Ford Motor Co. posted record fourth-quarter profit on a one-time tax allowance, but economic troubles in Europe, growing pains in Asia and heightened competition at home signaled greater turbulence this year.

The heady profit gains of 2011 now are colliding with Europe’s debt crisis and heavy investments in Asia that generated losses in the two regions in the latest quarter. Ford’s home market again was lifted by strong sales gains even as tougher competition ate into per-vehicle profits, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The company forecast earnings this year would be flat compared to 2011′s strong profits, suggesting a period of stable profitability. It also said its share of rising U.S. sales this year would match, or rise only slightly, from the year-ago level.

In a sign of rising competition and cost pressures, Ford said its pre-tax per-vehicle profit in North America last quarter fell to $1,317, its lowest of the year and down from a peak of $2,806 in the first quarter last year.

“We met most of our objectives despite a number of challenges,” Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said of the quarter ended Dec. 31 during an interview on Friday. “We saw the external environment deteriorate. Europe is challenging and will remain challenging for some time.”

Its North American operations earned $889 million last quarter, compared with $670 million for the same period a year earlier. The company countered rising cost for steel and other materials by boosting vehicle prices. However, its loss in Europe widened to $190 million from $51 million while its Asia Pacific and Africa unit, which includes Thailand, swung to a loss of $83 million.

The company’s record quarterly profit stems from a $12.4 billion gain from an accounting change to reverse a valuation allowance it made against deferred tax assets in 2006. Ford reversed the allowance in light of recent profits.

Net income was $13.6 billion, or $3.40 a share, compared with $190 million, or five cents, a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter was $34.6 billion.

Excluding the one-time gain, profit was $1.1 billion, or 20 cents a share, below analysts’ reduced estimate of 25 cents a share that reflected the slowdown in Europe and flooding in Thailand that reduced production by 34,000 vehicles last quarter. The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker reported a 30 cent-a-share profit in last year’s fourth quarter.

Ford shares recovered somewhat from an early drop and were off 3.6 percent to $12.28 in afternoon trading on Friday.

“There’s no way of sugar coating the fact that the quarter was light,” said Jefferies & Co. auto analyst Peter Nesvold in a research note on Friday. “However, the details suggest automotive margins will be up year-over-year in 2012.”

Results show how the debt crisis in Europe is affecting profitability. Ratings firm Moody’s Investors Services said on Thursday it expects new-vehicle sales to fall 6.2 percent in the Western European countries this year compared with 2011, with the steepest decline in France.

“There is a lot of overcapacity in the industry, and that is causing an increase in the level of incentives,” Ford’s Mr. Booth said. It is too soon to say whether Ford’s European operations would be unprofitable again this year, he said.

The auto maker had warned earlier this month its Asia, Pacific and Africa business unit would report a loss on lost production caused by Thai flooding. Ford’s Thailand assembly plant wasn’t directly affected. Supplier plants were affected, which halted or slowed the flow of parts to the plant.

“We do see Asia-Pacific being modestly profitable this year,” Mr. Booth said.

Overall, Ford said its automotive pre-tax operating profit this year will improve from last year while earnings at Ford Motor Credit will be lower than in 2011. Total pre-tax operating profit is expected to be equal to 2011. Capital expenditures during the year will be between $5.5 billion and $6 billion as it continues adding plants, especially in Asia.

For the year, the company reported a net profit of $20.2 billion, or $4.94 a share, compared with $6.6 billion, or $1.66, a year earlier. The earnings represent the third straight annual profit for the auto maker, which sidestepped the need for a government bailout and avoided bankruptcy protection, unlike Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co.

The results also give Ford its most profitable year since 1998, when it reported income of $22.1 billion, bolstered by the sale of lending arm The Associates, which it had acquired 10 years earlier.

Separately, the auto maker said it will make profit-sharing payments to about 41,600 U.S. hourly employees based on its 2011 financial performance. Ford will pay each worker $6,200. Half of that amount was paid in December, and the remaining will be paid in March. The company said it also plans to make a $3.5 billion contribution to its global pension plans during the new fiscal year.

