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Ford 2019 Q1 & March Sales Numbers


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12 minutes ago, Gurgeh said:

I do think that at some point we'll see a true sedan or two back in Ford's North American line-up, but jeez, could the "we're getting out of the car business" reveal have been handled any worse?

At least since then they haven't jacked up anything I can recall...

 

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1 hour ago, Gurgeh said:

I get that some people prefer sedans to crossovers/SUVs. But take a hard look at the new Escape. It is a sedan with a tall trunk. It is styled like a sedan, rides low like a sedan, will drive like a sedan. It is in essence a sedan with a bit more utility, with the rear window a little further back. OTOH, no way will sedan people want the Maverick, which will be a more traditional off-road-capable rugged crossover. I think it is smart of Ford to produce them both, and I hope they both do very well.

I do think that at some point we'll see a true sedan or two back in Ford's North American line-up, but jeez, could the "we're getting out of the car business" reveal have been handled any worse?

They wanted to "wow" Wall Street to show they were making some drastic bold decision to turn things around.

In reality, they should've just kept quiet, and as it came to the end of each product's life, just said:

"we're phasing out [Fiesta, Focus, or Fusion] production in favor of [Puma, Maverick, Bronco, Mach E] (or a more generic "crossovers/SUVs tag).  We're constantly evaluating the market to bring the best/most relevant products to market.  We'll comment further on future products at an appropriate time." and left it at that.

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1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

They wanted to "wow" Wall Street to show they were making some drastic bold decision to turn things around.

In reality, they should've just kept quiet, and as it came to the end of each product's life, just said:

"we're phasing out [Fiesta, Focus, or Fusion] production in favor of [Puma, Maverick, Bronco, Mach E] (or a more generic "crossovers/SUVs tag).  We're constantly evaluating the market to bring the best/most relevant products to market.  We'll comment further on future products at an appropriate time." and left it at that.

Or they could have just said we're focusing on our new products in growth areas and prioritizing everything else and left it at that.  But I guess they wanted to prove to Wall Street they were going to be cutting costs somewhere.  Yes, it was stupid and poorly executed.

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8 hours ago, akirby said:

It's not like they're killing vehicles and pocketing the cash.  They're just shifting the investment to other things that they think will either be more important or have a much better ROI in the future.

Yes sir. Hackett's leadership has turned Ford around when it comes to deploying capital. Short term sacrifices to ensure long term survival. That mindset was missing at Ford after Mulally left and before Hackett became CEO.

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12 hours ago, akirby said:

Everyone agrees it's a mediocre product. 

Mediocre? I don’t know that you could call it mediocre compared to a 76 Pinto. Built on an outdated platform, way underpowered and overpriced. It’s at the bottom of the new car pecking order. 

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39 minutes ago, Trader 10 said:

Mediocre? I don’t know that you could call it mediocre compared to a 76 Pinto. Built on an outdated platform, way underpowered and overpriced. It’s at the bottom of the new car pecking order. 

But that doesn’t make it a BAD product, just not as good as the competition.

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45 minutes ago, Trader 10 said:

Mediocre? I don’t know that you could call it mediocre compared to a 76 Pinto. Built on an outdated platform, way underpowered and overpriced. It’s at the bottom of the new car pecking order. 

But people aren’t rushing out to buy ‘76 Pintos these days. It needs to be compared to products in it’s class that are on sale right now and compared to them it is a mediocre offering. Hopefully the next generation product is much better. The current one is a poor value compared to its competitors.

This humorous ad by Subaru back in 2011 is exactly how I see the current EcoSport. :) 

 

Edited by 2005Explorer
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14 hours ago, akirby said:

I think this is the biggest misconception that people have when criticizing marketing and product decisions.   In most any business you have a fixed amount of capital, time and resources and you can almost never do everything you want to do in a given year.  You prioritize the projects and draw a line when the resources run out.   I've either lost funding or never gotten funding for lots of good projects because the business needs to divert all available funding to more important things.  That's just how it works in the real world.

You always have to pick and choose your opportunities and in doing so sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions.

Someone higher up needs to divert 90% of your company's funding to customer service.  Oh my freaking gosh!  ?

Sorry, just had to deal with their screwups again for the 3rd or 4th time in the last 6 months. Ugh!

</rant>

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11 minutes ago, fordmantpw said:

Someone higher up needs to divert 90% of your company's funding to customer service.  Oh my freaking gosh!  ?

Sorry, just had to deal with their screwups again for the 3rd or 4th time in the last 6 months. Ugh!

</rant>

Of course you two work for companies that do a lot of business with each other :hysterical:

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23 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

Of course you two work for companies that do a lot of business with each other :hysterical:

No, actually we don't, but we do both work for companies whose customers don't have a lot of choice who they do business with.  Well, at least that's why I do business with his company...the other options are worse.  And my company's customers typically don't have ANY choice.

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2 hours ago, akirby said:

But that doesn’t make it a BAD product, just not as good as the competition.

Agree it's not BAD. But it's clear that current EcoSport is a product better suited to Mexico, South America, India, and China than the U.S.

Ford took the "hack job" approach with U.S. EcoSport so they could have something in the mini SUV segment without waiting until the next generation version is ready. Smart move, as Ford managed to sell over 54,000 of these econoboxes in the U.S last year.

Edited by rperez817
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42 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

Agree it's not BAD. But it's clear that current EcoSport is a product better suited to Mexico, South America, India, and China than the U.S.

Ford took the "hack job" approach with U.S. EcoSport so they could have something in the mini SUV segment without waiting until the next generation version is ready. Smart move, as Ford managed to sell over 54,000 of these econoboxes in the U.S last year.

I still question what the margin on those things is coming from India  instead of building them next to the Fiesta in Mexico. 

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2 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

I said it the moment I sat in one at NAIAS last year. It's painfully obvious that thing was never meant to be sold here and they didn't even try to attempt to hide it. 

Instead of trying to make Ecosport fit all markets, Ford would have been better off developing the  Euro Fusion into Ford's version of a CX-3.

 

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