Friday 21st July 2006

Aston Martin saves Ford's finances

Profitable Europe digs Ford from financial hole

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AM DB9: saving Ford

Ford's European division -- including Aston Martin -- seems to be propping up its parent, as the company reported a $123 million loss in its latest quarterly results.

The company's been hit, along with others, as US drivers start to switch from pickups and SUVs to vehicles with lower fuel consumption. In anticipation, Ford's already cut thousands of jobs and plans to close 14 plants.

But in Europe, Ford made a profit of $105 million before tax, though it could have been higher if its Premiere Automotive Group -- consisting of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo -- hadn't lost $162 million. This was due, said Ford, to loss of market share at Volvo, despite growth and successful product launches at Aston Martin and Land Rover, and hopes of profits following successful launches of new Jaguars, XK and XJ.

Analysts don't expect the situation for Ford to change in the short term, although the company reckons it's investing in the development of lighter cars that use more efficient engines using a range of fuels.

[scotty_917]

...maybe Porsche should add Ford to its already growing stable of VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Bentley, Lamborghini & Bugatti!!!

[jazzyjeff]

TBH $123m (about £75k??) is p*** all compared to the £14 billion Vodaphone is down!

All Ford needs to do is introduce a 'serious' hybrid car to challenge competitors like the Prius.. then Yanks can kid themselves they're being patriotic as well as pretending they're saving the planet...

JJ

Edited by jazzyjeff on Friday 21st July 13:46

[tomtvr]

"ASTON MARTIN SAVES FORD'S FINANCES"

Thats not really true according to the article.

[stigproducts]

tomtvr said:

"ASTON MARTIN SAVES FORD'S FINANCES"

Thats not really true according to the article.

"Ford made a profit of $105 million before tax, though it could have been higher if its Premiere Automotive Group -- consisting of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo -- hadn't lost $162 million."

Edited by stigproducts on Friday 21st July 20:11

[kenmorton]

O.K. so they lost $162 million on sales - they probably made $ 162 zillion on finance charges to the people who took out their loans though.

[nickfrog]

jazzyjeff said:

TBH $123m (about £75k??) is p*** all compared to the £14 billion Vodaphone is down!

All Ford needs to do is introduce a 'serious' hybrid car to challenge competitors like the Prius.. then Yanks can kid themselves they're being patriotic as well as pretending they're saving the planet...

JJ

Edited by jazzyjeff on Friday 21st July 13:46

What about Vodafone ?

[Flat in Fifth]

"to loss of market share at Volvo"

We're dropping the V70 as the work horse on our fleet, just too expensive, even if very reliable and those seats.

V50 just not big enough even if it's better than the reviews make out.

Funnily enough sad day when the last Carlton Estate went.

Edited, did I say Carlton Est, meant Omega Est DOH!

Edited by Flat in Fifth on Saturday 29th July 17:34

[wheeljack888]

Los Angeles said:

Perhaps they allude to the excessive over-charge for "exclusivity" as being extremely profitable.

And BMW, Merc, Audi & (especially) Porsche don't excessively over-charge for "exclusivity". In fact with the amount of charges Ford has taken for Aston Martin I doubt they've actually made a penny from Aston.

[mondayo]

I think the vodafone thing is slightly differernt, as I understand it, they have realised that they overpaid for all the companies they bought and so have had to revalue the company for a fair bit less than they origionally did....
They havent been losing money hand over fist like the Ford group

[pasthim]

Surely $123m is fairly small compared to the huge finances Ford deals in at a corporate level? Considering how unstable fuel prices have been for so long Ford and other big US truck manufacuturers are now paying the price for continually making bigger vehicles for their home market while the rest of the world made more and more efficent vehicles. Bit late in the day to start rushing out more economical cars. I can see a huge drop in values of those vehicles shortly.

[Podie]

kenmorton said:

O.K. so they lost $162 million on sales - they probably made $ 162 zillion on finance charges to the people who took out their loans though.

Two different companies...

[kurtiejjj]

So it seems we europeans are helping the yanks from going bust, brilliant, now you can see that everything is done better by europeans