[OAC_Sparky]

ZTWsquared,Sep 15 2006, 01:38 PM Wrote:Not sure what your premise is ... but Ford in Europe is profitable -- making approximately $200 million in the first half of this year ... and that's with a market share of about half what Ford NA has.[right][snapback]207249[/snapback][/right]

My premise is this.

Ford Europe, while very profitable THIS year, only makes less than 1/5 of the BILLIONS of dollars the NA arm made when it was profitable.

When the situation was reversed, FoE was losing money and Ford NA was profitable, Ford STILL made billions in profit. And at the time FoE was in the same shape as Ford NA is now. Overcapacity with not so great products. Do the research, at the time they was talk of suspending FoE, things were that bad.

Bottom line is -- right or wrongly -- Ford sinks or swims by North American sales.

At the time for the longest time the biggest profit for that arm was SUV sales. And while gas was cheap, all was good. I'm not saying this was a good decision or one I would have made. But that was the decision that was made.