The company said it still plans to produce 675,000 cars and trucks in North America during the current quarter, an increase of 18,000 vehicles over last year’s quarter. It plans to cut first-quarter output throughout the rest of the world, and especially in Europe where production plans will be trimmed by 36,000 vehicles to 410,000 new cars and trucks during the quarter.

Ford Motor Co. reported $20.2 billion in net income for 2011 Friday — its best year since 1998 and second-best year ever – as its results were boosted by a one-time accounting gain.

This is Ford’s third consecutive annual profit, after losing more than $30 billion between 2005 and 2008.

But the company’s fourth quarter results didn’t meet expectations – with concerns raised about heding and commodity costs. Ford also sounded some caution about 2012 – especially in Europe and South America, reported The Detroit News.

Ford’s stock fell sharply on the results. In early results, Ford was down 4.6 percent to $12.16, or $0.59, in very heavy trading.

Ford reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.20 –excluding the accounting change — below the Wall Street consensus of $0.27 a share.

“If you get over the small disappointment over the fourth quarter, this has been a good year,” said Ford chief financial officer Lewis Booth in an interview, noting the economic uncertainty in Europe and Asian natural disasters.

Excluding the one-time tax gains, it was still Ford’s best annual operating profit since it earned $11.5 billion in 1999, the company said.

Under a formula agreed to by the United Auto Workers, Ford’s earnings generated about $6,200 in annual profit sharing for its 41,600 hourly employees. Those workers received payments for the first half of the year, approximately $3,750 per person, in December. For the second half of 2011, the formula generated approximately $2,450 per employee, which is to be distributed in March. Profit sharing payments for individual employee will depend on how many hours each worked.

The company’s 2011 results were boosted by a one-time, noncash gain of $12.4 billion in prior year tax losses that had been set aside starting in 2006.

Ford’s pre-tax operating profit was $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter. Excluding the special item, Ford earned $8.8 billion in operating income in 2011.

“We delivered strong results for the full year as we continued to serve our customers around the world with best-in-class vehicles and make progress toward our mid-decade goals,” Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said.

“Despite the continued uncertainty in the external environment, the strength of our North American and Ford Credit operations allows us to continue to invest for future growth.”

Ford has now reported 10 consecutive profitable quarters. For the year, Ford earned $6.2 billion in operating profits in North America, up from $5.4 billion in 2010.

But the company’s results for 2012 didn’t impress some analysts. JPMorgan analyst Himanshu Patel called the fourth quarter results “weak.”

Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas said in a note that Ford missed its forecasts for fourth quarter results. But he said Ford’s “2012 outlook for ‘about equal’ total company pretax profit with higher auto profit and auto margins is encouraging. 2012 may be shaping up to be a very good year for Ford.”

The automaker said it cut its debt from $19 billion to $13.1 billion by the end of 2011. Ford’s results were also boosted by $400 million by the sale of its Ford Russia operations to a joint venture.

Dearborn-based Ford said in 2012 it expects its market share to be “about equal” in the United States and Europe to 2011. Last year, it forecast market share gains in both the U.S. and Europe. Ford’s market share was up 0.1 percent to 16.5 percent in 2011 in the U.S. – but its retail share was flat at 14 percent.

Ford said it had a $190 million loss in Europe in the fourth quarter, up from a $51 million loss in same period a year ago. The company lost $27 million in Europe for all of 2011, compared with a $182 million profit in 2010.

The automaker said that it has challenges to address in Europe and South America. Uncertainties about the debts of major European countries have raised fears about a major economic slowdown in Europe.

The company’s pension plans, worldwide, are underfunded by $15.4 billion — up from $11.5 billion a year ago. In the U.S., its pension obligations are underfunded by $9.4 billion, up from $6.7 billion. Ford, which contributed $1.5 billion to its global pension plans in 2010, plans to make $3.5 billion in contributions to those plans this year, including $2 billion to its U.S. pension funds.

JPMorgan said Ford may be considering UAW pension buyouts — something that analysts have said General Motors Co. may announce later this year.

“Like GM, Ford is more actively discussing ‘de-risking’ steps for its pension, which include limiting liability growth, discretionary contributions … and ‘other actions under development,’ which may hint at UAW pension buyouts,” Patel said.

Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said the automaker is considering unspecified “strategic actions” to address its pension underfunding. He declined to answer whether Ford is considering pension buyouts.

GM chairman and CEO Dan Akerson also declined to say this week if the automaker is considering a UAW pension buyout.

Ford Motor Credit Co. earned $2.4 billion in profits in 2011, down from $3.1 billion in 2010, because fewer leases are being terminated.

Chrysler Group SpA is to report Feb. 1, followed by Detroit-based GM on Feb. 16. Chrysler is expected to report a full-year profit and GM has earned about $8 billion in the first nine months of the year.

Ford Motor Co. posted fourth-quarter profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates as overseas operations dragged down results while a one-time tax gain resulted in the company’s biggest annual profit since 1998.

Ford reported its 11th consecutive profitable quarter, with net income of $13.6 billion, or $3.40 a share, compared with $190 million, or 5 cents, a year earlier. Excluding one-time costs, the profit was 20 cents a share, trailing the 25-cent average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

It was the third straight annual profit for Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, 66, who has improved quality and expanded the lineup with fuel-efficient models like the Fiesta subcompact. Net income was boosted by a non-cash gain of $12.4 billion from eliminating a valuation allowance against deferred tax benefits, Ford said.

“It was another good solid year, but the gains weren’t quite as dramatic as in previous years,” said Efraim Levy, an analyst for S&P Capital IQ, who has a “buy” rating on Ford. “It will get tougher going forward.”

Ford slid 4.5 percent to $12.21 at the close in New York. The shares are up 13 percent this year after falling 36 percent in 2011.

Ford removed the valuation allowance, created in 2006 as it began reporting operating losses, because it expects to be profitable in the future and to use the tax benefits, according to a U.S. regulatory filing last year. Ford lost $30.1 billion from 2006 to 2008, as truck and sport-utility vehicle sales collapsed and the economy fell into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

“They’re telling the world that they’ve attained a level of confidence in their ability to generate substantial amounts of income for the foreseeable future,” said Robert Willens, a corporate tax specialist and president of Robert Willens LLC of New York. “It’s quite a positive, forceful statement on their ability to prosper going forward.”

Profit excluding some items for 2011 was $8.8 billion, or $1.51 a share, up $463 million from the previous year.

In the fourth quarter, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker was hamstrung by a weakening European market and flooding in Thailand that wiped out profits in its Asian operations, Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said today.

The fourth-quarter earnings miss was caused by “the external environment, the slightly greater impact than we anticipated of commodity costs, currency and the Thai floods,” Booth told reporters in Dearborn.

Ford spent $2.3 billion on commodities such as steel in 2011, more than the $2.2 billion it told analysts in October it would spend, Booth said.

The European market is deteriorating and Ford is not sure when it will turn around, Booth said. Ford declined to provide a forecast on whether it can make money in Europe this year.

“We think this has the potential to be another tough year economically in Europe,” Booth said on the “The Hays Advantage” on Bloomberg Radio. “We’re not making any predictions about Europe this year.”

There is too much automotive factory capacity in the region, which is causing automakers to boost incentives, Booth said. Ford increased incentives in the fourth quarter, while still improving net prices, he said.

Ford said its pretax operating loss in Europe widened to $190 million from a loss of $51 million a year earlier. In Asia- Pacific and Africa, Ford reported a pretax operating loss of $83 million, down from a $23 million profit last year. For the full year, Ford lost $92 million in Asia-Pacific and Africa and it lost $27 million in Europe.

“We’re obviously a little disappointed to be at just slightly worse than break-even for Europe,” Booth said in an interview. “We think of Europe as a solid business operating in a very difficult business environment. That business environment will turn at some stage.”

Ford’s outlook for Europe seems “a big optimistic,” said Matthew Stover, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities LLC in Boston. “We think that you’re going to have to see production reduced” and a loss for the year of $1.5 billion in Europe, he said.

Ford is on pace to meet its mid-decade goal of increasing global sales by 50 percent, Booth said. The automaker lost 34,000 vehicles of production to the Thai floods, which was more than it was expecting, he said.

“We expect overall to see Asia-Pacific to be steadily profitable, but we expect to see some spiking in the quarters because it is a volatile region,” the finance chief said. “We expect Asia-Pacific to be modestly profitable this year.”

