Ford (F) Bets Big On A Dinosaur

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 12, 8:08AM EST

Ford (F) is about to release the latest version of its F-150 pick-up. Based on some data, the light truck has been the No.1 selling vehicle in the US for three decades. As is truck with most full-sized pick-ups, the product is extremely profitable on a per unit bases for the No.2 US car company.

A new version of the F-150 is not likely to do Ford much good and its is tough news that the company needs the truck to be successful for the company’s turnaround to succeed. Reuters quoted one source as saying "It’s their most important product, the product they make their most money on," said Global Insights analyst Rebecca Lindland. "It’s a vehicle that is very vital to their financial health."

The new F-150 faces a two-front war. High fuel prices and a weak economy are making vehicles with low gas mileage unattractive. Many car buyers will put off buying new products while GDP growth is flat or down.

Also, Toyota (TM) has come into the market with a full-size pick-up. So has Honda (HMC). GM (GM) and Chrysler already have big footprints in the business.

None of that is good for Ford.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.