Ford’s financial report card is out today and it’s not looking good for the blue oval. The company has announced a preliminary third-quarter net loss for 2006 of $5.8 billion, which is equivalent to a loss of $3.08 per share. Considering that the same result for last year was a loss of just $284 million, Ford must be having substantial problems within.

Newly appointed CEO Alan Mulally commented that the company was “committed to dealing decisively with the fundamental business reality that customer demand is shifting to smaller, more efficient vehicles,” we just hope that it’s not too late.

The biggest loser was Ford’s North American automotive operations, which resulted in a pre-tax loss of $2.0 billion. The company achieved its best results in Europe (not including the Premier Group which lost $593 million), where it managed to lose only $13 million in a climate of rising sales. This shows that Ford does have a decent range of small cars, which predominantly do better in Europe, and we hope they can bring that success stateside.