Forbes‘s Jerry Flint points out an important difference between Ford and the other two Detroit-based automakers: Ford doesn’t need a federal bailout:
Ford’s management will undoubtedly consider carefully how best to enhance the company’s financial outlook. It may be that taking a cheap federal loan makes great business sense, and that the company would suffer from running afoul of the federal car czar. That might lead the company to follow GM and Chrysler into the semi-nationalized car program. But Ford management might decide that the company can expand market share by pursuing its own business, unencumbered by ‘help’ from DC. As Forbes points out, trucks and SUVs remain the most profitable models. But as long as GM and Chrysler remain under the federal umbrella, they will be under pressure to reduce that business in favor of the green cars that Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and Barney Frank regard as the wave of the future. If Ford remains independent, it’s hard to imagine that it won’t do much better than the other two. That will make it harder to justify the federal support for GM and Chrysler, and will make it harder to make those companies viable in the long run (as Ford builds market share).
