jpd80 Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehaase Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 Looking at those sales figures, I predict GM will discontinue several more car models within the next 18 months. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grbeck Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 So much for the "bump" in passenger car sales that other manufacturers were going to experience in the wake of Ford's announcement. Over at Honda, Civic sales are down for the month (by almost 30 percent!), and while the Accord was up for the month (by a whopping 1.6 percent), it is still down for the year. These are two class-leading products. The CR-V is by far the best-selling Honda. I wish there were some way for Ford to keep the Fusion and Focus, but I can understand the reasons behind its move. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 16 minutes ago, grbeck said: So much for the "bump" in passenger car sales that other manufacturers were going to experience in the wake of Ford's announcement. Over at Honda, Civic sales are down for the month (by almost 30 percent!), and while the Accord was up for the month (by a whopping 1.6 percent), it is still down for the year. These are two class-leading products. The CR-V is by far the best-selling Honda. I wish there were some way for Ford to keep the Fusion and Focus, but I can understand the reasons behind its move. Once they convert the existing plants to C2 it would be relatively easy to bring back some Focus or Fusion models to fill in production capacity. I think Focus active would be the first one. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 Thanks as always for posting these. As I suspected, it looks like XT4 is taking sales from XT5, rather than adding to it. XT5 benefited from being the only Cadillac crossover option, and now that it has a sibling, some of its sales will split off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 Yes and just like ATS/CTS, I think the XT4 has basically dragged sales away from the XT5, wonder if this will continue.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 2 hours ago, akirby said: Once they convert the existing plants to C2 it would be relatively easy to bring back some Focus or Fusion models to fill in production capacity. I think Focus active would be the first one. Interesting how Ford still has options to add back cars at a later date yet with GM, there's a certain finality with shutterng plants... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assimilator Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 (edited) What is happening with Chevy Sonic? Equinox sold 11,000 more than Escape. Definitely the biggest gap between these two, Escape has really fallen off the map in 2018. Ford recently announced they are cutting production for Escape/MKC. The Acadia/Traverse/Enclave total about 27,000, that's quite a bit more than Explorer. I know GM is facing tough times, but their SUV business really dwarfs Ford's at the moment so they do indeed look much better positioned. I'm not sure if Ford will ever be able to overtake GM or FCA utility sales, but they are working on it. Edited December 4, 2018 by Assimilator 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 (edited) GM couldn't care less about cars, it is seeing a big uptick with utilities and I suspect they now believe that eliminating cars will push more of those buyers into utilities. Kind of the Ford plan with a different spin - instead of switching car plants to utilities, they just switch them off and go harder with their Utility plants. Next year we could see GM replacing most if not all of its lost car production with even more Utilities. Edited December 4, 2018 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assimilator Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 (edited) There's no denying GM has just done a far better job capitalizing on utilities and trucks than Ford which has only been able to focus on F-Series. Ford is just too slow moving, that's how companies tend to die. But that's changing starting next year. Edited December 4, 2018 by Assimilator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 The reason Ford is slowing back on Escape production also has to do with it not wanting to push as hard with incentives, preferring to trade on higher ATPs which confounds us when we look at the raw sales data. I suspect that this is also occurring a bit with Explorer, so the next six months are gong to be a bit painful to watch, knowing that new products are now so near. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 23 minutes ago, Assimilator said: There's no denying GM has just done a far better job capitalizing on utilities and trucks than Ford which has only been able to focus on F-Series. Ford is just too slow moving, that's how companies tend to die. But that's changing starting next year. They were too cautious about the future of Expy/Navi and wanted to wait for the 2015 F150. Then you have the delays on Explorer/Aviator and Escape thanks to Fields. Edge/Nautilus seem to have been the only ones on a normal update/refresh cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonj80 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 (edited) 8 hours ago, jpd80 said: The reason Ford is slowing back on Escape production also has to do with it not wanting to push as hard with incentives, preferring to trade on higher ATPs which confounds us when we look at the raw sales data. I suspect that this is also occurring a bit with Explorer, so the next six months are gong to be a bit painful to watch, knowing that new products are now so near. Also the 2019 Escape just looks cheap, on top of questionable option packaging. The new tail lights, the side trim, the wheels, it looks more base Rogue Sport than a vehicle with a 30K+ sticker. With the Mazda CX-5 now offering the Turbo there is 0 reason to get an Escape in the class. October 2019 can't come soon enough for the Escape buyer. Edited December 5, 2018 by jasonj80 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvrsvt Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 On 12/4/2018 at 9:48 PM, jasonj80 said: Also the 2019 Escape just looks cheap, on top of questionable option packaging. The new tail lights, the side trim, the wheels, it looks more base Rogue Sport than a vehicle with a 30K+ sticker. With the Mazda CX-5 now offering the Turbo there is 0 reason to get an Escape in the class. October 2019 can't come soon enough for the Escape buyer. Whats the deal with the current Escape? I was slightly suprised that my wife's 2017 SE had some more options then my parents 2013 Ti model with almost as nice interior on it. Seems like the design of the current Escape is too expesive for some reason and Ford is trying to cheapen it up since 2017? