Edstock Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 None of which helps dealerships in a market hungry for products... You're right, but I wonder if it's still better than the acres of unsold Tempos or whatever orphans we used to see? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 Keep in mind that the sales numbers are for the nation and results will vary around the country based on differences in regional and local markets. Our May sales were VERY strong thanks to aggressive advertising that's been in place the past several months, including a new TV campaign, along with a very customer-friendly sales approach. We purchased a number of vehicles from other Ford stores instead of the usual "Dealer Swaps" in order to help maintain our inventory balance. Our Fiesta, Focus & Fusion inventory is lesws than half of what it was a month ago and we're now very concerned about our inventory for the summer months. Ford is consistently far too conservative in its production plans and its making it very difficult for Ford dealers to grow the business and gain market share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) You're right, but I wonder if it's still better than the acres of unsold Tempos or whatever orphans we used to see? Exactly, Ford is still making cash hand over fist, it's the dealers who are crying out for more stock..... GM is going great guns too, over 245,000 last month so Ford is still within 30,000 of the "rampaging giant"..... Edited June 1, 2012 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickF1011 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 You're right, but I wonder if it's still better than the acres of unsold Tempos or whatever orphans we used to see? I recall at one point when I worked at a dealer that we still had at least a dozen new '96 Tauruses on the lot when the '98's started coming in. I don't think anyone would want to return to that. Exactly, Ford is still making cash hand over fist, it's the dealers who are crying out for more stock..... I would guess that Ford may also quietly be hoping that more than a couple of these struggling dealers fold. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 I recall at one point when I worked at a dealer that we still had at least a dozen new '96 Tauruses on the lot when the '98's started coming in. I don't think anyone would want to return to that. I would guess that Ford may also quietly be hoping that more than a couple of these struggling dealers fold. The empathy for the small businessman on here is something to behold. He can't get enough product when times are good, and has to sit with a bunch of iron that won't move off his lot when times are bad. Can't win either way. And Lincoln dealers are told to invest millions and maybe they will give them some new product in a few years after taking Mercury away from them. The life of a new auto dealer. I hope they have nice, well stocked bars at home. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 And yet, try and buy a franchise from any of them. Parts, service, financing, warranties, used cars, insurance & misc. F&I. A LOT more to a new car dealer than new car sales. A LOT more. And in terms of empathy, it would be nice if empathy was a sound business strategy, but it's not. If you have too much empathy, you're out of business. That's just the cold hard brutal truth of it. Finally, I don't think Ford is sanguine about the near mid term (6-12 mos out), and if anything, the jobs report, the increasing instability of the Euro and the slowdown in China should all give pause to anyone who thinks that the end of this year is going to be as strong as the start. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aneekr Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) If you have too much empathy, you're out of business. That's just the cold hard brutal truth of it. ^^^^^ Post of the week candidate. And a lesson I learned thoroughly forty years ago when the new owners of the first business I founded kicked me out unceremoniously. :yup: Edited June 1, 2012 by aneekr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 And yet, try and buy a franchise from any of them. Parts, service, financing, warranties, used cars, insurance & misc. F&I. A LOT more to a new car dealer than new car sales. A LOT more. And in terms of empathy, it would be nice if empathy was a sound business strategy, but it's not. If you have too much empathy, you're out of business. That's just the cold hard brutal truth of it. Finally, I don't think Ford is sanguine about the near mid term (6-12 mos out), and if anything, the jobs report, the increasing instability of the Euro and the slowdown in China should all give pause to anyone who thinks that the end of this year is going to be as strong as the start. After today's market and oil crash, you are probably right. Ford is probably smart to stay cautious about production in case the auto market does run into very turbulent head winds. It also looks like auto sales tailed off quite a bit last week of month. Ford's sales rose to 216,267 vehicles from 192,102 in the same month last year as the No. 2 U.S. automaker boosted consumer incentives by more than 9 percent from the previous month according to Edmunds. Incentives in the overall industry rose almost 4 percent from April to May to $2,135 per vehicle. Ford also said it plans to build 690,000 vehicles in the third quarter in North America, up 5 percent from the same period last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blazerdude20 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 And yet, try and buy a franchise from any of them. Parts, service, financing, warranties, used cars, insurance & misc. F&I. A LOT more to a new car dealer than new car sales. A LOT more. Exactly! At the dealer i used to work for the GM once told me that parts and service pay all of the bills for the dealer and car sales is the profit. This might be the reason so many "struggling" sales dealers stayed open through the recession. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danglin Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 What's going on with the Flex -- sales up 40%? New front end make that big of a difference? I did see one in the flesh last weekend, and I must say, that the new front end makes a big difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 The empathy for the small businessman on here is something to behold. He can't get enough product when times are good, and has to sit with a bunch of iron that won't move off his lot when times are bad. Can't win either way. And Lincoln dealers are told to invest millions and maybe they will give them some new product in a few years after taking Mercury away from them. The life of a new auto dealer. I hope they have nice, well stocked bars at home. There are very few if any stand alone dealers, even before Mercury went away, a lot of dealerships had franchises either with Ford or other companies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 ^^^^^ Post of the week candidate. And a lesson I learned thoroughly forty years ago when the new owners of the first business I founded kicked me out unceremoniously. :yup: Well then, you and Henry Ford have something in common..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Exactly! At the dealer i used to work for the GM once told me that parts and service pay all of the bills for the dealer and car sales is the profit. This might be the reason so many "struggling" sales dealers stayed open through the recession. Well, and used cars are a profit center too. Especially when you have access to the manufacturers' off lease auctions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Well, and used cars are a profit center too. Especially when you have access to the manufacturers' off lease auctions. It's almost guaranteed they make more off used vehicles when you consider the low margins on new vehicles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
campbell53 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Off lease vehicles are non existant. The few that are out there Ford wants a fortune for. No help there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Hopefully, with Ford getting an investment grade rating back, the lease deals will get better. My thinking is that lease deals can't be securitized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 (edited) Off lease vehicles are non existant. The few that are out there Ford wants a fortune for. No help there. And it's not like I'm unsympathetic to new car dealer hassles. A good chunk of your business is more or less out of your hands, if Ford decides to do X, you've got exactly one choice: Deal with it. But when people act like new car sales are what keeps a franchise in business, it's like-----you'd need to clear what? $5k per to keep the lights on if that were the case? Edited June 2, 2012 by RichardJensen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blazerdude20 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Well, and used cars are a profit center too. Especially when you have access to the manufacturers' off lease auctions. I was including the used lot in the profit... actually used is more profitable than new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 My only real concern is with the loss of the CV, TC and Ranger, we are talking about upwards of 10-20K units a month that are being lost, what new products are they going to introduce to make up for those? I mean, they can't really depend on ALL their vehicles to "gain' from the loss of those vehicle sales. Those three combined made up 1,993 sales for May, not sure where the 10-20K units a month number comes from (I'm too lazy to look up previous months right now). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrewfanGRB Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Click here: Ford Motor Company Posts Gains Across Cars, Utilities, Trucks in May; Fusion Sets May and Retail Records - Yahoo! Focus, Mustang, Taurus, Fusion, F-Series, Flex, Edge, Explorer, and even MKT all up year over year. Impossible! They're losing market share! They're letting factories go to waste! Their stock is down! The Earth's polarity is reversing and we're all gonna die! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2b2 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 (edited) Those three combined made up 1,993 sales for May, not sure where the 10-20K units a month number comes from (I'm too lazy to look up previous months right now). I've got the previous 2 Mays handy May 2011 3,704 - CV 1.223 - TC 5,713 - Ranger --------------------- 10,640 - total May 2010 3,472 - CV 1,122 - TC 6,651 - Ranger --------------------- 11,245 - total & imho those years of 'leftovers' have to be way less than at their peak. Anyone have 5, 10 & 15 years ago? & edit guess I oughta add May 2010 2,335 - GM so 13,580 - total re-edit found I have the Panther numbers for May 2007 6,714 - CV 6,371 - GM 4,508 - TC --------------------- 17,593 - total Edited June 2, 2012 by 2b2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Even with the decline of those vehicles as they're being phased out, Ford's sales have increased, I don't see it being a big deal - the volume will be made up elsewhere. The Police Interceptor (and Utility) will replace CV sales, MKT Livery replaces TC sales, and F-series (or other vehicles, perhaps Transit Connect or something) for Ranger sales......now I'm not necessarily trying to say those "replacement" vehicles I listed will sell the same number as/outsell the CV, TC, and Ranger, but certainly some volume will be made up there and other models in the lineup will become more successful and make up for that 10-20K a month loss. That's my opinion anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Don't forget that along with the loss of the ranger and panthers came the shutdown of 2 plants and 2 platforms. The savings from that will offset any minor sales dip and if they keep sales up then they'll get that much more profit. This is the part the ranger and panther mafia don't want to admit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 (edited) Don't forget that along with the loss of the ranger and panthers came the shutdown of 2 plants and 2 platforms. The savings from that will offset any minor sales dip and if they keep sales up then they'll get that much more profit. This is the part the ranger and panther mafia don't want to admit. And on that note, a quick count up of all the D3 products produced last month comes close to 30,000.Bearing in mind that all of those products have sticker prices well over $25,000 with ATPs up around $35,000. Ford/Lincoln sold 216,000 products in May, around 30,000 units behind GM, that's mighty impressive in my books Edited June 2, 2012 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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