Here's Why I'm Happy I Drive a Ford

I drive (only) Fords (F), mostly because my sister works for them. But I like my Fords, especially our two compact Focuses, and I still have hopes to someday be able to buy a hybrid Escape without the waiting list and with the family discount. Of course, I could just buy a regular Escape now that gas is so cheap again, but it’s the principle of the matter–and my belief that gas isn’t going to stay at $2/gallon for very long (and I’m not now in the market for a new car). The perspective of Ford’s Chairman Bill Ford (as reported on Fortune’s “Green Wombat” blog) makes me feel even better about the company:

DANA POINT, Calif. — Have you driven a gas-guzzling planet-warming SUV lately? If so, it’s probably because gasoline prices have plunged in recent months and you’re more likely to trade up to a truck, Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Monday.

And he’s not happy about that.

“When gasoline went to $3.50 a gallon we saw a sea change in customer behavior,” Ford told Fortune Magazine managing editor Andy Serwer at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference in Orange County, Calif. “Now people are turning away from more fuel-efficient vehicles and taking the bigger vehicles.”

“I’ve been talking for five years now about the need for a gas tax,” he added. “We have to have some predictability on fuel pricing and that price signal has to be strong enough so customers will continue buying smaller, fuel-efficient cars.”…

Ford, who said he had been considered “something of a Bolshevik” in the auto industry for his early embrace of electric cars, said Detroit needs a floor under gasoline prices so it can make investments in alternative fuel vehicles…

So maybe it’s no coincidence that Ford’s the only one of the Big Three who doesn’t need government aid right now.

Comments

[gooddog2:]

Does anyone know what a 30 second add on any TV station at all times of the day would be?????????
This would be for an Auto?

Apr 22 03:05 AM

[Chicky401:]

I am all about Ford when it comes to SUVs, trucks and buses. They do beat out the competition on these vehicles, I have seen the proof of this over and over. No I am not all affiliated with Ford I have just driven many different vehicles in a transportation job and the Fords had a better quality. Their cars I could take or leave though, I prefer Volvo or Mercedes.

Apr 22 07:32 AM

[Paul Killinger:]

I really like the idea of a gas tax! It would do more to un-elect politicians in a single stroke than term limits or anything else.

Apr 22 10:25 AM

[Tony Petroski:]

From the article:

"DANA POINT, Calif. — Have you driven a gas-guzzling planet-warming SUV lately? If so, it’s probably because gasoline prices have plunged in recent months and you’re more likely to trade up to a truck, Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Monday.

And he’s not happy about that.

“When gasoline went to $3.50 a gallon we saw a sea change in customer behavior,” Ford told Fortune Magazine managing editor Andy Serwer at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference in Orange County, Calif. “Now people are turning away from more fuel-efficient vehicles and taking the bigger vehicles.”

Ford is truly done for. I didn't know it until I read this article. What business school (or maybe it's law school) does a guy have to go to in order to come up with this lunacy? Political correctness running wild. It's understandable for political hacks to speak like this, but the head of one of America's great companies, with his ship listing, wants his customers to buy "fuel-efficient" vehicles?

1. "Have you driven a gas-guzzling planet warming SUV lately?"
Yes, as a matter of fact I own a Ford Explorer. In what sense is a large vehicle with large tires (that help me go through the snowdrifts) and 4-wheel drive a "gas guzzler?" If a bakery has deliveries of bread to make in a delivery van are they harming the planet with their "gas guzzler?" Are tanks that used to be made by Ford "gas guzzlers"? The ones that win wars and keep our country free so that executives can make silly statements? Defining a vehicle as a "gas guzzler" just because it uses more gas than these silly "green" vehicles, the death traps that are going to pollute the planet with more used batteries than we will know what to do with, is sophistry at its worst. By the way, a moped is a "greener" vehicle compared to your little 4-cylinder toys that (apparently) will become Ford's stock in trade. If I drive a moped made by Honda to work, am I morally superior to you in your Ford greenies?

