toyotas and Hondas that starting showing up in the US back in the 70s. I laughed at the first Hyundais back in the 80s. I won't laugh when Chinese cars start showing up here.

[ejay579]

Now is a time for the government to get a mechanism in place which insures that the price of a gallon of gas never goes below a given price. It would be a win-win situation for everyone. Memories are short. Forget what the price of gas was about a year or two ago. I can hear the collective sigh of relief now if gas were to decrease to about $3.25 a gallon as two men and a dog are trampled by those rushing to buy an SUV.

[RememberTheAlamo]

Hi ejay579,

While not politically feasible in the NorthEast . . . your idea is excellent . . . it would stimulate drilling, production and alternative energy advances all in one swift move. . . . and stable prices would likely encourage SUV sales again . . . Great idea . . . wish it would catch on!

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Don't worry, If any signifigant number of people really does than then the price will just go back up.

[Moshe]

Good riddence to the SUV.

Second only to the Hummer, they were a symbol of American waste and excess, and if I had a nickel for everytime some yahoo speeding in an SUV and talking on their cell phone (and too busy to actually drive) almost ran over me in their SUV, I could actually afford to buy a hybrid.

They gave their self-centered drivers plenty of room for magnetic red-white-and-blue ribbons and "W" stickers, and a stereo that could blast Toby Keith songs throughout the neighborhood, but the rest of us won't miss these dangerous monstrosities on the common road.

The world will be a more pleasant and far safer place.

[Photofarm]

I'm sorry, but around here, SUV's are a good thing. I live on a farm, where gravel roads can turn to mud, and snow and ice doesn't get cleared out of the way all that fast. An SUV holds up far better, and gets me where I need to go better than a car.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

.....then continue to PAY the $3.80+/gallon price. By the way, there are farms all over Europe--including Russia & the Ukraine--and they seem to get around without SUVs.....?!?!?

[MajorKong]

Most of us don't live on farms and I suspect most SUV drivers don't live on farms. The last time the majority of Americans lived on farms was sometime in the 1920s.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

99% of SUV's and pickups are bought by drugstore cowboys not real ones.

[RevMetheus]

Why would you have an enclosed SUV on a working farm? Why would you not have a utility pickup truck, one with 4x4 or AWD and a open bed for hauling equipment? You are on a farm using a SPORT utility vehicle, most of which arent even AWD. Heck pick up a couple of old army jeeps at a surplus sale and really save some money, those things run forever.

[RememberTheAlamo]

Hi Moshe,

So you define your discomfort by the comfort others experience . . . . interesting?

As to danger . . . it is all those little slow-moving cars, which get in the way of the "dangerous monstrosities" that induce the problem . . . maybe we could limit the little cars to the right lane?

Was driving yesterday on I-64 (in one of those 2,000 lb little cars) and observed far more poor driving by those little cars, than any of the "dangerous monstrosities" . . . . the SUVs/Trucks were observing speed limits, staying in the right lane and keeping speed . . . those "little cars" were weaving, varying speeds and almost all exhibiting the right/desire to exceed all the speed limits.

[MajorKong]

I can't count how many times I've been in the left lane going 10-15 over the legal limit and some oversize truck or SUV has come barreling up and parked on my bumper.

[coyote4]

The modern automobile is obsolete. A hybrid or plugin hybrid only adds complexity and cost to existing obsolete 100-year+ internal combustion solutions. The modern engine is a highly engineered and extremely complex device. The typical gasoline engine is only 20-30% efficient; the rest is wasted as heat and pumped out through the radiator and exhaust. It is all so stupid.

In 2002 Bosh advertised their 100th anniversary of Robert Bosch's invention of spark plugs for the gasoline engine with full page spreads. I laughed, for it indicated that spark plugs, like the internal combustion engine were hopelessly old. Why have we not advanced in this technology?

The internal combustion engine has a very limited torque-range and necessitates more highly complex and power-robbing devices before the power can get to the wheels.

The parts, complexity and inefficiencies involved in the engine and transaxle unit is nuts when compared to the simplicities soon to be enjoyed by the electric car.

The electric car of the near future will be so simple that car prices should fall substantially and these machines will be faster than existing street rods.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

It is the automobile based society that is obsolete. The real answer isn't in the Big Lie of the green car but in designing a society where cars are a luxury not a necessity.

[Irons]

What has happened to Ford Motor Company is what happens when companies are passed from father to trust-fund kids.

[tsloan]

Quite the contrary, what happens when companies are passed from father to child....the children are forced to make hard decisions and be less well off because the fathers sat on their laurels and did not innovate and think in future-oriented terms

[JBS]

Ford passed into the hands of hired "managerment" even before the second generation.

The Ford "family" has no control nowadays, even though they remain large stock holders. They don't even directly control the stock. Those are in the hands of trust funds with hired "managent" as well.

Both the company and the trust funds are run for the benefit of the "managers", not the owners. And don't even think about the customers or the employees.