Mark Fields Quotations

one of our most experienced, capable and proven leaders.

Idling plants and reducing staff are obviously very difficult decisions for all of us, but they also are necessary actions to help restore our North American business to profitability no later than 2008.

Maciel has made a significant contribution to the Ford Motor Company global business through innovations in product, business and marketing strategies. We wish Maciel well in his new role and thank him for his work at Ford Motor Company.

So far this year, our U.S. share decline has been half of what it was a year ago. That means we're making progress on slowing the rate of decline, which is the first step toward stabilizing it over time.

But clearly it is my intention to make Jaguar a profitable business.

With more focused brands, new product investment and innovation, Ford will slow the rate of loss and then stabilize our U.S. market share in the near term, even as competitors add new models. From there, we can set our sights on the future.

Joe not only stopped a continuing market share decline in one of our key North American markets, he reversed course and increased sales in the very competitive Canadian environment.

Our path is not going to be linear or smooth. It's still early days.

Our path is not going to linear and smooth.

I think to one degree or another we have been arrogant in the past.

It comes down to a lot of bad breaks,

We have to pick and choose where we want to compete. The idea you have to be in all the segments, that's an old way of thinking.

We were making significant progress to realize the goals set some 20 years ago for an arts center that promoted the region's cultural groups and served a diverse community.

We can't continue on the same path of incentives our competitors have introduced.

We're announcing the appropriate amount of detail we can share with you today.

We are not going to put a date on when Jaguar will return to profitability.

We are reducing the number of plants, not necessarily production capacity, thanks to our investment in flexible manufacturing.

Who's most likely to buy our products, who's least likely to buy them and who's up for grabs. This has given us a much deeper insight than we've ever had before using traditional demographic or vehicle segment-based models. One of the most important findings from this research is that there remains a huge market for American cars in this country. And the potential is significantly larger than the roughly 55 percent market share than GM, Ford and Chrysler together command today.

Whenever we play Dodgeville, it's a rivalry. Both teams will come out ready.

We have to get a stronger message behind that.

We remain very committed to the low-cost facility.

There is no question that crossovers are where we need to be, and that they have to be as hot and compelling as cars like our Mustang.

We started introducing clear pricing two years ago. The success of Mustang and Fusion proves that it works. We will bring sticker prices more in line with actual transaction prices and cap 'cash on the hood' rebates as we introduce new cars and trucks into the marketplace. It will protect our margins and consumers, too, through higher resale values.

We know how to play offense and play to win. Our plan will deliver more products - from small cars to our largest trucks - that are unmistakably Fords.

Edge underscores the bold, American design direction for all Ford vehicles going forward. Edge also is packed with Ford innovation from its panoramic glass roof and laptop-friendly center console to fuel-saving engine and advanced safety features. We expect Edge to make waves in the hot crossover market this year just like the Fusion did for midsize cars last year.

Things were starting to come together. We did it with both arms and a leg tied behind our backs.

is known for his marketing expertise, and his skills as a motivator, as he proved in leading the recovery of Mazda and as seen in the continuing progress in our Premier Automotive Group and Ford of Europe. His next challenge is to lead The Americas automotive operations back to a sustained level of profitability, while producing the best cars and trucks in the industry.

We will build on our strengths, including increasing our product investment to fortify our F-Series truck leadership.

Anne is an exceptionally focused and proven leader in this industry.

Anne is an exceptionally focused and proven leader in this industry, ... Her leadership of Vehicle Operations resulted in a significant quality improvement. She has also overseen profit resurgence in South America and Mexico and increased market share in Canada. We expect her to drive our operations toward greater coordination, efficiency, productivity and results.

The Way Forward is a long-term strategy and journey. But we are very satisfied with early progress and momentum, and we remain committed to all of the targets established in what remains a long-term strategy and journey.

We are still sticking to our objective of hitting the lower end of the milestone.

A small car is high on our agenda.

American car manufacturers are facing a third and ten situation.

Our approach is not thinking how much do we shave dealer margins. Our approach is that as we come up with our products going forward that they have a strong point of view in the marketplace, that they represent good value and good quality to customers so that dealers can earn a good (margin) on them.

There's no question that some of our new products reflect what was efficient for us to build rather than what the customer may want.

We believe our plan is comprehensive and we are starting to make progress. We know there's still a lot of work to do.

A diesel hybrid is, we think, one of the engines of the future.

A decision to end production at a plant is not an easy one, and I'm deeply mindful of the impact this decision has on Ford employees, families and communities. Unfortunately, these are necessary steps we must take to move the business forward.

I'm wary of answering questions about my new job. My approach is to listen, learn, come to conclusions and implement with my team.

If you look at the CUV right now, it's populated by a lot of vehicles, that, quite honest, are somewhat nondescript.

I'm not going to put a date on when Jaguar will return to profitability, ... But clearly, the plan is to make Jag a profitable business.

Achieving the goals detailed in the plan is absolutely critical to our future and will require tough decisions, including addressing the rising costs of health care, which we've heard so much about.

Dave has demonstrated very broad, capable leadership throughout his career, ... He is highly respected in the industry and in Ford. I expect him to continue driving our transformation in flexible manufacturing.

I just hope that rationality returns to the marketplace because employee pricing sucked the life out of the auto industry for basically the rest of the year.

How big the segment will be, that's going to depend on what happens with fuel prices and customer preferences.

Somewhat slower (economic) growth, higher interest rates and volatile gas prices all add up to auto sales that probably won't outshine last year's selling rate in this new year.

The hard but simple reality is that Ford has the costs, capacity and staffing of a company that is much larger than our sales and market share can support -- even under the best of conditions.

As we go forward, we will make intelligent decisions, looking at our dealer network, working with our dealer partners, to make sure that just as we are right-sizing our manufacturing footprint, we have the right size for our dealer footprint as well.

As we build the team, we need to help and support each other.

As we come closer to idling, we'll talk about future product plans for the Ranger. Clearly we're looking at our product plans.

It sets up everything in the business. If you don't understand who you are, you can't expect your customers to understand you.

To achieve the right capacity at this level, we are closing 14 facilities by 2012, including seven vehicle-assembly plants.

I am pleasantly surprised at the wealth of artistic talent that has had a connection to South Jersey, either historic or present day. But I am even more surprised that we continue to learn of more such artists and entertainers every year. Any region of any state would be proud to be associated with artists of such stature.

I asked Bill Ford and Jim Padilla for not only the best and the brightest leaders in our company, but for the kind of people who can work as one team on one agenda. That agenda is to turn around our North American operation with a team that knows how to win, an innovative product line-up that wins in the marketplace and a brand that has strong emotional appeal. We now have in place an outstanding group of leaders in The Americas, and they already have hit the ground running to turn the business around.