A recovery in new car sales in Europe back to pre-crisis levels could take until the end of the decade, if it can be achieved at all, Fitch Ratings says. Our current base case assumes new vehicle sales to decline by approximately 3% in western Europe in 2013 following an 8.1% decrease to 11.8 million units in 2012. This would mean a 23% fall since 2007.

http://wardsauto.com/text-fitcheu-car-sales-may-not-fully-re...

Optimism can be a wonderful thing...... but it's more wonderful to be realistic.

It's good thing Ford didn't dilly dally around.... and cut capacity. Better to face reality and make cuts. If.. or when... sales come back, they can add capacity again.

Still, the anticipated slow market recovery is not good news. But, Ford will still be able to continue to develop more and better products.... because they're developing them for sale globally.

Rob