Southfield — Ford, the more than century-old company that was the first to make cars for the masses, is calling off its pursuit of everyman sedan buyers. The company responsible for putting the world on wheels with Henry Ford’s innovative assembly line will pivot away from being a full-line vehicle maker, shrinking its passenger-car line-up and shifting only to low-volume, high-margin models. The reason? Years of coming up short on a longheld profit-margin target. Earnings disappointments cost former CEO Mark Fields his job in May, and his replacement, Jim Hackett, has since laid out plans to reorient the company around lucrative sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-ups, plus play catch-up on trends that are sweeping the vehicle industry: the rise of electric, autonomous, connected and shared vehicles. "Let’s be clear: we are not satisfied with our performance," chief financial officer Bob Shanks said during an analyst conference Tuesday evening. "For the past seven months, we hav...
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