Ford in the Slow Lane

Meanwhile, sales of the company's iconic F-series pickups also have fallen off a cliff. So while the company has made some progress on its bottom line, there's no sign of a fix for its top-line woes.

"Both Ford and GM took severe financial hits as volume of their most profitable vehicles plummeted, but GM seems to have reacted somewhat more nimbly than Ford to the developing crisis," said Healy in a note to clients. "GM accelerated the redesign of it large SUV's, sharply improving their production, sales rates and pricing in the first half of last year."

He added, "To the casual observer, GM appears to be at least a year ahead of the apparently more leisurely pace of Ford's program."

While investors brace for more losses from Ford, they're looking ahead to the auto industry's upcoming negotiations with the United Auto Workers union, where a new labor contract will be hammered out that could make Detroit's automakers more profitable.

The industry's current master contract with the UAW expires on Sept. 14, so the negotiations are expected to begin in earnest a few weeks before then. Tynan, who holds a sell rating on Ford, has little hope that the automakers will get a fix for their damaged business models.

"The manufacturers aren't going to push hard enough against the union to get anything significant," says Tynan. "What the manufacturers really need to get is more than the union would be willing to give, so they run the risk of a labor disruption if they push too hard. Both sides will give a little and both sides will get a little, but not much will change."

Shares of Ford were recently up 4 cents, or 0.5%, to $7.86.