Ford's Car Swap (Autosavant.net)

[Roadrunner]

No. Igor wants Ford to pay people some nominal amount (say $50) for taking a test drive.

 

I don't consider that, in this market, to be a smart idea.

 

Why?

 

Most people who find the Five Hundred are pleased and are likely to buy it. (I betcha Taurus can do it too -- the ads right now are forgettable). Edge gets positives - even the Escape probably can; I think Ford is starving the Escape to push people into the Edge and MKX.

 

Every person who I've loaned the Fusion out to has had a neutral or positive initial reaction. One girl would ask me specifically to let her drive - but then she had a '93 Accord, so...

 

The only people who won't like the test driving program probably will be dealerships who will have to deal with people taking the salesmen on hell rides.

 

Also - what happened to GM's 24 Hour Test Drive program from around 2004?

[Project-Fairmont]

Ford was very much in the same situation in the early 60’s in Europe. Ford were talking about the same things globalisation & falling sales, its entire range was as dull as ditchwater and unexciting to drive. Ford of Britain introduced the stunning new Cortina in 1962, which became an industry legend. Ford of Germany introduced new Taunus, both models very much turned Fords fortunes around within Europe at the time, this all lead to a very exciting & creative time for Ford in Europe. Ford of Europe was then established, and launched the awesome Escort in 1968 that did not need I-pods & huge cash discounts to shift them, they just sold because they were so bloody exciting, it was the car folk wanted, not the gismos, discounts, huge discounts, & $50 handouts to test drive. Ford then launched the Mustang inspired Capri in 1969 a sharply dressed mix of sports car and family saloon, one in every four Fords sold in Europe in 1970 was a Capri.

 

Ford used to produce some of the most stunning and evocative cars in Europe in this halcyon period of time, which killed off British Leyland who had a very boring bland range of dull cars. Ford need to start building exciting cars again if it wants to re-engage with buyers, and get them back into the showrooms again. Fords exciting new Fiesta concept will be launched at the Frankfurt motor show, so the seeds of recovery for Ford are just around the corner, and l don’t think Ford will need to hand $50 to test drive them, folk will naturally want to buy them if they are exciting.

 

Of course you are correct it is the product that can make a difference - however true product differential is blurred in this day and age. Ford needs a gimmick, Lee Iacocca was a sales and marketing wiz in his day by taking very average cars (Fords in the sixties and seventies) that created interest (The Granada - looks upmarket like the Cadillac Seville yet priced like the VW Rabbit) and became sales leaders.

 

It may sound corny but Iacocca's pledge in the eighties "If you can find a better car - buy it" in order to push Mediocre ChryCo product - worked. It bought the Pentestar group time and they caught up to Ford and GM. IMO Ford is not to disimilar to Chrysler in the eighties - with few exceptions they are behind GM and Chrysler (not to mention the imports) in so many areas. Why not put those so called "sales people" to work and offer $50 for a test drive? Yea, sure there will be abuse, but of the 10s of thousands of car buyers everyday - you have got to lure them into the showroom somehow if not with a blue chip reputation or aluring product line (of which Ford is lacking).

 

Really Fords have never been exceptional automobiles - and rarley ever better than its competitors. Ford had success by doing things more creativley than the competition such as expounding on the "superiority" of the twin I-beam suspension F-series, "World car" Escort, or the futuristic Tauraus, Ford sales and marketing made the most of what Ford offered with a co-herent message; "consider us because". Granted its not as simple as running a commercial during prime time Sunday evening anymore - I see GM has much greater visiblity within many methods of media.

 

Other than the Mustang's clear (if stale) message - what makes a Ford better? I know there are reasons, just as GM has reasons, but right now Chevrolet means something to more people than Ford - and after 15 or so years of "feeling" good about Ford and how Chevy struggled - its hard for me to take. GM has effectively created more awarness of why you should buy a Chevy...yes product is the standard, but Ford needs to figure out how to block and tackle again in the trenches and fight for each customer!

Edited September 6, 2007 by Project-Fairmont

[Ford Jellymoulds]

Of course you are correct it is the product that can make a difference - however true product differential is blurred in this day and age. Ford needs a gimmick, Lee Iacocca was a sales and marketing wiz in his day by taking very average cars (Fords in the sixties and seventies) by creating interest and became sales leaders.

 

It may sound corny but Iacocca's pledge in the eighties "If you can find a better car - buy it" in order to push Mediocre ChryCo product - worked. It bought the Pentestar group time and they caught up to Ford and GM. IMO Ford is not to disimilar to Chrysler in the eighties - with few exceptions they are behind GM and Chrysler (not to mention the imports) in so many areas. Why not put those so called "sales people" to work and offer $50 for a test drive? Yea, sure there will be abuse, but of the 10s of thousands of car buyers everyday - you have got to lure them into the showroom somehow if not with a blue chip reputation or aluring product line (of which Ford is lacking).

