Ford Truck For Sale

Daniel Howes

With apologies to Captain Renault in "Casablanca," you should be shocked, shocked to read that Detroit auto executives talk smack and privately throw F-bombs at one another.

Next thing you know, they'll be lobbying reporters (off-the-record, natch) to file negative stories about the competition, their nonexistent strategies and the crappy cars and trucks they're trying to foist on an unsuspecting public.

Oh, wait, they do that, too.

In a new book on Detroit's implosion and the collapse of two automakers into bankruptcy, my former colleague Bill Vlasic — now Detroit bureau chief for the New York Times — gives voice to some of the industry's less circumspect personalities and shows just how titanic rivalries can produce such petty potshots.

Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.'s vice president of global marketing, sales and service, is quoted as saying in a preproduction version of Vlasic's book obtained by The Detroit News:

"F--- GM. I hate them and their company and what they stand for. And I hate the way they're succeeding. Ford is back because people trust us. And that is a powerful message. I'm going to beat Chevrolet on the head with bat. And I'm going to enjoy it."

Ooooo. If you've spent any time at all on the phone or over coffee with Ford execs, their PR staffers or just about anyone else associated with the only Detroit automaker free from the taint of an Obama Treasury department bailout, trash talking like that — and worse — is common because it's been happening, industrywide, forever.

Farley's sin, if he committed one at all, is one of candor — which he's committed often in equally barbed comments about his former employer, Toyota Motor Corp.

Welcome to the big leagues. In a fiercely competitive industry where the only things larger than executive comp packages are executive egos, the twin urges to always be right and to rhetorically destroy rivals are exceeded only by the hunger for ever larger executive comp packages and adoration in the media.

Vlasic also quotes Ford scion (and executive chairman) Bill Ford Jr. as saying "GM can be so arrogant. We were known as a culture of infighting. And they are a culture of arrogance."

Exactly which part of that indictment, leveled by someone who ought to know, isn't true? GM arrogant? Um, yeah, even now. Ford beset by infighting? When has Ford, whose internal politics he once described as more Byzantine than czarist Russia, not been riven by internal politicking, backstabbing and flattery of Ford family members?

Harley For Sale! - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

I am selling my 2007 Sportster XL1200 Custom. Bike is in great shape with 4900 miles. It has Vance and Hines Short Shot exhaust, HD Stage 1 air cleaner, chrome laydown license plate frame, Powercomander tuner, HD detachable back rest, drag style handle bars, black and chrome grips, aftermarket chrome mirrors. It has the fuel injected 1200cc engine. Runs and looks great and sounds awsome. Also have all the stock parts off the bike, cleaners, polishes, cover and motorcycle jack that will go with the bike. Here is a link to the pictures on photobucket: www.photobucket.com/2007HDXL1200C Looking for $7200 or best offer and I am flexible on the price. Thanks for looking.

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