Ford is building seven factories in the Asia-Pacific region and introducing new models in China and India, such as the EcoSport small SUV it introduced in New Delhi this month. This year in China, Ford will begin selling the Kuga SUV, which is based on the Escape SUV sold in the U.S.

“In the forward years, you can expect to see the pace in Asia-Pacific and Africa being relatively modest for the early part,” Booth said. “Then accelerating for the later part of the period as the plants come onstream and the new products come on stream.”

Ford said its fourth-quarter automotive operating margin fell to 2.2 percent from 3 percent a year earlier.

In North America, where Ford generates most of its sales and profits, the second-largest U.S. automaker reported pretax operating income of $889 million, up from $670 million last year. Ford’s U.S. sales rose 11 percent last year and it gained market share for the third consecutive year for the first time since 1970.

“Ford is still a North American company,” said Brian Johnson, an analyst with Barclays Capital. “In 2012, we’re looking for the U.S. sales rate to recover, their market share to remain solid and their pricing to remain solid with products like the Escape and the Fusion refreshed” with new styling.

Fourth-quarter sales rose 6.5 percent to $34.6 billion as Ford boosted North American production by 14 percent during the period to 674,000 cars and trucks. The average estimate for total fourth-quarter revenue was $33.5 billion, according to the average of four estimates.

Ford reiterated it will produce 675,000 cars and trucks in North America during the first quarter, up 18,000 vehicles from last year. Ford said today it will cut production in South America, Europe and Asia Pacific Africa this quarter.

Globally, Ford said it plans to produce 1.4 million cars and trucks in the first quarter, down 51,000 vehicles from last year.

For the year, Ford’s revenue rose 13 percent to $136.3 billion, compared with an average forecast of $134.7 billion from five analysts surveyed.

U.S. consumers paid an average of $32,028 for the company’s models last year, up 25 percent from 2002 and the highest price Ford vehicles have ever commanded, according to online auto researcher Edmunds.com.

Automotive debt, which excludes Ford Motor Credit, was $13.1 billion at year’s end, an increase from $12.7 billion on Sept. 30, the company said.

The debt rose in the quarter primarily because it tapped loans from the U.S. Department of Energy that boosted its obligations by $300 million, the automaker said. The federal loans are being used to produce fuel-efficient cars.

Ford has more debt than rivals because it borrowed $23 billion in late 2006, after Mulally arrived from Boeing Co. and before credit markets froze. That enabled the automaker to avoid the bailouts and bankruptcies that befell the predecessors of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC in 2009.

The company will contribute $3.5 billion this year to its global pension plans, including $2 billion to the U.S. plan.

Ford said it will pay $2,450 to each of its 41,600 U.S. hourly workers for second-half 2011 profits.

“Ford’s doing everything right except getting their stock price up,” said Gary Bradshaw, a fund manager at Dallas-based Hodges Capital Management, which owns about 250,000 Ford shares. “They’ve got their costs down, good products, good engineering and good leadership. Ford can do surprisingly well this year.”

Ford salaried workers will receive both merit raises and bonuses this spring for the first time since 2008, reflecting the automaker’s growing financial strength.

Letters went out last week to about 20,000 salaried workers around the world with the good news, spokeswoman Marcey Evans confirmed.

The 2.7 percent base salary increases will take effect April 1, according to the letter obtained by the Free Press. Ford declined to discuss the size of the white-collar bonuses. The amount is based on performance and financial metrics that are still being calculated.

Last year, the average Ford salaried worker received a bonus equal to 15.5 percent of his salary, according to Sean McAlinden, an economist with the Center for Automotive Research.

Senior executives, including President and CEO Alan Mulally, Executive Chairman Bill Ford and Mark Fields, president of the Americas, received bonuses greater than their salaries, according to Ford’s 2011 proxy statement. Mulally has said Ford’s pretax operating profit for 2011 will exceed 2010′s $8.3 billion.

Last year, Ford salaried workers received bonus checks, but no merit raises. In 2010, they received only merit pay raises. There were no raises in 2009.

