Word: lacocca
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...market. General Motors announced a 14% drop in fourth-quarter earnings last week; the company's profit margins have slipped steadily, from 10.3% in 1965 to 7% in 1969. The automakers put on a relatively cheerful public face, but in private they are horrified by their prospects. Lee lacocca, Ford's North American Automotive Operations president, fears that 1970 might be like 1958, when Detroit expected to market some 7.5 million cars but really sold 4.3 million. "The market for cars has fallen on its ass," says lacocca...
...first 60 days of auto sales, according to Ford's Group President Lee lacocca, establish the pattern of any model-year. Last week, as that milepost passed, Detroit was gearing down for a slow winter. Over the next three months, automakers plan to assemble 2,580,453 vehicles, 417,453 fewer than they made last December, January and February. Automakers blame most of the slowdown on the fact that the public simply is not in the mood to buy. This week Chrysler plans to shut down three of its seven assembly plants for a week and three more...
...this stirred general resentment among Ford men, especially Executive Vice President Lee A. lacocca, the assertive architect of Ford's highly successful Mustang and Maverick. lacocca, a tough and ambitious marketing whiz whom Detroiters look on as Chairman Ford's heir apparent, was shocked and disappointed when Knudsen was brought in, and later had several clashes with him. The two men held a peace parley last January, but if they came to an agreement, it did not last. Says one high executive who knows both well: "Lee had chewed his way through ten layers of management...
...lacocca, D.ENG., executive vice president, Ford Motor Co. With millions of mustangs behind you and millions of mavericks before you, you are providing America with its wheels...
Plenty of hard compromises had to be made on the Maverick. Anything that added to style, size or performance raised the list price. In the fervid debates among Ford's engineers, stylists and cost accountants, lacocca was the final arbiter. The accountants wanted plain gray upholstery; lacocca ordered bright plaids, though the decision increased the price of each car by several dollars. He ordered the body made wide enough so that six passengers could squeeze in in a pinch. "I could have taken a slice down the middle of that car, maybe three inches, still gotten four people...