I can remember the first time I tried to drive into the garage of the world headquarters of Ford in a Camry. It was almost like they wouldn't let me in. They said, 'Why do you want to do that?' I said, 'Because we are going to make the best cars in the world, and we need to know everything about the competitor's car.'
In this industry, you have to have passion. It's tough; there's no mercy. But I just love cars - I love to bring a new car to market. And every time I do this, it gets a little easier.
I'm more convinced than when I accepted this job that we can create a viable Ford Motor Co. that makes cars and trucks that people really do prefer. And we can make them using minimum resources and minimum time and be competitive with our competition.
After World War II the federal government figured out that Detroit could make 6 million cars a year and there were not enough roads to put them on.
Explaining the origin of the Interstate Highway System:
The U.S. automotive industry has been selling cars the same way for over 100 years, and there are many laws in place to govern exactly how that is to be accomplished.
We can go into the Chinese market, develop the engine, new models of cars. Proton can compete. What is the point of giving the company to foreigners? It will revert to the same situation where foreigners just assemble their cars here. We learn nothing.
I drive Fords, and I've driven American cars all my life, and I want to have a strong American manufacturing sector, especially in automobiles.
One cannot compare Skoda with the Volkswagen brand. Volkswagen is the world's biggest brand selling over four million cars a year, so there is really nothing to compare.
Everyday has its challenges - keeping up with the business, and we are a real business, unlike a lot of the reality shows. We build all the cars. It has its challenges, but at the end of the day, it's not a bad way to make a living.
If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 MPG.
Rather than be less Car'd not to be at all.
First we build people, then we build cars.
And then the industry itself was so cocky about what they were doing that they weren't seeing what was coming on the horizon with Japan and Germany and other places that were building smaller cars.
Father made the most popular cars in the world; I want to make the best.
A car is thirty thousand parts you're putting together.
[Could] motor cars could be produced [in a country like Germany] and sold in competition in the American market . . . .In my opinion it is impossible to reach the conclusion that competition from without can ever be any factor whatsoever?
If you think about jeans or phones or television, we are used to new brands popping up right and left. But in the car industry, we grew up with Mercedes, BMW, General Motors, and Ford, and nobody can remember during his or her upbringing a new car brand coming to life.
I grew up in Michigan, in the Detroit area, so cars are sort of in my DNA.
Germans make nice cars.
I think there could be more experimentation if car companies didn't have to make such huge volumes. If you're making 300,000 vehicles, you have to play it safe. Ultimately, the companies want to make customized cars, and they are all working on ways to do that. Experiments with structural systems are usually about that.
I will build a car for the great multitude.
I know Fiat plans to start manufacturing cars in Iran. This is wrong.
When I was at BMW and Aston Martin, I realized how difficult and how many resources it takes to create a car - let alone a car company.
I'm not going to negotiate with Brazil for its pretty face. I'm going to negotiate with Brazil because they're going to open their car-manufacturing market.
I alienated the automotive industry by saying that cars should be lightweight and compact.