Ford ad fails to persuade Mrs. Benzion
by David Benzion · 12/04/2008 6:30 amVerbatim quote, given immediately after seeing a Ford ad on TV last night that promoted “Employee Pricing!” for all customers.
Mrs. Benzion–
I’ll buy a Ford when they offer me employee pricing and employee health benefits and an employee pension plan.
She’s a little angry about all this bailout talk.
I suspect she’s not alone.
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I thought this was going to be about the Chron Booby Trap article.
Or is this just the final straw.
I’m thinking this is probably not a good time for Mrs. B to seek employment with Ford Motor Company.
This is sorta in the same line. We have a young engineer working here @ The Rocket Ranch and he and his Bride were laid off last year, He has a house in the Burbes’ that he can’t give away. But the real KICKER is that he drives a LEXUS!! Has been for years. He hates GM now, but he didn’t buy the product that fed him!?!?
I don’t understand?
#2 bob42
It’s an even worse time for Ford to seek a loan from the Mrs. Benzions of the nation.
Mrs. B is a one-woman focus group and the company Henry founded just got body-slammed.
How come nobody in Congress proposes any of the Big 3 file bankruptcy? The answer is because of the union vote. It’s a good thing the non-union people have a bigger block of votes otherwise we would be pouring money into the Big 3 to maintain the lifestyle they didn’t deserve. If we’re not careful we will kiss the “free market” system goodbye!!!!!
Ding, Ding, Ding!! We have a winner! Robert 1 is dead on right. Had this been ANY other large “EVIL” company they’d be talking different. The only way to save the BIG 3 is to file for bankruptcy and bust the AWU for good, any Bail-out will be akin to putting a band aid on a punctured femoral artery.
#5 Robert 1
Currently, GM has about 26,000 salaried workers and approximately 37,000 hourly employees. If you think this is only about unions, you are misguided. Those 26,000 office workers vote and contribute to campaigns too.
From what I’ve seen of the management in Detroit, you could throw the unions completely out of the industry and these guys would still have a tough time making a buck. The unions are not the biggest problem, guys.
#7 texpat
They’ve got lots more than that according to the Yahoo Finance profile. Also, remember the UAW (and other unions) is very active at all the companies that supply at least major parts and many that supply those companies.
#8 texpat
The unions are still a significant source of the problem. Management is right up in there as well. The legal environment they operate in gets its share too.
Reply to No. 7: I’m talking about an attack on ALL unions. It is a trickle down affect where if the auto industry files bankruptcy and busts the unions then any other industry with union workers can do the same. This could ultimately kill the union movement which in my opinion should have died a long time ago. The purpose of the union was originally to protect the workers but somehow evolved into a union using the threat of strike to gain wage concessions and other benefits for jobs that should have a peak earning power. Most people earn their salary increases by doing more or getting more responsiblity but not the union workers. They did the same assembly line job over and over and managed to get a raise.
#9 WB
The 252,000 figure covers worldwide employment for GM and all its subsidiaries. The figures I give are for North American operations only and those include Canadian operations also. Remember that GM had 44,000 salaried employees in 2000 and now they are working their way to half of that. Hourly union workers comprised well over 100,000 eight years ago.
Article on Drudge this morning that while the Big 3 is looking for a bailout they spent 50 million lobbying politicians in the first 9 months of this year. About 2.5 mill went to politicians from Michigan but with another 47.5 mil being slung around most of the 535 aren’t being too neglected. Dingell was the big recipient plus his wife has a pension plus stock options from a cushy job she had at GM.
Now 50 mil is not a lot in the overall skeem of the dollars being asked for but there is an underlying principle that really p*sses me off. It is a major conflict of interest for these politicians to take money from the industry and then use tax payer money to bail them out.
The industry already is getting 50 bil to tool up for green cars. With the government sticking their noses into the industry we know what will happen. The same thing that happens whenever government gets involved in business; things get all screwed up. Think YUGO. That is what the next generation of green cars will be like if the Big 3 gets a bailout.
