July fleet sales were up 25.7 percent based on order timing relative to July 2017 when fleet sales were down 24.6 percent
Ford’s overall average transaction pricing grew at a much faster rate than the industry last month, gaining $1,200 – this compares to an industry increase of $700
Ford pickups, vans and commercial vehicles all posted gains in July, with commercial vehicle sales up 25 percent
As America’s largest seller of trucks and SUVs combined, the Ford brand saw 153,402 total sales of trucks and SUVs in July, an increase of 4.8 percent. This surpasses the 1-million vehicle mark for the year, with 1,125,957 vehicles sold
Ford F-Series sales were up 2.1 percent last month, with 70,949 total pickups sold. This marks 15 straight months of year-over-year gains for F-Series
Ford Van sales totaled 16,921 vehicles last month, for the month – Ford van sales are up 60.8 percent
Ford Explorer sales increased 7.9 percent, with 20,243 SUVs sold
All-new Lincoln Navigator continued to hustle off dealer lots in July, with retail sales up 64.7 percent
Continental is approaching MKT level ugly. Navigator isn't holding it's early momentum either now that early adopters have theirs. I sure hope the Aviator has endurance that the rest of the line seems to lack.
I think Ford's new 'profit' approach is to gain as much margin off each model as possible, which means lower sales volumes. Escalade has been consistent with just over 3k sales monthly. But I think Lincoln's idea with the Navigator is more exclusivity. Higher trim levels, higher premium price per unit with less volume.
Although it wasn't a great month for anything but F-Series, much of the loss is due to one less selling day over last year. Ford would have been up about 1% and many of the single-digit drops would probably be flat or up modestly.
EcoSport is down quite a bit from last month so this is probably where they hope to keep it. Escape has really struggled this year in the face of stronger competition, but I'm also sure Ford wants to cut fleet and incentive spending to tighten the belt on a market that is starting to face increased price pressure from the abundant competition. Same goes with Fusion I'm sure. Focus inventory is obviously starting to deplete. What's interesting is that all of these products are down substantially which means they aren't retaining these customers unless they are buying F-Series.
Lincoln Continental is getting over pent-up demand for its traditional customers but it's not a product that was going to do a good job bringing in consistently new customers so I knew it would eventually fall to about 400-600 a month (probably 300-500 by years end) which is where MKS was. Continental was never going to change Lincolns fortunes or resurrect the sedan in the US.
Good point....all those Fiesta, Focus and Fusion customers that did not 'upgrade' to a ford suv/crossover had to have gone to the competition. Ford does talk about reducing fleet, but that's where F-150 lives. And for Continental, being FWD and having a 6-speed transmission may keep it off the list of performance luxury sedan buyers. I wonder if Ford went to AWD standard + 10-speed if that would help get on the shopping list of large luxury car buyers. Continental is still a very nice looking sedan. It just needs some performance cred so younger buyers will want to look at it.
Pretty ugly, but I still think a lot of the sales issues have to do with an aging lineup. I mean the Focus, Fusion, Taurus, Fiesta, Escape, Explorer, Flex, MKT, & MKZ are all at retirement age.
I completely agree - anything outside of F-series and Expy/Navi is old and needs to be replaced. Luckily by this time next year, we'll have Ranger, new Escape, new Focus Active, new Explorer, Corsair, Nautilus, and Aviator launching, so next year's numbers will look much better.
I wouldn't be surprised if Ford wants people to stop buying their cars, especially if they are losing money on everyone sold, so announcing the demise of the car is just part of their strategy to cut that business as quickly as possible, especially if they can replace those customers with profitable ones.
It's hard not to marvel at Ford's strategy, nothing is as reactionary as it seems, they are able to convert their volume to other customers despite the massive customer hemorrhaging in their core businesses. Ford North America always does a great job reflecting the market and plotting its direction, even if tends to stall here and there.
