Ford Hitting Toyota Where It Hurts

The Street.Com ^ | 2-10-10 | By Andrea Tse

[STONEWALLS]

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Ford(F Quote) has finally found a major vulnerability in Toyota's(TM Quote) products -- and it clearly isn't willing to let the opportunity slip away. Following Toyota's two massive recalls, Ford is now attempting to grow sales with new commercials taking on Toyota. The commercials are part of Ford's "Spread the Word" campaign, which was launched on Jan. 12. Each of them feature Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs, speaking to ordinary people in various settings about Ford vehicles. Rowe "spreads the word" at a gas station, in a coffee shop and at a school. In the school scene, Rowe finds a group of students at a library and quietly lets them know that "Ford has quality that can't be beat by Honda or Toyota."

[dools007]

I wondered when I wrote the egg thing if anyone would follow it to its logical conclusion. Congrats. I award you my “Thinker” prize.

[noinfringers]

My understanding is that the Ford Foundation controls Ford Motor by ownership. Your info that there are no Ford family on Board of Trustees reminds me of controlling interest in the Annenberg(Readers Digest) Foundation in Chicago. Strange ? how these rich foundations get infected with socialist people.

[lonestar]

Edsel...Studebaker...Corvair...American Motors...GM....Ford...Toyota...to mention a few.

Whose future will be patterned by which past?

[centurion316]

I’m not carrying a brief for Toyota, and I’m not criticizing Ford for trying to take advantage in the marketplace. Have at it, and may the best car win.

But, make no mistake that the U.S. Government is up to their eyeballs in this little caper and they are doing it for their buddies in the Union leadership. Note, that I did not say the union members, they are going to be hurt by all of this no matter how it turns out. Its the union leadership that intends to cash in.