Not sure how we got to robots. I was just saying labor has low bargaining power. 

Oh man, I hope you’re right. Labor’s share of GDP has been declining for a long time and I think the quarterly cycle and lack of labor bargaining power are the primary drivers.

I think ultimately there are some opposing ideas here. The medicine stockholders need is to face the reality that as long as wages stay stagnant - they’re in for a long term decline. We’re going to see it first in the car market because outside of homes - it’s our biggest purchase. Americans are leveraging themselves…

The economics are also that even though sales and cash are high - it’s mainly on the back of rising prices - not more volume. I think even truck sales peaked over a decade ago. Raising prices can only go so far. Ford has fundamental problems. 

OR - it’s one truck being swallowed by another bigger truck from behind.

My wife has a GTI that I love so I realize saying this pretty much counter to how I actually live, but I still struggle with “Premium” or “near luxury” sedans with FWD.

May is a much better car critic. That said- Clarkson is much more qualified than a lot of people simply because he’s driven everything. And as much as I like him as an entertainer, his writing is even more exquisite. 

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I guess we will see homie. I just wanted you to put your data into some perspective. Hard to visualize award winning analysts when you won’t do the bare minimum. 

Yes - dude, please explain economics to me when you can’t parse the difference between exiting a market because it’s a shit market, and exiting a market because you’re not an effective competitor, while failing to acknowledge that your competitive issues stretch through a bunch of other car lines.

Here’s some other not Ford opinions:

Sorry - wasn’t aware that Ford HQ was just - batting 1.000. I should have known based on their bang-up stock performance. Looks like -50% over four years? Awesome. I’ll just let everyone know that the only people qualified to have opinions about Ford are people working in Ford. Come to think of it - that’s fairly…

Mercedes still sells sedans. So does BMW. Doesn’t matter if they have 15 CUV models.

Lol. Ford is currently shit for market share on 30% of the market. So instead of fixing its competitive problems - it decided to tuck tail and run. Those same competitive problems exist for them in the CUV space. Unless they fix it - as interest rates climb they’ll continue to get fucked.

I think Ford makes a great truck. But I think long term they are making plays that will shrink the company in terms of market share not grow them. So when all of these dummies come out to defend Ford making “business decisions” it’s important to remind them that the actions that lead to these hard business decisions…

Probably. Their current CEO says he wants to monetize “car data”. I’m sure that’s going to work out fine. 

The European cars are refreshes based on the same platform as the previous generations. I’ll believe it when I see them actually roll out the all-new car. All evidence points to them doing a similar restructuring in Europe down the road.

Viewed in isolation, that 150k looks big. Incrementally is it outside of declines in other segments? What % share of overall loss is it? How does that match with overall % share of sales?

You know what else is part of managing a business? Paying attention to market share and competitive product lines. I’m 100% behind you that Ford probably needs layoffs, they’re just laying off the wrong people. Instead of making better products while interest rates were low, they jacked up prices and boosted profits…

Absolutely. But here’s Ford’s last decade: