Ford and the Bailout
You know, I've been openly accused of being extremely biased when it comes to my choice in auto brand loyalty, but I believe it to be with good reason.The one thing during this whole shitacular economic struggle that really captured my attention is the seemingly dire situation of the Big 3- Ford, GM, and Chrysler. The entirety of our auto industry is falling to shambles? WHAT?!? As a racer, you can see where this is a mighty bit unsettling. (Well, unless you happen to be in the faded craze and downward spiraling world of sport compact racing, and then its probably cool for you).
Now, I'm not AT ALL educated enough to speak on the who and why and what of the auto industry's ailments. I have my guesses which I'll keep to myself this time, but one thing I really respect, is Ford's commitment to keep the public involved and informed.
http://www.thefordstory.com/ -- Say hello to Ford's take on the current situation. A video answering the common questions, the plan, the progress, and even a detailed look at Ford's economic footprint.
Now all of that is great and all-- and I'm not even going to pretend like I understand the whole bailout or any of the business talk, but what I CAN speak to, is that its very evident that the engineers, the designers, and all the other Ford employees have a passion for what they do. Spending 2 days with the people behind the oval, seeing first hand the pride that each of the engineers and designers had for the product that was born there, and tested all across our great country.
Somewhere along the lines, people began to associate Foreign Cars as better quality, better produced. Why? Perhaps the Big 3 did go through a learning curve where they fell behind the 8 ball. But those who tout the foreign quality.... when was the last time you objectively drove an American Made car?
And there is one BIG thing that should be applauded here.... with GM and Chrysler in this situation, Ford really does deserve some big props for properly planning for this Recession and NOT needing the bailout.
In fact, I challenge ALL of you who currently swear by your foreign brands to take a ride in a Ford. We should reward and be PROUD of what our American company has done, and not lump them into this hand-out group. Operation Ford Motor is a movement covering the twitter and the rest of the web world right now to get the word out about what Ford has done to AVOID this whole situation and why they deserve our respect.
Posted by Erica Ortiz on Thursday, December 04, 2008 at 1:30 PM | Permalink 
Thanks for recognizing that Ford is different and for helping to share our story. We hope that we'll be able to update the site, put more "faces of Ford" on there - from all levels of the company - and engage in more dialog with consumers.
Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company
Posted by
Scott Monty |
12/12/2008 1:57 PM
Thanks for bashing sport compact racing and showing your support...
I had subscribed to your blog after reading that you needed people to do so but now I will be unsubscribing...in an already difficult economy you think it must be okay to take a stab at SC racing..real classy.
Posted by
Mikaela |
12/13/2008 3:42 PM
Fords have been my daily driver for the past twenty years. My 'family car' in particular is now thirteen years old. Most people have blown through several cars in that amount of time, no matter what brand.
I'm all for buying American when and wherever I can, no matter what it is.
Posted by
devilish southern belle |
12/13/2008 4:54 PM
Mikaela,
You know what? I re-read what I wrote, and I can see where you'd take that as a stab, and I'm sorry. What I should have elaborated to say was that the sport compact scene was all the craze and has unfortunately died down. Sport Compact racing now only has one sanctioning body down from 3, and NHRA isn't even involved anymore. The hopes of sport compact racing in drag racing anyways has nearly all but died. (Except for cars like the Titan team and the Scranton Brothers, who have successfully campaigned a sport compact in the main stream drag arena- MAD RESPECT!)
However, should the Big 3 fail, then all we'd have available would be foreign built sport compacts.... drag racing as we currently know it from NHRA all the way down will NO. LONGER. EXIST. That gets me a little emotional, so I guess I didn't properly make my statement.
And for some import racers, that idea seems funny. Except they aren't thinking of the consequences. Should that happen, demand will force up the prices of all cars, the American AFTERMARKET that currently manufactures a significant amount of our racing niceities will crumble, and racing STILL will not be all its cracked up to be!
I apologize if I offended you, and I understand if you want to unsubscribe. I appreciate your comments, and always encourage discussion in comments, so thank you for posting!
Best of Luck to you,
Erica
Posted by
Erica Ortiz |
12/13/2008 7:35 PM
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