Ford does not lose money on "every car sold". Unless you are excluding $45K Mustang GT's, $35K Fusions, $45K SHO's, $30K Focii…….all of which are volume sellers, and then, why would you.
Surprise that the new Expedition is falling off from that of last year's Expedition model! Wonder why? Did they price it too much or did Chevy Tahoe have a big sales discount?
Correct. Fusion and Edge ride on the same 112.2 wheelbase, while the Fusion starts at $22k and the Edge starts at $29k. A nice $8k SUV premium which is why Ford is ditching their cheaper sedan option and just offering the more expensive midsize vehicle.
Same with Focus and Escape with the escape having a slightly stretched 105.9 wheelbase vs the 104.3 for the Focus...but same platform. With the Focus starting at $18k and the Escape starting at $24k. A $6k premium. So you see why Ford is wanting to drop the sedan option so consumers only have the more expensive SUV as an option if they want a Ford.
It's brand perception. Ford needs to improve its image drastically. Not cut its cars. They're taking the wrong approach. I wonder if all of this is a larger scale (I hope it is) iHob stunt. Where they shift peoples' focus away from passenger cars temporarily to show people something they're good at, and then reverse engineer their cars later?
I'm not saying the Bronco, Mini Bronco, and several other SUVs are fake, rather they want to strengthen something they're known for, and then apply everything good about that segment back into their cars.
It's possible...It's a fad. It can't last forever.
What's old can always be new again.
I have in front of me every single vehicle program code out to 2026. There is a ****e load coming. Regardless of what we define them as, Ford products will be almost entirely new in the next decade.
Some slides from the investors presentation today. Few big takeaways
1. Pushing platforms big time, just instead of the old style of a platform with a different "top hat" they will use various modules across models
2. Mini Bronco will use the C2 platform
3. Strong Lincoln lineup coming focusing on utility vehicles
4. Global cost allocation for 5yr plan is 60% SUV 29% Truck 11% Car
5. From sketch to production much faster
6. Customers want utilities, those in the sedan and car markets buy them because of rational needs such as cost and fuel savings, basically buy them because they cant afford a utility
Lincoln has 4 new utility nameplates arriving by 2022, they still haven't acknowledged new car development but without Lincoln talking about their future it's a little hard to say for certain what is happening.
Anyway, we know two of them (Nautilus is not one of them).
That's also a convergence of circumstances for FCA. They invested in that large RWD sedan platform a LONG time ago (2005) which was the product of an existing investment from Mercedes. Now they have an exotic niche on the market despite investing only in established V8 engines and infrequent restyling. Ford isn't in that position now, they'd have to spend a mint to make that product from scratch today when they have a ton of other more profitable products to fill their factories and keep their development teams busy.
As it stands right now, there is no path forward for those FCA products besides tweaking engines and fascias every few years. I doubt they have a business case for a big investment until they get a deep-pocketed new owner (Hyundai would certainly qualify).
When FCA brought out the RWD 300/Charger, Ford had the Australian RWD Falcon but Chose not to bring it to NA. Instead they brought the FWD/AWD Taurus, big mistake. Now for first six months 2018 300/Charger sales 66,113, Taurus 15,540, and yes that is with the old MB platform.
For no path forward, C&D Feb 2017 tested the Alfa Romeo Giulia against BMW, MB, Cadillac and the new FCA RWD platform appeared quite satisfactory.
Many factors play into the lack of outdated Taurus sales, but RWD platform is probably near the bottom. One factor near the top, is that FCA has literally nothing for a mid sized sedan, that would steal/share sales numbers from. Ford does.
"U.S. auto makers are blocked from the bonanza, however, with China adding a punitive 25% tariff on U.S.-built vehicles last month—for a total of 40%."
With all Lincoln vehicles being imported into China from the US, we should expect an even sharper decline for August. I know that Ford stated they would absorb the 40% tariff on Ford products, since the bulk of Ford sales are of China made models, but not sure if they mentioned Lincoln because that would be 40% on every model.
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