Professor Elam

Well the fire sale continues. Ford has sold Aston Martin for about $850 M retaining a Preferred Stock Ownership bringing overall cap to $925 M. Not bad for a company that only moves 6500 units  a year. A British concern already invovled with Aston racing officially bought the company but I see that a Dubai concern, read deep pockets, is also in the buying group. 

Now will Ford put Jag on the auction block?  I mentioned in class Saturday that Jag now tops the J D Power customer satisfaction list. So why are we selling something we just fixed?  Cash is king in debt and pension strapped Detroit.  Remember those chapters on budget and planning in the cost class, turns out all that matters. Here you have Ford that has FINALLY done what it intended with both Aston and Jag, yet they are having to let someone else enjoy the fruits of their labors. 

Which would you rather run?  Let’s see at Ford, Toyota Dodge and Chevy are breathing down our necks in the gas guzzling pickup business, gas is back at 3 bucks, one day we are green with the Escape hybrid and the next we re badge the F 500 as the Taurus, and then there is the UAW to deal with or

At Aston we hob nob with the richest folks in the world backed up by Dubai money and Ford Technology what with their ps ownership, um a gee, er, I’ll have to get back to you on this one, tough decision…..