Ford Says It Will Review Dealer Network

DETROIT, Jan 16, 2008; Poornima Gupta writing for Reuters reported that Ford Motor Co. said on Wednesday that it is planning to review its vast dealer network in North America again and slash its spending on building vehicle prototypes in half over three years.

Ford, in materials for a presentation to analysts in Detroit, also said it plans to decentralize its North American marketing and sales spending.

Ford has already cut more than a 120 Ford, Lincoln-Mercury dealers in the past couple of years.

The U.S. automaker had 4,300 U.S. dealers when it announced plans in 2006 to shrink the network. It did not set a specific target at the time.

Ford has lost nearly 1 percentage point of U.S. market share every year since 2000, and is slashing production capacity by closing over a dozen plants.

Last year the automaker's sales fell 12 percent and ended 2007 with a U.S. market share of 16 percent.

Editing for Reuters by Dave Zimmerman