Ford paid its UAW workers a profit-sharing check that averaged $5,000 in March 2011 for the company’s 2010 results. Then, as part of the new four-year agreement ratified last fall, Ford’s 40,600 UAW workers received in December profit sharing averaging $3,252, based on the company’s North American profits in the first half of 2011. That was in addition to a signing bonus, competitive bonus and inflation protection lump sum.

In March, the hourly workers likely will get a second profit-sharing check based on North American profits in the second half of 2011.

Last year, Ford withheld merit raises because management determined compensation for its white-collar workers was competitive with 23 other companies Ford had benchmarked, including General Motors.

The increased compensation is “in line with Ford’s commitment to provide competitive base salaries and profitable growth for all,” Fields said in the letter.

Salaried bonuses are tied to a complicated formula that factors in such metrics as profits, market share, cost and quality.

Ford is expected to release its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results later this month.

Salaried bonuses are paid under the company’s Annual Incentive Compensation plan. The global plan covers about 20,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada, as well as managers in other parts of the world.

Ford is also increasing the amount it matches in employees’ Savings and Stock Investment Plans, the letter says.

In 2010, Mulally received a $9.45 million cash bonus on top of his $1.4 million salary.

Bill Ford received a $2.7 million cash bonus to augment his $1.4 million salary, compensating in part for declining a salary from 2005-07.

Fields was paid about $1.34 million in salary and given a $3.6-million cash bonus in 2010.

Ford Motor Co. is recalling certain Escape compact sport-utility vehicles from the 2001 and 2002 model years to fix a brake-system flaw that could cause fire.

The problem is serious enough that Ford says owners should park their vehicles outside until they can be repaired, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The company said the vehicles have brake master-cylinder reservoir caps that could leak brake fluid. The fluid could leak onto a wiring harness connector for the vehicle’s antilock braking system. As a result the connector may corrode, melt or catch fire.

Ford said the defect affects 244,530 SUVs built from Oct. 22, 1999 through July 19, 2002. Under the recall Ford dealers will replace the brake master cylinder reservoir cap and modify the antilock brake system.

In a document filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ford said it expects to begin notifying Escape owners the week of Jan. 23. However, there may not be enough parts available by that date to repair all of the vehicles. If the parts are not available Ford will tell owners to keep their vehicles outside until they are fixed. Customers with questions can contact Ford at 866-436-7332.

The car maker is also recalling 205,896 Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey minivans because of a transmission part called the torque converter output, which could fail. If this happens, the vans could suddenly lose power, increasing the risk of a crash.

Under the recall dealers will replace the torque converter free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in the second quarter of this year.

The last Ford Ranger for the U.S. market is expected to roll off the line by Dec. 19, marking the end of an era, with more than 6.6 million sold over 29 years.

There are an estimated 800,000 Rangers still on the road. Drivers of the compact pickup acknowledge their solidarity by waving to one another.

With the end of production and closing of the 86-year-old Twin Cities Assembly Plant in Minnesota, Ford Motor Co. will be out of the compact pickup business in North America, reported The Detroit News.

Meanwhile, crosstown rival General Motors Co. prepares to launch the next generation of the compact Colorado in 2013. And Chrysler Group LLC is working on a compact unibody pickup to replace the discontinued Dodge Dakota.

At a time when automakers are introducing ever-smaller cars to meet fuel-efficiency regulations, Ford is killing its smallest truck and directing consumers to the full-size F-150 with a more efficient V-6 engine.

Ford will abandon a segment it led for 18 years until 2005, when it fell behind the Toyota Tacoma.

Ford’s rationale is that there is little price bump — less than $5,000 — to the larger F-150, and dwindling sales of the Ranger did not warrant making and selling the next-generation model in the U.S.

“We’ve got a tremendous heritage and history with Ranger,” said Doug Scott, Ford’s truck marketing manager.

“The product has been very good and was true to the Built Ford Tough brand,” Scott said.

“But the environment changed with full-size trucks becoming so much more fuel-efficient.”

The shift is evident in the plummeting sales figures.

Ranger sales peaked in 1999 at 348,358 and have declined since. They fell below 100,000 in 2006 and never recovered.

Part of the downfall is because the Ranger became dated; the truck received cosmetic upgrades but few substantive revisions since 1983.

