Did everyone hear Ford design in Dearborn(not sure about Cali studio) is letting go it's last remaining contractors this week. After shutdown 15% of it's permanent staff will be let go. Possibly more by Xmas. Not good.
That's not entirely true. There's different types of contracts and alot of us are still here. (I'm one.) It's not the end of the world. At least not yet.
U.S. automakers are in deep stuff. It shouldn't be a surprise. All of them, including Ford, refused to believe that trucks would ever fail to sell simply because they're the most profitable.
Now we're paying 4.10 for gas here in Detroit and people are avoiding big trucks like the plague.
Were the US OEMs prepared like they should have been? News articles stating that Ford will be bringing over the European Focus and the Verve two years from now suggest that they weren't.
What's scary to me is that Ford keeps saying that it's going to leverage all the global assets to become one company. When we are bringing over all the European designs for car, (everyone knows the next Mondeo will likely be the same as the Fusion) why have car designers here in the states? Europe is making what the people want. Will the studios shrink even more?
Huh?? Not the end of the world? Dude, I don't see GM or anyone else in Detroit hiring on the design side. Cali's almost as bad.
I'm only aware of one contractor left in PDC. They let go of I believe 6?? this spring. There's still a few in the 2000x training studio, but they're classified differently.
It doesn't help when J Mays trashes Detroit's efforts and loves everything from Europe. Taurus? You mean formerly the 500? That was all J's doing...thanks!
According to Alan's email, Euro Focus and Fiesta(Verve), Transit and more will be coming across the pond.
"Thank you for your continued dedication and hard work.
One Team. One Plan. One Goal. One Ford.
Alan"
Awww, thanks Alan....I'm sure he sleeps like a baby making 8 figures.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: The Bear,
Its not an easy situation in the US in the automotive industry. Its not that much better in Europe. With these facts in mind www.Jobbersonline.com has been setup to help automotive design and R&D consultants find contracts. The vacatcies on the site are worldwide and are updated on a weekly basis. There is not much in the US but if your thinking of looking elsewhere check out www.jobbersonline.com and send your CV to admin@jobbersonline.com
Every day, articles like these keep popping up on the internet. Last year was all about climate change, and this year it's all about gas prices. As designers, we have to ask ourselves why didn't we see this coming?
CALGARY - Gasoline prices are becoming so high that one of Canada's top banks is predicting a "mass exodus" of vehicles from U.S. highways within four years, with a slightly less dramatic drop expected in Canada.
CIBC World Markets said in a report Thursday that gas prices in the U.S. will hit US$7 a gallon - the equivalent of C$1.86 a litre - two summers from now. That marks a 70 per cent increase over today's record levels.
As a result, there will be about 10 million fewer vehicles on U.S. roads by 2012 and average kilometres driven will drop 15 per cent, the report said.
"Over the next four years we are likely to witness the greatest mass exodus of vehicles off America's highways in history," chief economist Jeff Rubin wrote.
The meteoric rise in crude oil prices, which hit a record US$140 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday, has been a major factor in soaring pump prices. CIBC predicts crude will hit $200 a barrel by 2010.
The average pump price in Canada Thursday was C$1.38 a litre, nearly 30 cents higher than what it was a year ago, according to the price-tracking website Gasbuddy.com. Americans were paying US$4.07 a gallon, the equivalent of C$1.08 a litre.
Canada will only experience about 70 per cent of the U.S. decrease in driving, CIBC senior economist Benjamin Tal said.
"Canada will feel the pain, but it's not going to be the same as in the U.S.," Tal said in an interview, noting that there will be about 700,000 fewer cars on Canadian roads by 2012 and a 10 per cent decrease in average kilometres driven.
In the U.S. case, low-income families will account for the biggest change, whereas in Canada the greatest shift will come from the middle-income bracket, Tal said.