Ford Chairman: I relied on my Explorer this winter many times. For your information here (in Minnesota) it was damned cold, colder than in many a year, and the trend is getting colder. The snowdrifts were very high and they still linger in places. Your little greenie vehicles ain't going to make it here. I also haul construction materials in my Explorer. Am I destroying the planet in this way? To the extent that I'm warming the planet, I'm happy. If we can truly affect temperature in a predictable way, I vote that we raise it.

No more Fords for me until Bill Ford goes on to a life of philanthropy. Is Obama's power so limited that he can't fire this bum?

Apr 22 09:09 PM

[derryl:]

Global warming is hooey but peak oil is a very real threat and I think within the next 18 months we'll be back to expensive gas. Supply naturally dwindles with decline rates of producing wells and the oil price collapse ensures new supply is not being developed fast enough to replace it. Demand can stay flat but without new production supply will fall and meet lower demand and prices will go up again.

Arguably, it was the additional cost of filling the car with $4 gas to get to work that was the final straw that broke subprime borrowers' budgets last summer and triggered the financial meltdown. So raising people's gas costs with new taxes could generate unwelcome consequences when so many people are barely existing paycheck to paycheck. If Obama proceeds with his cap and trade scheme this will produce the same effects on prices as a direct gas tax, with the same damage done to already stretched household budgets.

Because I believe peak oil is true I agree we need to conserve as much as possible, but I still need gas guzzling trucks for work (my little car gets 40 mpg and drives great, even in the snow). Alternate energy, including electric cars, still suffers extreme technical hurdles. There may simply be no replacement for oil-based fuels to energize our economic way of life. Coal can be liquified into a diesel-like fuel and we still have lots of coal so we're not doomed just yet. But one way or another we're going to have to make some changes. Better to start preparing now before it's forced upon us.

Apr 22 10:07 PM

[Chris B:]

On Apr 22 10:25 AM Paul Killinger wrote:

> I really like the idea of a gas tax! It would do more to un-elect
> politicians in a single stroke than term limits or anything else.

We already pay a gas tax. Most of our national debt was accrued defending our access to Persian Gulf oil. If you know a dead or disabled veteran, he or she paid part of the tax too.

Oil costs both blood and money, and you pay only a fraction of the money at the pump. If Exxon and Conaco had to pay to defend their access to oil. Gasoline would run about $10-15 / gal. Instead, they're taxpayer subsidized.

Apr 23 01:59 PM

[Alfredo Mar...:]

Bill Ford, like most trust funders, is an idiot that has no idea how the real world works. I wouldn't want a penny invested in Ford if he has any managerial role with the company. Thankfully, he was pushed out as CEO.

If Bill Ford is so passionate about these beliefs, he needs to simply become a political activist full time instead of trying to run the Ford Motor Company into the ground.

Henry Ford would turn over in his grave if he heard the nonsense coming from Bill Ford.

Apr 23 02:13 PM

[schlumpf:]

I drive a 1992 Mercedes SL 500, I m sure I can drive it 15 years more.

Apr 23 03:36 PM

[Michael Comeau:]

No offense, but you didn't really explain why you are happy you drive a Ford.

Apr 23 04:18 PM

[cannedpawn8:]

schlumpf, I can drop an entire engine in my Ford Ranger for the price of two of you headlights...

Apr 23 05:45 PM

[bricki:]

I've owned Fords. I remember one model that would pop into reverse while in park and the engine idling. All by itself.

Some people were killed because of this defect.

Ford sent me a sticker. That didn't impress me very much.

Apr 23 05:49 PM

[schlumpf:]

my car dont need a engine, its a Mercedes, not a Ford.


On Apr 23 05:45 PM cannedpawn8 wrote:

> schlumpf, I can drop an entire engine in my Ford Ranger for the price
> of two of you headlights...

Apr 23 05:56 PM

[Cjhies:]

Happy to drive a Ford??? Obiviously you believe every commercial you see!

Apr 23 06:12 PM

[gooddog2:]

I like Ford Cars and I own 3 Fords (2009,2008,2005) and one GM (2008)
I try to keep American auto companies alive, they provide JOBS.

Jun 03 11:16 AM