Ford begins 0-72 loans, includes subprime buyers

[vince337]

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...28&refsect=

 

 

 

Mark Rechtin | | Automotive News / August 23, 2006 - 12:06 pm / UPDATED: 8/23/06 4:45 P.M.

 

 

 

Ford Motor Co. will crack open the incentives vault for a month-end sales blitz that will offer 0 percent financing for as much as 72 months for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury buyers, including those with subprime credit ratings.

 

The program, called the Labor Day Sales Event, begins Thursday, Aug. 24, and runs through Sept. 5, the day after Labor Day. It will be available on purchases of nearly all 2006 model vehicles, even ones in tight supply. Zero percent financing will be available to customers with subprime credit ratings, not just customers in the top two tiers, as in past programs.

 

Dealers were notified of the program in a conference call Tuesday by Al Giombetti, president of Ford and Lincoln Mercury; and Cisco Codina, Ford's group vice president of North America marketing, sales and service.

 

"It's part of our aggressive 2006 selldown and we want to get our customers the best deal nationwide," spokeswoman Whitney Drake said today. "It will move our 2006 inventory."

 

Dealers said the program will benefit buyers who might have been turned down because of inability to make a monthly payment.

 

"I have a customer who was turned down, and he'll be approved," one dealer said. "In a matter of a few days, he'll be in a new car."

 

The Ford GT and some commercial trucks will be excluded from the offer.

[Guest Sixcav]

I contacted my local dealer about this and they say "sure enough". So I'll be dropping by there tonight to see if there's anything on the lot that appeals. lol

[goingincirclez]

Wow... this is almost tempting enough to make me jump the gun on the Edge and settle for a bloated 1992 Escort Wagon er oops I mean Freestyle.

 

I hope this drives traffic, because Ford could use some. And it's very good news that they're limiting this to a week or so and not having another FIRE SALE O' DA MONTH which means that they're at least really really trying to be smart about incentives and resale value and alla that good stuff...

 

But damn, haven't they learned ANYTHING? Giving cars away to subprimers almost bankrupted Mitsubishi for good...

 

And if I don;t jump the gun now, well maybe they'll have to do the same thing AFTER the Edge comes out. Sigh. It's the same old deal, consumers conditioned to wait for the better deal.

 

Funny thing is, it's the can't-kill-it-for-trying reliability of my '97 T-bird that's actually keeping me from buying a new car right now. I guess Ford "can't win for losing" sometimes...

[bystander]

Another seemingly desperate tactic to prop up faltering sales until the product pipeline gets sufficiently filled. The question is, will profitable sales catch fire before these risky, last ditch actions trip up the Blue Oval?

 

I passed a Ford dealership on Friday with a big sign in the front window that said, "2nd Chance Financing" and thought to myself: "Oh, shit".

Edited August 24, 2006 by bystander

[NLPRacing]

This 72 month deal makes want to get something, but what would I replace? All my vehicles are paid for (well almost, the Stang has a couple more interst free payments and I don't count the motorhome as a regular vehicle).

 

So, should I sell my wife's excellent condition, 100,000+ mile Eddie Bauer Expedition to replace it with a $450+ a month Freestyle to save $150 a month on gas? I would like to, but it just doesn't make financial sense. I would maybe go ahead if the Freestyle had the Duratec35 and wasn't so boring looking.

 

How a bout replace my full size, bad ass, 80,000 mile F150 4x4 with a Sport Trac that only gets a couple of miles per gallon better? Again, just doesn't make sense.

 

How about trade in the Stang for a new one? I would like to, but my 5 year old Stang only has 36,000 miles on it and looks brand new inside & out. Plus, I have a ton of money in it with upgrades. Now that

 

At this point, I would like to replace both my daily driver 40 mpg Festiva & F150 with some kind of crew cab pickup (maybe diesel) that could get an average 25 mpg. I would also like to get my wife something new. But between the great quality of my current Fords and the lack of desired product in the Ford, Lincoln or Mercury showroom, I just can't justify it. Maybe the 2008 or 2009 model years (maybe diesels in the F150 and/or Expedition, the "People Movers", HLA & HH in the SuperDuty's, Duratec35 in more vehicles, etc) will bring me the kind of products that I will just have to have. Until then I will just enjoy my current vehicles.

[Guest Sixcav]

Everyone has their reasons for buying or not buying. If you don't want to buy don't buy.

[goingincirclez]

NLP - That's EXACTLY the position I'm in! My wife and I each have our own '97 T-Bird Sport. Both have been paid off for a good while and have been rock-solid reliable (outside of the intake manifold defect which Ford made good on). Mine has got 160K miles, I beat the hell out of it driving it like it was meant to be driven, and while it's just now showing some wear it's never let me down.

 

(I evangelize my Ford T-Birds to coworkers and they still think I'm crazy, and throw the minor issues in my face, but I digress.)

 

We have a 20-month old toddler and both our families are a few hundred miles away, so we'd like something bigger. And something with better mileage then my BattleBird to make my 50+ commute. The Freestyle is appealing... but not enough to take on the payments. It's just so boring looking. I like everytihng about it, and lord knows that overwound 3.0L might be good for me (no more speeding tickets ), but still... I just can't bring myself to debt for something so uninspiring looking. I'm still young, after all. We test drove the Five Hundred as well and my wife loved it, and I certainly liked it... but when I found out that the retiree set is all over it? No thanks.

