Let. Them. Die.
Effing dinosaurs.
I've never been one of those yahoos so plentiful in this part of the state that cheers one of the Big 3 over another, but I have been fairly partial to Ford, growing up with them, owning a couple, and just appreciating their history. I hoped that at least one car company wouldn't merge with/get bought by/or otherwise run with tail between legs to a foreign car company for bailing out, and hoped it would be Ford. M and I were even talking about what we may pick next time we have to buy a car, and there were some Fords at the top of the list - I like the Focus 'egg,' the Freestyle, there are probably a couple others.
Doesn't matter, though. I don't know if the billboards are covering the nation like they are southeastern Michigan, but the latest grand initiative the B3 are touting is their development of 'blend' engines, engines that can burn gas or E85 ethanol. I seem to remember these sometime before A Flock of Seagulls, so they're not really anything new. What's important is that not much real investment needs to be made, much less R&D is needed, and they still qualify for government tax incentives for fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles whether or not the blend engines ever burn anything but good old gasoline (since about .4% of all fuel pumps in the country pump E85).
Unfortunately, Ford has decided to renege on their pledge to produce 250,000 hybrids annually by 2010 in favor of increased attention on the blends. They give heartfelt reasons about not tying themselves down to just one technology, looking at other avenues, etc., but what it boils down to is avoiding what they're a little behind in (that could actually make a huge impact) and doing the same old schtick but with brand new marketing.
It won't matter a whit to them, but I'll never buy another Ford again, which likely means I'll never buy another American car. These guys have been whippng their dead old horse of a business model for years as Toyota chips away at their market share, like the first little mammals busily adapting as the last dinosaurs sluggishly thudded toward their confused deaths. Toyota can't build hybrids fast enough to meet demand. Ford? They can't collapse fast enough.
Update: Research confirms that if you're not getting faster, better, and more efficient, you will die, even if the others around you do the exact same thing. In other news, water is wet.
Another update, this one an email from doug:
I've never been one of those yahoos so plentiful in this part of the state that cheers one of the Big 3 over another, but I have been fairly partial to Ford, growing up with them, owning a couple, and just appreciating their history. I hoped that at least one car company wouldn't merge with/get bought by/or otherwise run with tail between legs to a foreign car company for bailing out, and hoped it would be Ford. M and I were even talking about what we may pick next time we have to buy a car, and there were some Fords at the top of the list - I like the Focus 'egg,' the Freestyle, there are probably a couple others.
Doesn't matter, though. I don't know if the billboards are covering the nation like they are southeastern Michigan, but the latest grand initiative the B3 are touting is their development of 'blend' engines, engines that can burn gas or E85 ethanol. I seem to remember these sometime before A Flock of Seagulls, so they're not really anything new. What's important is that not much real investment needs to be made, much less R&D is needed, and they still qualify for government tax incentives for fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles whether or not the blend engines ever burn anything but good old gasoline (since about .4% of all fuel pumps in the country pump E85).
Unfortunately, Ford has decided to renege on their pledge to produce 250,000 hybrids annually by 2010 in favor of increased attention on the blends. They give heartfelt reasons about not tying themselves down to just one technology, looking at other avenues, etc., but what it boils down to is avoiding what they're a little behind in (that could actually make a huge impact) and doing the same old schtick but with brand new marketing.
It won't matter a whit to them, but I'll never buy another Ford again, which likely means I'll never buy another American car. These guys have been whippng their dead old horse of a business model for years as Toyota chips away at their market share, like the first little mammals busily adapting as the last dinosaurs sluggishly thudded toward their confused deaths. Toyota can't build hybrids fast enough to meet demand. Ford? They can't collapse fast enough.
Update: Research confirms that if you're not getting faster, better, and more efficient, you will die, even if the others around you do the exact same thing. In other news, water is wet.
Another update, this one an email from doug:
I had to laugh because I wasn’t paying very close attention but I caught a new Ford commercial with a very funky beat and the lyrics "Let’s get it started" and I then realized that the song is actually modified from "Lets get retarded" by the Black Eyed Peas. Somehow very fitting for their current mode of operation.
posted by jim at 10/14/2006 11:37:00 PM
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