 

Really Fords have never been exceptional automobiles - and rarley ever better than its competitors. Ford had success by doing things more creativley than the competition such as expounding on the "superiority" of the twin I-beam suspension F-series, "World car" Escort, or the futuristic Tauraus, Ford sales and marketing made the most of what Ford offered with a co-herent message; "consider us because". Granted its not as simple as running a commercial during prime time Sunday evening anymore - I see GM has much greater visiblity within many methods of media.

 

Other than the Mustang's clear (if stale) message - what makes a Ford better? I know there are reasons, just as GM has reasons, but right now Chevrolet means something to more people than Ford - and after 15 or so years of "feeling" good about Ford and how Chevy struggled - its hard for me to take. GM has effectively created more awarness of why you should buy a Chevy...yes product is the standard, but Ford needs to figure out how to block and tackle again in the trenches and fight for each customer!

 

Fords new Mondeo is a classic example of where Ford are going wrong, it has got to be the most boring bland car in its class it has poor MPG, but handles well. It’s hailed as a massive success by Ford because it made it into Britains top ten best seller at No10 position last month, it never makes it into Europes top ten best sellers. Ford have been offering susidal discounts on what is a new model to the market. Most of its new sales went to fleets sales, a thing Ford said they were trying to get out of.

Its very much a sqaure peg in a round hole, BMW is the market leader which is priced just a tad above a Mondeo, so judging by sales folk are willing to pay just a bit more to get a prestigious BMW quality badge on the grill, and Skoda’s Octavia which can picked up for half the price is attacking Mondeo sales from below. Skoda’s Octavia all keeps coming in at No1 in customer satisfaction & reliability surveys.

 

Fords legendary classic the Cortina never had this problem; it did not handle all that well, it did not have very good MPG, but it never left the No1 best seller spot in the UK. It had more competition in its day as British Leyland used to rule the roost in the UK. So what has the piss poor handling classic Cortina got, that the superb handling Mondeo lacks when it comes to being a No1 sales king in the UK wish somebody would let me know?

 

Ford never needed to give away I-pods, $50 handouts to get folk into test drive, or offer huge discounts to get a Cortina driver into the showroom.

[RichardJensen]

Focus and a Dell was a HORRIBLE PROGRAM! That was during my time. Do you have any idea how many people did not get their computer?

Oh. Good idea poorly administered. That's never happened at Ford before, has it?

[Ford Jellymoulds]

What about making a car the customer might want to buy in the first place, now that would be a new concept.

[RichardJensen]

So what has the piss poor handling classic Cortina got, that the superb handling Mondeo lacks when it comes to being a No1 sales king in the UK wish somebody would let me know?

The past is -only- prologue.

 

It is no predictor of the future.

 

British Leyland, through misguided loyalty to (among other things) Lucas Electric (the only Lucas Electric product that didn't suck? Their vacuum cleaner), put some absolutely putrid cars on the road in the 60s and 70s.

 

During that period it was simply the right time and place for the Cortina (and the Taunus in Germany as there were no German midsize cars either).

 

There was no credible competition to either product and as a result of that (and the superb management of Walter Hayes), Ford was the GM of Europe. The overwhelmingly dominant player due to a series of product decisions that kept them ahead of the competition.

 

However, beginning in the 80s, with Ford hewing to the long product cycles that had worked in the past, and with Robert Lutz's frequent clashes with Donald Petersen, FoE gradually fell off the radar. Ford Europe was in many ways the pride of Hank the Deuce and Walter Hayes is undoubtedly one of the best executives Ford has ever had. After they left, FoE moved out to the periphery.

 

The result was the inexcusably long 12 year life of the Sierra, and the even worse 15 year life of the Escort.

 

It was during these periods that the protected Renault, PSA, and VW outfits (all receiving assistance from their respective governments) managed to close the competitive gap with Ford, to such an extent that VW is now firmly ensconced as the largest mfr. in Europe, with Ford perpetually fighting to remain in effectively a 3 way tie for 2rd place (Renault, Opel, Ford).

 

So that's what happened there.

 

Now that everyone's caught up to Ford, it becomes very very difficult for Ford to open up any kind of gap with any kind of product. Nobody's using glitchy electrics, or otherwise putting dramatically inferior products on the road.

 

In other words Ford squandered their volume and technology lead, and are in a situation where they can't get it back.

Edited September 6, 2007 by RichardJensen

[K0FEI]

Really Fords have never been exceptional automobiles - and rarley ever better than its competitors. Ford had success by doing things more creativley than the competition such as expounding on the "superiority" of the twin I-beam suspension F-series, "World car" Escort, or the futuristic Tauraus, Ford sales and marketing made the most of what Ford offered with a co-herent message; "consider us because". Granted its not as simple as running a commercial during prime time Sunday evening anymore - I see GM has much greater visiblity within many methods of media.

 

Other than the Mustang's clear (if stale) message - what makes a Ford better? I know there are reasons, just as GM has reasons, but right now Chevrolet means something to more people than Ford - and after 15 or so years of "feeling" good about Ford and how Chevy struggled - its hard for me to take. GM has effectively created more awarness of why you should buy a Chevy...yes product is the standard, but Ford needs to figure out how to block and tackle again in the trenches and fight for each customer!

