Here's an interesting strategy--Ford is considering taking the company private. That could help a lot, if they have the cash to do it.

What they need to do, in my humble opinion, is stop working on the hydrogen car that is always 20 years out and instead work on a hybrid/diesel SUV.

The people want SUVs, they are simply too perfectly fit for the soccer moms to ignore yet people want to help the environment and get better gas mileage and all. A hybrid/diesel SUV could have most of that. Yeah you won't get the full benefit of the hybrid with such a large vehicle but it can't hurt (can it?) and diesel not only gets better gas mileage but in many cases can shift over to biodiesel when that gets ready.

Think two years out not twenty and give the people what they want, not just black. It's not rocket science.

Um, why would that help? Taking it private so that you can ignore the street - how is that different from just ignoring the street?

Shareholder lawsuits?

Aside from changing the focus from what Wall Street demands (short term gains) to long term goals, going private has the huge benefit of bypassing the SOX accounting regulations. For a company the size of Ford, bypassing the SOX documentation requirements alone would probably save them $1-2 million a month.

Weather going private would buy Ford enough time to keep out of bankrupcy is a whole different question.

The problem any large hybrid SUV runs into is how buyers look at numbers. It may have a 40% increase in gas milage over a gas engine with similar power, but that is only going to take a 16 mpg SUV to 22 mpg. Most buyers see 6 mpg not 40% more efficent. It's difficult to justify an extra $4000+ to only get 6 mpg better.

Agree with the diesel SUV hybrid marketing idea. Better than a gas hybrid. Add in electronic innovations like charging the battery via potential energy yield when coasting downhill.

US car companies have no viable marketing. I'm not referring to sales support marketing which they spend all their efforts on but product innovation market ideas that would differentiate the product and give them a competitive edge.

Ford's problems stem from its bloated cost structure and the fact that it makes cars that are impossible to sell without massive incentives to the consumer. Those are its fundamental structural problems. Ford will continue to languish and eventually die unless it fixes them. Ditto for GM.

Ford's problems stem from its bloated cost structure and the fact that it makes cars that are impossible to sell without massive incentives to the consumer.

I look at those incentives and can't help but wonder, "Why don't you just lower the @#$!ing price!?"

For a company the size of Ford, bypassing the SOX documentation requirements alone would probably save them $1-2 million a month.

Based on my experience with SOX at a public company with revenue of 'only' 1 billion per year (give or take) that feels like a very low figure.

So how does "going private" help get rid of the UAW?

"Agree with the diesel SUV hybrid marketing idea. Better than a gas hybrid. Add in electronic innovations like charging the battery via potential energy yield when coasting downhill. "

Hydraulic hybrids are cheaper. Why does everything have to have batteries? It's just another part of the car to 'vent with flame' in a crash.

I think the SOX laws may be the real culprit. I'm with Brian that the cost of meeting the requirements is high. Most of my companies' contracts are with the federal government, and the various agencies have different accounting methods. Yet, to be SOX compliance, we are having to standardize our accounting methods across business units. Otherwise, we still have to do the old "voodoo" accounting to reconcile, which is no longer allowed.

When do you think SOX will go away? Across the SP500, I'd bet we are wasting $10B on it a year - and does anyone think that it really will make a diference to a con artist?

"Based on my experience with SOX at a public company with revenue of 'only' 1 billion per year (give or take) that feels like a very low figure."

I'm assuming that Ford's size would bring some economies of scale in dealing with SOX issues, but Brian is probably correct that I am lowballing the estimate. A lot would depend on how fragmented their accounting system(s) are to start out with. Working for a $17 billion per year company that has done a lot of aquisitions over the last decade I could easily see multiplying the SOX budget by four if there are a lot of legacy systems.