Originally posted by ODC:
Bill Ford: "My Goal Is To Fight Toyota"

Le Sigh.

Domestic makers need to get back and focus on making the best cars they can possible, not beating a moving target like a competitor. Their eye is so off the ball its not funny.

Get back to the basics and flesh them out and refine them; compacts,midsize,fullsize cars are your bread and butter.

I mean come on, Cobalt vs Civic vs Golf vs Corolla. If money wasn't an option would anybody pick a Cobalt ?



That quote is taken out of context.

Bill said that his goal was "to fight Toyota and everyone else" and it was a direct response to the question of "Isn't Toyota going to rule the world?".

His full statement, to paraphrase, was "No, Toyota is not going to take over the world because Ford, for one, is done with lying here and taking it and we're finally going to do something about the imports kicking our collective asses".

His goal should be to fight Toyota. But his first goal, as he has enumerated several times, is to stop the marketshare slide. Not to gain any. Just to stabilize. From there you work on product quality and image, and you take on the competition. And you don't become the best in an industry by setting your sights to be better than the guy ranked right above you -- you set your sights on the #1 company in the business.

The automotive market is very saturated. He has to take on somebody. You don't sell cars to people that don't have one, you sell cars first and foremost to people that already buy your cars (which is why his first goal is to stabilize market share), then you sell cars to people that buy your competitor's cars -- and Ford's #1 competitor is Toyota. Ford loses more sales to Toyota than it does to any other manufacturer. Taking on Toyota doesn't preclude making good cars -- you don't take on Toyota without making the best cars possible.

2003 Mazda6s 3.0L MTX Webpage 2004 Mazda3s 2.3L ATX