In February GM employed 74,000 UAW workers making an average of $28.12 an hour. I don’t know if this includes the UAW workers shared with Toyota.
If GM drops the union they expect to save $3 to $12 /hr depending on seniority.
But they’ll still have the same product line, management and the economy will still be in the dump.
It seems to me that if 39% is enought of a “majority” to elect our governor, then 39% approval should be good enough to approve the UAW bailout. Right?
Congressional reasoning: If 50 is the new 40, then 39% should be the new 51%
I’d buy this Ford because of the commercial!
I hate cats!
>:)
Heh, faster, that was great. Good to have you back.
I’ve been busy. I start a new job next week. Can’t say where, but it beats selling cars. I’m no car salesman, I couldn’t sell my soul to the devil. The poor salesman at a auto dealership makes squat! I sold a $52,000 Yukon and made $100!! I then realized that that job was temporary!
Faster
Have you retired from the car biz yet ? It’s looking pretty bleak out there.
Yesterday, I was at a Ford dealership counter to buy a small part. The manager of the parts dept. was reaming out the 2 counter guys because they had sold parts on credit to 2 other local Ford dealers he had heard they were both filing chapter 11 by the end of the month.
#16
Perhaps you saw their previous bird commercial.
Yep, done with car biz… I lasted about three weeks and made $300 bucks! It sucked! I’m no salesman.
Me selling a car:
You like this one?
no
How about this one?
no
This one?
hell no!
What are you looking for?
I don’t know.
Do you have a price range?
Uh yeah… I have $2,000 cash and bad credit.
Wanna look at the used cars.
uh…no.
Thanks for coming by…… here’s my card.
#20 Yeah i like that one… but somehow, a cat being decapitated makes me smile!
(is that wrong?)
Fasternu 426, I always like the volvo (?) ads. “We won’t sell you a car, but we will make it easy for you to buy one.”
Sounds like you got into the car biz at the point that I went into real estate many moons ago. Right at the start of the crash. I didn’t last long either.
I figure a car should sell itself. The customer should know what they want (or have an idea and a price range) when they set foot on the dealership! If you’re spending twenty, thirty, forty or more thousand dollars, you ought to know what you want! The rest is financing and pricing BS that gets in the way! I still don’t know why car companies don’t have fixed pricing for a base model and then upcharge for the options. I’ve seen the same vehicle model sell for a dozen different prices. I’d hate to go to Burger King and have to negotiate the price of a Whopper. This would eliminate a lot of the BS associated with buying a car.
I hated it….. selling cars made me feel like a prostitute…. and not one of the high dollar ones.
to “Robert 1″ and “Texpat”, et al:
Regarding those non-union office workers, surely you know that their own retirement plans and health insurance (and other benefits) are driven in part by what the union obtained for the UAW members. I mean…..are they going to settle for less????
But there is a solution for the overall problem, even skipping past the concept of dispensing altogether with unions completely. Although I’m not a fan of looking to foreign countries for “wisdom and advice”, there are a few good ideas out there. My understanding that Japan has unions, but the difference (compared to here) is that the unions are organized by employer, not by industry. Think about it. That change would cause a major shift in motivation and perspective. (If “Alpha, Inc” wants to go on strike, they can. But “Bravo, Inc” and “Charlie, Inc” will chug along, making sales and gaining market share. In the end, the Alpha employees are better served by negotiating quickly, while their employer is still in business and thus, they still have jobs.
my 2¢,
– Ken
#26 Ken Kelley
Interesting Japanese concept on collective bargaining.
One of the historical problems in Detroit has been the custom of all manufacturers going along with a deal struck by the union and the company negotiating from the weakest position. The herd mentality writ extra large.
Faster, years ago I tried to sell vacuum cleaners. If I had stayed with it I would probably be up to at least $10.00 in commission by now.