Ford didn’t take any bailout money. Ford only survives because they build all their vehicles (within a model) from the ground up. GM used the same transmission in multiple cars for decades. So even if it did’t work, they made it fit.
My source is my boss who is a car guy, but here’s a clipping.
$5.9B in loans to retool its factories to make more energy-efficient engines. So they built themselves into a technological dead end by selling 16 different varieties of gas-guzzling SUV, and instead of having to dig themselves out of their own hole, taxpayers are fronting the cash for it. The message to Ford and American automakers: go ahead and pursue whatever the current fad in car design is; we’ll help you re-tool when the wind changes.
Sadly, that doesn’t fit the current narrative.
Ford didn’t take any bailout money. Ford only survives because they build all their vehicles (within a model) from the ground up. GM used the same transmission in multiple cars for decades. So even if it did’t work, they made it fit.
My source is my boss who is a car guy, but here’s a clipping.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/08/ford-pulls-its-weight-without-bailout-funds/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/23/tesla.electric.cars/index.html
$5.9B in loans to retool its factories to make more energy-efficient engines. So they built themselves into a technological dead end by selling 16 different varieties of gas-guzzling SUV, and instead of having to dig themselves out of their own hole, taxpayers are fronting the cash for it. The message to Ford and American automakers: go ahead and pursue whatever the current fad in car design is; we’ll help you re-tool when the wind changes.