“Time stood still,” said analyst Dave Sullivan of AutoPacific Inc. in Ann Arbor.

“It had become obsolete as Ford put money into the larger F-150.”

The Ranger did not follow the trend to crew cabs, more efficient engines, advanced technology and creature comforts. The big-brother F-Series got the attention and resources.

“When you look at how we have had to prioritize our resources, both human and financial over the last five-plus years, we definitely believe that F-150 and Super Duty were more important priorities, and that’s where we focused our resources,” Scott said.

“Compared to a V-6 Ranger, a number of our F-150 powertrains are more fuel-efficient, and we have a good value story to tell.”

But for those who want the machismo of a pickup to haul mulch but still fit in a one-car garage or small parking spot, Ford will have nothing in the showroom.

“A lot of our customers are not happy, obviously, that it is going away, and I imagine we will get more of that over the next month after Ranger goes out of production,” Scott said.

“Some owners don’t understand why we would move away from the segment,” Scott said. But he believes customers seeking an affordable and fuel-efficient vehicle have more small cars and utility vehicles from which to choose.

Sharon Hill of Windsor bought a dark red Ranger Splash with flare sides in the late 1990s and hung on to it until 2007.

“I loved my Ranger,” she said. She would have bought another Ranger — she loved sitting higher on the road than in a car — but she needed a real back seat for passengers.

“The F-150 is just too big,” Hills said. So she opted for a small car from a competitor instead.

“It’s sad,” Hill said of the Ranger’s demise in North America. “It was good looking, reliable, and I could get a truck in a car price range.”

The last Ranger off the line is earmarked for Orkin Pest Control, which has a fleet of about 5,000 Rangers. The company buys as many as 2,000 new trucks annually.

“When Ford officially told us they would not be producing the Ranger anymore in the U.S., we asked if we could have the last one,” said Paul Youngpeter, fleet director for Rollins Inc. of Atlanta, Orkin’s parent company.

The Ranger has been the mainstay of the Orkin fleet for more than 15 years because of its reliability, affordability and access to the bed, which Orkin outfits with a top or a toolbox. Some get pumps and spray rigs, as well.

Orkin has about 500 F-150s, but its size “presents a bit of a challenge,” Youngpeter said.

He has purchased enough stock to get through 2012 but is already shopping the competition, including the Colorado, Tacoma and Frontier, for the longer term.

The F-150 will be considered, but “it is not the best option. We prefer something smaller,” he said.

He must decide by mid-2012.

Orders like Youngpeter’s have contributed to the final sales rally for the Ranger.

More than 64,000 were sold through November, up 26 percent from a year ago. November sales were almost double October’s, and 2011 is on track to be the best sales year since 2007.

But the compact pickup segment is a shadow of its former self: Sales of about 260,000 through November represent about 4 percent of the total truck market.

“The segment has shrunk dramatically,” Scott said. “In 2000, the compact pickup segment was about 1 million units, and this year that segment will be lucky to be 250,000 or 300,000 units. When the segment was doing over 1 million units, we were doing over 300,000 Rangers. That gives you an idea of the volume changes.”

Ford sold almost 517,000 F-Series (about 70 percent of them F-150s) in the first 11 months. More than half the F-150s leaving the lot have a V-6 engine.

“The V-6 in the F-150 is so good, it makes a hard case for the Ranger,” Sullivan said.

But in other parts of the world, where the F-150 is simply too big, Ford has introduced the next-generation Ranger.

The new Ranger is built in Thailand and South Africa. A third plant in South America will start production in a few months.

Tariffs make it too expensive to import the foreign-made Rangers to the U.S.

“It leaves a sweet spot wide open for GM for buyers who want a domestic smaller pickup,” Sullivan said.

The AutoPacific 2011 Brand Study showed 19 percent of Ranger owners would buy another compact pickup, so they would have to defect to the competition.

GM has unveiled the next-generation global Chevrolet Colorado compact pickup, which will continue to be built and sold here.

The company is banking on gas prices making a small truck attractive.

“GM thinks there’s a market there and so do Toyota and Nissan, while Ford is putting all its eggs in the F-150,” Sullivan said.