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Ford up 6%, Industry reports September sales


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I don't either, though ATS is in a different product segment (compact sports sedan). The MKZ sales figure last month was exceeded by its most direct competitor, Lexus ES, by nearly 2,000 units.

 

Ya gotta believe what ya gotta believe. I believe the MKZ will be closing in on “its most direct competitor” as the months go by and Lincoln re-builds its product line and its dealerships, which, as you already know, are decades behind Lexus and the rest for the required ambience for inflated egos. However, it seems the market likes this inferior MKZ. Time will tell, won't it? :)

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You're only talking about a few thousand MKC's a month, or about 10-15% of Escape volume. If it comes down to Ford trading Escape volume for higher-margin MKC volume, the decision there is easy.

 

They are going to have to trade it, I don' t think there is another option. It makes sense in the business case for short term profits. The issue is when someone that was going to buy and Escape can't get what they want and goes and gets a CRV/Rav4, that customer could be gone for life and never into a Lincoln. I think 300K Escapes a year plus 30-40K MKC's is a real number for the US if sales keep increasing like is projected over the next few years. The MKC will be Lincoln's best selling vehicle.

Edited by jasonj80
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They are going to have to trade it, I don' t think there is another option. It makes sense in the business case for short term profits. The issue is when someone that was going to buy and Escape can't get what they want and goes and gets a CRV/Rav4, that customer could be gone for live and never into a Lincoln.

 

Well, you have the same issue when it comes to price. 'If you don't knock another $1,000 off the price of X, then Y will get the sale instead, and you may lose that customer for life.'

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Well, you have the same issue when it comes to price. 'If you don't knock another $1,000 off the price of X, then Y will get the sale instead, and you may lose that customer for life.'

 

Not really, from consumer studies standpoint. A person that is shopping on price isn't a customer for life, next time they will buy the cheapest thing they can find. It took Ford a while to realize that but Ford's Escape/Fusion/Focus ATP's are proving that people pay for better cars. Never compete on price alone, it is a race to the bottom.

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Not really, from consumer studies standpoint. A person that is shopping on price isn't a customer for life, next time they will buy the cheapest thing they can find. It took Ford a while to realize that but Ford's Escape/Fusion/Focus ATP's are proving that people pay for better cars. Never compete on price alone, it is a race to the bottom.

 

Fine.

 

But how is this 'short term' thinking? If Ford loses a small number of potential repeat Ford customers in order to gain the a roughly similar number of more profitable repeat Lincoln customers.................................

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They are going to have to trade it, I don' t think there is another option. It makes sense in the business case for short term profits. The issue is when someone that was going to buy and Escape can't get what they want and goes and gets a CRV/Rav4, that customer could be gone for life and never into a Lincoln. I think 300K Escapes a year plus 30-40K MKC's is a real number for the US if sales keep increasing like is projected over the next few years. The MKC will be Lincoln's best selling vehicle.

Provided that Ford continues to build Escape on three shifts through winter, the increased inventory is how Ford

will continue supplying Escape to dealers while having enough MKC per month to satisfy Lincoln.

 

It's pretty much how Ford has got through with Fusion and MKZ so far,

if combined sales of Escape/MKC are less than Fusion/MKZ,

I think that Louisville on three shifts will cope.

 

Even if supply tightens slightly, that is always good for drying up incentives,

something Ford has used to great effect in recent years, more than maximizing sales...

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FYI, from the Ford sales conference:

 

 

Erich Merkle

Thank you Jenny. And to take care of some housekeeping items, we'll take a look here in terms of our fleet as a percent of our

total sales. So if we take a look at the month of September, our fleet, total fleet as a percent of our total sales was 27%,

commercial, was 11% of our total sales, government was 5% and rental was 11%.

This compares to September of last year, when our fleet was 26% of total sales, commercial was 13% of total sales, government

was 5%, and the [indiscernible] was 8%. When we take a look at year-to-date, year-to-date, our fleet as a percentage of total sales

was 30%, commercial was 13% of total sales, 5% was for government and rental was 12%. When we look at -- compared at the

September year-to-date last year, 31% was the percent of our total sales for fleet, 14% was for commercial, 5% was for

government and 12% was for rental.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Some other news from the sales call:

 

 

 

 

With inventories improving, Fusion sales reported a 62% increase over September of last year with 19,972 sold. This represents Fusion's best ever September sales performance. Calendar year-to-date Fusion retail sales increased in San Francisco by 78% and a little further south, 83% in Los Angeles. Miami increased by 58% continuing our sweep in the coastal regions. The majority of our competitive conquest in these regions are coming directly from the Japanese competition. We will soon be shipping Fusion's from our flat rock assembly plant which will position us even better as we move into October and the traditionally strong end of year sales period.

F series trucks continue to roll with 60,456 sold in September, an increase of 10% versus year ago levels. We have now had five consecutive months of sales over the 60,000 F series vehicle mark. The last time we accomplished a sustained level above 60,000 for five consecutive months was made through September in 2006, seven years ago. The month also represented our 26th straight month of F series sales gains year over year.

Turning to Lincoln MKZ, our sales totaled 2,874 representing a 12% increase compared to last year. This represents our best ever September performance for MKZ even with the September Labor Day weekend counted in August.

We have been benchmarking MKZ sales performance since April of this year, the point of which MKZ had an appropriate supply on dealer lots. Since this time, MKZ sales have been up 22% over the same period a year ago. Sales of MKZ Hybrid, are also taking hold representing almost two thirds of all MKZs sold in California

 

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Edited by jpd80
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In the 12-month period beginning last September, Ford is likely to have sold about 85,000 hybrids and electric vehicles

compared to about 22,000 during the 12 months previous to that. (Although automakers reported September U.S. sales

Tuesday, Ford’s numbers on hybrid and electric vehicle sales aren’t released until Thursday.