"In Canada more low-income Canadians have access to public transportation, therefore the adjustment will not come from them. The adjustment will come from middle class families that will start giving up the second or third cars," he said, adding that much of the higher tax Canadians pay tends to be invested in urban transit systems.
Another report Thursday from Scotia Economics said record-high gas prices are leading to a big change in purchasing habits.
"With Americans abandoning their gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks for small, more fuel-efficient vehicles, we estimate that the average fuel-efficiency of this year's fleet has climbed by nearly 20 per cent from the previous model year," said auto industry specialist Carlos Gomes.
Small cars now account for one-quarter of overall U.S. sales, up from 16 per cent last year, the Scotia report said.
"In fact, small cars and fuel-efficient crossover utility vehicles now account for 42 per cent of the U.S. market, up from 30 per cent in 2006 and double their sheared as recently as 2001," Gomes said.
One the other hand, sales of pickups and SUVs are down to only 19 per cent of U.S. volumes, compared to 36 per cent in 2001.
The trend is less pronounced in Canada, where there has been traditionally been a greater appetite for fuel-efficient vehicles, Gomes said in an interview.
"The Canadian market has always been a bit different. We always tended to drive smaller vehicles than was the case in the United States," he said.
U.S. auto sales this year are expected dip to 14.7 million units from 16 million units last year, Gomes said.
But he said sales are expected to remain strong in Canada, where many automakers have been ratcheting down their prices. "
Let me clarify. I was trying to be positive when I said it's not the end of the world. For some people, obviously it will be and I do feel bad for them. Just because I (we) avoided the axe this time doesn't mean it won't hit us next time in October or next summer when they do this again. -You know we're not done with this- But let's also be serious. MANY of the contract workers are some of the harder working more knowledgable people at the company and not having them around could actually hurt things in the long run. We've all seen it for years, when contracts are pulled, things slow down. Furthermore, Boeing was/is a contract company, hire people for the project and send them off. I'm surprised Ford is actually starting with the contract workers on this one.
Now on matters of design, I thought we were told it was Alan who thought there was brand value in the Taurus name which is the reason they brought it back. I have to agree with you, I really think that was a mistake. I'm nearly 30 and I actually LIKE the styling of the refreshed Taurus, but I can't ever see myself going into a dealership and signing for one because, for god's sake, its a freakin TAURUS! I'd feel like I'm announcing that I've given up on life. The idea that cars need recognisable names or names that start with F to go with Ford and M to go with Mercury is rediculous. If the product is great then people probably don't care what its called. I think iPod is a pretty goofy name when I think about it, but I can't live without mine.
In my not so humble opinion, marketing is the biggest problem with the company. Period.
The company actually has more than a few good products, but the word just isn't getting out. The ads aren't exciting. And in my experience, the direction being given to the product planners and designers from so called marketing studies is very much suspect. Good engineers and designers will produce poor results if they're going on bad information.
Remember the original ads for the Edge? Two guys sitting in an alley talking about how quiet it is? What the hell was that? Is an Edge buyer really worried about quiet? No, he's thinking about how many kids and soccer balls he can stuff into one of the best looking designs Ford's come out with in a while. Why not advertise THAT?
Do we need to advertise quality? Absolutely not, its something that IS and SHOULD BE expected by customers. Saying "We're right up there with Honda" is like saying "Try a Ford - we're not as bad as we used to be."
Give me a break.
They should have been shouting from the rooftops about the SYNC system. They tried. They improved dealership traffic with it. Yet, many people I know even here in Detroit have no idea what it is or what it does. Is that not a failure to market a decent feature in a product?
Now to blame people for bringing over European designs, well you're nuts. Everyone I know would rather drive a Mondeo than a Fusion or a Euro Focus than the one we have here. Europe's got the hot hand in the design department right now and Detroit's got to put their finger on whatever it is and capture it in their own designs. Period. Crap, half the designers here at PDC are FROM Europe. How come they're not rocking it like their brothers across the pond?