 

Ford may want to look at where they are spending their advertising money. GM is loaning vehicles to nationwide talk show hosts and their staffs as well as buying some advertising. When Rush Limbaugh tells his 20 million listeners how much he likes the Escalade and how great it is and how his staff fights over it (and this from a man who drives a Bentley) it has an effect. It seems a lot of those 20 million have the money to buy new cars. They probably don't buy one because he likes it, but they may well add Cadillac to the list instead of just Lexus and Infinity.

 

GM has also turned up in the comments from Micheal Reagan, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity that I know of. I think GMC started the campaign by having Hannity run a multi-week promotion to give a GMC vehicle away each week. A different vehicle each week so a number of different vehicles got promoted.

[RichardJensen]

Yeah, but the Ford family are pretty much Democrats.

 

And while GM's extension of benefits to same-sex couples and their advertisements in GLBT magazines has gone unnoticed, somehow I don't think Ford's would.

 

Don't think involvement in conservative talk radio is a good idea.

[Roadrunner]

Why?

 

Most people who find the Five Hundred are pleased and are likely to buy it. (I betcha Taurus can do it too -- the ads right now are forgettable). Edge gets positives - even the Escape probably can; I think Ford is starving the Escape to push people into the Edge and MKX.

 

Every person who I've loaned the Fusion out to has had a neutral or positive initial reaction. One girl would ask me specifically to let her drive - but then she had a '93 Accord, so...

 

The only people who won't like the test driving program probably will be dealerships who will have to deal with people taking the salesmen on hell rides.

 

Also - what happened to GM's 24 Hour Test Drive program from around 2004?

 

RJ - any reasons why getting people into good cars with a test drive money incentive is a bad idea, if they are serious?

[RichardJensen]

RJ - any reasons why getting people into good cars with a test drive money incentive is a bad idea, if they are serious?

Too ripe for abuse if generally offered, too difficult to prequalify participants ahead of time if offered selectively by mail. It would be very hard to judge the seriousness of customers, and therefore, you'd have your sales people tied up trying to track down phony leads.

 

I mean you offer $50 bucks by mail, fifteen people respond with maybe only 3 or 4 in a position to buy a car. You get names, addresses, and phone numbers of all 15 people (it's a condition of getting the money).

 

Now you've got 11 or 12 crap leads you've got to follow up on...

 

And your sales reps annoy the snot out of these people, because they feel half guilty about obtaining the $50, and then when they get in the market for a new car (as they will eventually, since you've prescreened them by income and credit score), they won't want to deal with your dealership, much less buy a Ford.

 

There's just too much of an opportunity for abuse. This late in the game, if it worked it would be SOP; it has been tried before.

[inteller]

I'm not talking quality, I'm talking cars that were actually competitive. You can slap a 3,000,000,000,000,000 mi/Till Hell Freezes Over warranty on something that people don't want and they will STILL keep on walking.

 

Peace of mind only goes so far.

 

 

the 5/100 is what will be keeping me in my 2003 SVTF past 2008. It was a major consideration when I decided to reup. A gass grill or an iPod is just a gimmick and not something I base my car purchase on. If I were a ford dealer I would NOT want to appeal to those types of people. Those are the same ones who sign up for all the free offers at the state fair and then complain when they get junk mail. Ford needs to attrach SMART customers.

[TomServo92]

the 5/100 is what will be keeping me in my 2003 SVTF past 2008. It was a major consideration when I decided to reup. A gass grill or an iPod is just a gimmick and not something I base my car purchase on. If I were a ford dealer I would NOT want to appeal to those types of people. Those are the same ones who sign up for all the free offers at the state fair and then complain when they get junk mail. Ford needs to attrach SMART customers.

 

Do you mean like the ones that can spell?

[Roadrunner]

Too ripe for abuse if generally offered, too difficult to prequalify participants ahead of time if offered selectively by mail.

 

Fair points.

 

But if you get that one guy who is in the market and says "hey I never considered Ford, but I'll give it a go since they'll give me $50" -- well let me bounce that one off of you.

 

I might be thinking more in terms of what someone younger, like a 16-19 year old, might think.

[silvrsvt]

I might be thinking more in terms of what someone younger, like a 16-19 year old, might think.

 

how many kids (not parents) can afford a car payment and sky high insurance rates?

 

I was just looking at what I was making back then (via a social securty paper work I got in the mail) and I wasn't even clearing 15K a year...

[RichardJensen]

But if you get that one guy who is in the market and says "hey I never considered Ford, but I'll give it a go since they'll give me $50" -- well let me bounce that one off of you.

I dunno. It's still too much like seining fish. Sure you get that one good fish, but you get a lot of crap you have to sort through too.

 

I think there are better ways to grab the attention of that 'one guy'.

 

Frankly, I think the 'Swap Your Ride' spots are fantastic. Can't beat that guy saying 'Can I keep it?' at the end.