 

“It’s like going from last in the league to the second-best selling hybrid brand in the country in one year,” said Erich Merkle,

Ford’s U.S. sales analyst, in a telephone interview.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131002/AUTO0102/310020032#ixzz2gYcIgTim

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Moosetang" data-cid="874065" data-time="1380677234"><p>

How much did CTS, the new CTS, and the ATS cost to develop and put into production? How much the MKZ? </p></blockquote>

 

Seeing the ATS/CTS is GMs rwd small/mid-size program it not going to be cheap especially if the cars have to be world class or get killed in reviews and sales. Since the MKZ is a Lacrosse competitor how much the CD4 cost vs Epll?.

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Seeing the ATS/CTS is GMs rwd small/mid-size program it not going to be cheap especially if the cars have to be world class or get killed in reviews and sales. Since the MKZ is a Lacrosse competitor how much the CD4 cost vs Epll?.

 

 

And thank you for pointing out the idiotic nature of GM...lets spread out our money on multiple overlapping programs that cut into our profit margins. It makes no sense to spend money on a boutique brand or sales numbers if you can't support them long term with updates. Then you have to figure that GM will start "diluting" the ATS/CTS platform by coming out with a Buick and Chevy based off it...with the same crappy sales numbers...

 

Spending money on Caddy wouldn't be so bad if they had their shit together with other products...but they don't. You bring up the EpII program, the Malibu even with an emergency refresh is still a turd, where as the Fusion is more or less setting the standard for styling and performance in the CD market now.

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jpd80 - thanks for sharing some of Mr. Merkle's discussion points during yesterday's U.S. sales conference call. I am delighted to hear about Ford's continued leadership in the fleet market with a balanced mix across all three segments (commercial, government, and rental).

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And thank you for pointing out the idiotic nature of GM...lets spread out our money on multiple overlapping programs that cut into our profit margins. It makes no sense to spend money on a boutique brand or sales numbers if you can't support them long term with updates. Then you have to figure that GM will start "diluting" the ATS/CTS platform by coming out with a Buick and Chevy based off it...with the same crappy sales numbers...

 

Spending money on Caddy wouldn't be so bad if they had their shit together with other products...but they don't. You bring up the EpII program, the Malibu even with an emergency refresh is still a turd, where as the Fusion is more or less setting the standard for styling and performance in the CD market now.

Give GM credit for making Cadillac as good as they can. Caddy has always been its leader in content that passed down to Chevy after a time. Ford is simply capatilizing on the incredible investment put in Jag, LR, AM and Volvo. One could argue that Lincoln should have been elevated at the time, however it is what it is. Question; where will Ford get its future innovation now that it no longer has those high-end Euro R&D labs?

Edited by Project-Fairmont
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Question; where will Ford get its future innovation now that it no longer has those high-end Euro R&D labs?

Don't overestimate those "high-end Euro R&D labs." Ford has very capable engineers in Dearborn, Europe, and Australia, and they no longer have the PAG brands sucking cash out of their coffers.

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Don't overestimate those "high-end Euro R&D labs." Ford has very capable engineers in Dearborn, Europe, and Australia, and they no longer have the PAG brands sucking cash out of their coffers.

 

Last time I checked Ford was supplying engines to those Euro makes with the high end R&D labs (Range Rover, Aston Martin). Other than aluminum construction, what did any of the PAG brands contribute?

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="silvrsvt" data-cid="874112" data-time="1380717061"><p>

<br />

<br />

And thank you for pointing out the idiotic nature of GM...lets spread out our money on multiple overlapping programs that cut into our profit margins. It makes no sense to spend money on a boutique brand or sales numbers if you can't support them long term with updates. Then you have to figure that GM will start "diluting" the ATS/CTS platform by coming out with a Buick and Chevy based off it...with the same crappy sales numbers...<br />

<br />

Spending money on Caddy wouldn't be so bad if they had their shit together with other products...but they don't. You bring up the EpII program, the Malibu even with an emergency refresh is still a turd, where as the Fusion is more or less setting the standard for styling and performance in the CD market now. </p></blockquote>

 

Why is it idiotic if several other rwd cars and a few CUVs will be on this platform?. Are they supposed to let the CTS and Camaro rot and not get replaced or replaced by a pos fwd version while the foreign competitors take more market from them?. The Epll platform moves as many cars as CD4 per month (the Malibu and Lacrosse moved 20,000 cars alone not to mention Impala XTS and Regal last month) I'm pretty sure a "one platform for all" solution is all that great ( see "W-body" for details).

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Why is it idiotic if several other rwd cars and a few CUVs will be on this platform?

 

 

Its not...is GM trying and trying and trying again to get the RWD platform sorted...how much $$$ did GM dump into Caddy and what was the real result (i.e. Profit) from it? It makes no sense to keep dumping money foolishly like GM has into products that keep under-performing.

 

At the rate GM is going..they'll run out of the Greek alphabet before they get their RWD platform sorted in a proper way.

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Last time I checked Ford was supplying engines to those Euro makes with the high end R&D labs (Range Rover, Aston Martin). Other than aluminum construction, what did any of the PAG brands contribute?

I'd think they may have learned something from their brief cooperation with Volvo about safety and awd, but I don't know how far in advance the Five Hundred was started. (it shared some components, iirc)

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