Ford to Sell Aston-Martin

As reported by the NY Times, Ford is selling Aston Martin. The sale of Aston Martin - a luxurious sports car brand with its roots in England - will raise an estimated $848 million.

To be honest, I'm a little surprised that Ford has elected to sell Aston Martin. Personal observations in Phoenix lead me to believe that the brand was quickly becoming popular and probably profitable - something that you'd expect Ford to cling to.

Aston Martin, which was profitable in 2006 as sales increased by 50 percent, to 6,500 vehicles, is the first nameplate sold by Ford since it announced a revamping plan last year that it calls the Way Forward.

Although I love Aston Martins and hope that the brand doesn't change too much, I think these kind of major changes are very important if Detroit is going to weather this storm. Obviously the status quo isn't working. If Detroit is ever going to be the leader again something needs to change.

It'll start with the sale of some major divisions, but eventually the engineering will have to change too. With the caveat that Detroit actually survives, I'm really looking forward to all these changes.

IKEA Charging for Plastic Bags

The Arizona Republic reports that IKEA is going to start charging for plastic bags at all of its American locations. The goal, of course, is to force people to internalize the cost of their garbage. It's awfully difficult to do with pollution - how can we measure the pollution an individual creates - but it's easy for garbage. Simply charge people when they buy what will, inevitably, make its way to the garbage pile. The result is, hopefully, more re-use by those that don't want to pay for more bags, and less trash for the city.

It seems to be working:

The program, originated in Ikea's British stores last year, reduced consumption of bags at those locations by 95 percent, Liss said. Ikea will donate the first year's proceeds from U.S. sales of the five-cent bags to American Forests, a Washington-based conservation nonprofit.

This article brings to mind an interesting book called "Cradle to Cradle." It describes the entire life-cycle of our disposable goods - from purchase to trash heap - and makes apparent that many of us don't think of what happens to the stuff we throw in the trashcan. It just "disappears."