As for not seeing it coming, well, designers have been putting together pie in the sky green concepts forever. The only way any progress will be made in this department is if a company, the WHOLE company - engineers designers and management - (and it's government) really takes a stand and help to set up the infastructure to make a new technology work. Hydrogen? Where will I fill it up on a trip? Electic plug in? Not if I spend the night at my brother in law's place 2 hours from here. Biofuel? What? Make my own gas, I'm a lazy American.
I'm not writing a Ford rant. Someone else can do that far better than me. To be honest, this is a company that I never really wanted to work for. (I came from a GM family.) But now that I'm here, I want to stay here. I feel like there's a lot of good things that could be done and a lot that I could contribute if I'm given the chance. Call me Crazy. I've still got a lot of fight left in me.
count yourself lucky you weren't axed. unfortunately it's only a matter of time. i agree the contractors usually are the best. they had a group of alias contractors training permies and guess who they canned this year? once they were trained they had no use for the alias gang. so many permies were just putting in time to get a big fat pension. i heard a rumour (so far they've all come true) that ford plans on eventually using mostly contractors that will be hired as need be.
i don't know who's idea it was to bring back the taurus name. i agree the name alone would make me not buy it. i meant the design was j mays doing. he told the designers to take the passat and make it bigger. yet the passat is a great looking car??
the biggest problem the big 3 have is public perception. i'm tired of the media bragging about fuel efficient asian cars. hello, toyota has a whole fleet of gas guzzling suv's and trucks yet all we hear about is the prius. we only hear about the big 3 suv's, but never the aveo, calliber or focus. i don't think the public even knows they make fuel efficient cars including hybrids.
i don't have problem with importing euro fords. they're great cars. heck, they should also import the territory and new falcon. i never understood having 2 different focus. and we got the crappy one too! at least the euro focus will be made in the usa.
ya, dearborn has great designers, including a handful of euro's, but for whatever reason they aren't cutting it like europe. it doesn't make sense. i think they're stuck on that "bold, american" dna which people aren't into. euro "kinetic" designs are what they want. but for mays to talk trash about pdc it lowers morale. instead he needs to fix the problem.
Your right guys are right, thanks Guitarslinger for your insight, and The Bear, of course you too, but it guys really heartbreak (almost) when young designers trying to enter a excellent field of work look at the industry and watch it turn to turmoil. The situation for the Big 3 is depressing. And what you say about the public perception of all three companies is completely true, and the way it is now it just looks like there is no hope. The real job here is to try and find the core of this media problem, where are the good advertisers (Is Honda, Toyota, or even Apple, willing to pay these guys far more money? Is that it?) With the skills of marketers these days you can make anything sell.
I mean maybe it's conspiracy, or maybe the CEOs just don't give a **** anymore and they are just trying to find to find there way out of the game by vanishing as slow as possible, so it doesn't seem like they turned their backs on all those workers and closed up shop overnight.
Rilwan, I don't think its anything sinister like that. It more a matter of 15 years of poor planning at the top and knowledgable leadership leaving or being fired.
The CEO's and managers that are left have a really difficult situation on their hands and they just don't know what to do about it. Things are moving so fast in the world right now that sticking a stake in the ground and saying "we need this product now so let's get going and in three years we'll have it on the market" just is NOT going to work.
It's sad to think that the big three didn't have a plan on the shelf for 4 dollar gas, but it appears that is the case. Now they're scambling to do something about it, but cars take years to bring to market. The only way the automakers are going to survive is if they "guess" at the right plan and have things fall in their favor.
The people in congress and the media who think that Detroit can just flip a switch and start kicking out cars that get 50 MPG overnight are killing us. Even at 2 dollars a gallon, if the automakers could have made 50 MPG a reality across the lineups, they would have.
All we can do as designers and engineers is show up to work and do the best job we can do. We have to have faith that other people in the company are just as good at their jobs as we are at ours.
