Let that sink in for a moment folks. $5.8 Billion – and that’s Billion with a B. That is a very real amount of money – and a very huge amount of money. A significant portion of that loss can be attributed to PAG – Premier Auto Group. Even though the different brands aren’t broken out separately, we know that a huge part of PAG’s loss comes from Jaguar. It’s never been a secret that this brand is hugely unprofitable. Ford needs to cut their losses and unload this brand immediately. I don’t even mean sell Jaguar – I’m talking more along the lines of giving it away. It is simply a huge drain on profitability, and has never contributed anything positive to Ford Motor Co. If they can find a sucker buyer willing to take Jaguar off it’s shoulders, they should act immediately.
On a positive note, there is another possible explanation for the huge loss that Ford posted in the 3rd quarter. Alan Mullaly recently took over the helm at Ford, and likely pulled a lot of restructuring charges forward, so that the future quarters look better. This way, he is not responsible for the huge loss, and he looks like a hero if the turnaround works successfully, and the coming quarters are more profitable.