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assimilator Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 (edited) Escape is another product suffering from Ford's inconsistency when under pressure. Unfortunately that's why Ford has a hard time hanging onto competitive segments and the Escape has been no exception. They haven't been able to...escape...that habit. When they do show up, it's usually pretty good...until it's not...and then it's not for a long time. Edited December 6, 2018 by Assimilator 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonj80 Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 3 hours ago, silvrsvt said: Whats the deal with the current Escape? I was slightly suprised that my wife's 2017 SE had some more options then my parents 2013 Ti model with almost as nice interior on it. Seems like the design of the current Escape is too expesive for some reason and Ford is trying to cheapen it up since 2017? For 2019 they deleted the LED tail lamps and clear sections so it it just this huge red chunk on the back of the car, the side trim is all black. It is ways to cut cost for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvrsvt Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 6 minutes ago, jasonj80 said: For 2019 they deleted the LED tail lamps and clear sections so it it just this huge red chunk on the back of the car, the side trim is all black. It is ways to cut cost for sure. What was driving it though? Was this current gen too expensive and the upper models weren't selling as well, prompting the cost cutting? How is this going to affect the next gen model? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 1 hour ago, silvrsvt said: What was driving it though? Was this current gen too expensive and the upper models weren't selling as well, prompting the cost cutting? How is this going to affect the next gen model? It's part of a larger overall goal to slash costs across the board, and it has been hinted that the next generation is going to be alarmingly cheap looking. It's the kind of stuff I've been terrified of ever since Hackett took over and launched his cost cutting crusade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 If you aren’t at least matching your competition you may as well not even play, so I hope you are wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonj80 Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 3 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said: It's part of a larger overall goal to slash costs across the board, and it has been hinted that the next generation is going to be alarmingly cheap looking. It's the kind of stuff I've been terrified of ever since Hackett took over and launched his cost cutting crusade. While Hackett has been bad there seems to be at least some listening from managers and consumers on cost cuts and maybe raising costs vs just cutting. Some 2019 models are still from the Fields days of cost cutting, where programs were required to cut a fixed % from the product over so many years, you hit that you get a bonus -- you don't and your perforce review would reflect it. He is why the Ranger is missing some of the Lux options, they were in the original program but needed to be cut to meet those numbers, some they were added back to the program and will be out for the 2020 MY. The Explorer program also got hit really hard as well during this time. The problem is that you can't keep cutting and cutting and not expect your product to suffer, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 9 minutes ago, jasonj80 said: The problem is that you can't keep cutting and cutting and not expect your product to suffer, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. That's a lesson Ford forgets every 10-15 years. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted December 7, 2018 Author Share Posted December 7, 2018 It's telling that in all of Hackett's discussions, I don't think he's ever mentioned quality or best n class. I think fit and fitness is Hackett's code for cheap and cheapness, so when he talks about making Ford fit.... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 18 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said: It's part of a larger overall goal to slash costs across the board, and it has been hinted that the next generation is going to be alarmingly cheap looking. It's the kind of stuff I've been terrified of ever since Hackett took over and launched his cost cutting crusade. Yeah, especially when the competition is going the other way - becoming much nicer and more upscale. I hope reports are wrong. 14 hours ago, jasonj80 said: While Hackett has been bad there seems to be at least some listening from managers and consumers on cost cuts and maybe raising costs vs just cutting. Some 2019 models are still from the Fields days of cost cutting, where programs were required to cut a fixed % from the product over so many years, you hit that you get a bonus -- you don't and your perforce review would reflect it. He is why the Ranger is missing some of the Lux options, they were in the original program but needed to be cut to meet those numbers, some they were added back to the program and will be out for the 2020 MY. The Explorer program also got hit really hard as well during this time. The problem is that you can't keep cutting and cutting and not expect your product to suffer, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Maybe that's why Explorer doesn't have full LED taillights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted December 8, 2018 Author Share Posted December 8, 2018 (edited) I wonder how long GM will persist with Camaro, it really hasn't sold like GM expected...well, none of the Alphas have. So i guess the only thing holding back oblivion is Alpha II commitment but I think we see the end in sight, even if Gm doesn't ..... Edited December 8, 2018 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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