Word: toyotas
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...dealers complain that even its new models, like the Ford Fusion and the Mercury Milan, are still too similar. "We'd like to see more differentiation in the sheet metal, not just the inside creature comforts or the taillights," says Robert Thibodeau, owner of a major Detroit Ford dealership. Toyota, by contrast, has produced SUVs and the luxury Lexus--two totally different vehicles--even though they are built on the same platform. Some analysts argue that Ford should get rid of one of its brands, such as Mercury, and narrow its product line. The company's drab minivans...
...brand, Jaguar, is losing money.) On the cost side, the U.S. carmakers are dragged down by the huge burden of benefits for retired workers, such as health care, which account for $930 of the cost of each of GM's vehicles, $560 of Ford's and only $110 of Toyota's--putting the Americans at a severe disadvantage. Ford loses $258 for every car it produces, compared with Toyota's profit of $1,698 per vehicle, according to Banc of America Securities...
...them a basic company design language before encouraging them to use it to become more innovative. "I think we're getting it now," says Horbury. As an example of the new thinking, he points to the Fusion, a sporty, affordable midsize sedan that Ford hopes will compete with the Toyota Camry, a perennial top seller that also boasts a new design...
Ford certainly doesn't talk like a guy who is about to become history's roadkill. "My goal is to fight Toyota and everybody else and come out on top," he says. Eventually Ford hopes to engage Washington--and the country--in a broad dialogue about such urgent issues as energy policy, health care and the future of manufacturing. "Sure I'd like to play a role," he says. "But it doesn't do much good for me to be out trying to solve national and world issues if we're not fixing ourselves." That, of course, would...
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