Ford’s announcement that they will cut 4th Quarter production by 21% (168,000 vehicles) is another huge blow to the sluggish Michigan economy. This will lead to more job cuts in an area where so many businesses are dependent on this one industry.

Consumers have been asking for more fuel efficient vehicles for years, and though gas-guzzling truck and SUV sales have been keeping Ford’s ship afloat for a while, the writing has been on the wall for some time now. Company leadership just refused to read it, and now they are sinking under the weight of their own arrogance.

Dinosaurs like Ford and GM continue to react to the market while Japanese automakers anticipate demand and even set trends. This is why the dinos are losing marketshare.

Didn’t Detroit’s automakers go through this in the 70’s? Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Business and Economics, Detroit Chocolate City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.