 

I mean, the Edge promises to have less interior space, wnd will probably cost more, but I actually WANT one of those.

 

What will probably happen is we get a used Freestyle eventually... which doesn't help Ford much. Or else we get a new Caliber or Vibe or something like that... too bad Ford doesn't offer something similar (I like the Focus well enough but the wife doesn't, go figure).

[Edgey]

These incentive plans are coming along at the right time for a reletive who will be buying her first new Ford tomorrow. (she always had used Fords)

[RichardJensen]

I passed a Ford dealership on Friday with a big sign in the front window that said, "2nd Chance Financing" and thought to myself: "Oh, shit".

Probably a contracted "we finance anyone" acceptance corporation, as the promo doesn't start until tomorrow.

 

There's a little cottage industry providing 'sales' to dealerships. They bring the tents, the high pressure sales reps, the financing, the whole nine yards. They take a chunk of the gross, and leave the dealer the rest.

[Bluecon]

I contacted my local dealer about this and they say "sure enough". So I'll be dropping by there tonight to see if there's anything on the lot that appeals. lol

So you have bad credit and you are going to buy a new car?

Unbelievable.

[goingincirclez]

So you have bad credit and you are going to buy a new car?

Unbelievable.

 

Well that's a stupid assumption. The promotion is good to ANYONE, good credit included.

 

So someone with excellent credit can take advantage of this plan just as easily, and why wouldn't they? Any other time I'd only get "the lowest rate", whihc is still interest. For now, there is none. Doesn't take a rocket scientist...

 

oh, wait.

[Guest Sixcav]

So you have bad credit and you are going to buy a new car?

Unbelievable.

 

What's unbelieveable as that you got as old as you are and you are still that stupid bluecon. Not that it's any of your fucking business but I have excellent credit. However if I can trade out of my current Mustang for a new Mustang and lower my monthly payment at the same time I see no reason not to. I'm in a position right now where it makes sense. If I go by there and they haven't got a Mustang that appeals to me I'll just keep mine. It's only go 12 thousand miles on it so no big deal. Anymore comments moron?

[MGallun]

AGH just bought my fusion last friday at 1.9... should i go bug them or be happy with the 1.9? lol

[MGallun]

LOL, they called me... when they turned in the paperwork last friday for my Fusion it was at 1.9per, on monday ford credit said write it back up because it should have been 3.9, i got a call yesterday from dealer telling me this, but he also said today that 0per was released, so they went ahead and rewrote it up for 0per, cool how a error like that works out lol. saves me around 20 bucks a month..

[Roadrunner]

Sounds good MGallun

 

 

So you have bad credit and you are going to buy a new car?

Unbelievable.

What's unbelieveable as that you got as old as you are and you are still that stupid bluecon. Not that it's any of your fucking business but I have excellent credit. However if I can trade out of my current Mustang for a new Mustang and lower my monthly payment at the same time I see no reason not to. I'm in a position right now where it makes sense. If I go by there and they haven't got a Mustang that appeals to me I'll just keep mine. It's only go 12 thousand miles on it so no big deal. Anymore comments moron?

 

To be honest, when I read that you'd be going to the dealer now that they are allowing subprime buyers to come in, I, like Bluecon, read it as, "Now that they are letting people with bad credit come in, I can see about buying."

 

The 0 percent on financing completely got forgotten in the message.

 

Wow... this is almost tempting enough to make me jump the gun on the Edge and settle for a bloated 1992 Escort Wagon er oops I mean Freestyle.

 

Never settle. Always buy what you want, or else you will be unsatisfied.

 

The way to live is to have lowered expectations so what is satisfying to you is also within your reach.

[jaydez]

I went down yesterday. I'm picking up my loaded Fusion SEL V6 tomorrow afternoon.... for less per month that the 06 Civic LX, Mazda3, or Scion TC I was considering.

 

I cant wait. Blue with black leather (white stitching of course)

[MGallun]

I went down yesterday. I'm picking up my loaded Fusion SEL V6 tomorrow afternoon.... for less per month that the 06 Civic LX, Mazda3, or Scion TC I was considering.

 

I cant wait. Blue with black leather (white stitching of course)

Congrats and welcome to the triplet family!

[Ralph Greene]

I realize I'm old fashioned and overly conservative for the times....but I just don't understand why anyone would consider purchasing a car they couldn't pay for in 3-4 years. If that means buying a plain Focus, then so be it.

 

If I had to make payments for up to six years just to be able to make the payments, then I would know I am buying too expensive of a car for my situation.

 

So pay me no attention....expect my weird notions did get me retired by the time I was in my mid 50's.

[goingincirclez]

...but I just don't understand why anyone would consider purchasing a car they couldn't pay for in 3-4 years. If that means buying a plain Focus, then so be it.

 

Sound advice to be sure. I don't like the idea of paying more than $300/mo for any car for any length of time. But, sometimes the waters of logic get muddied a bit.

 

Consider in my case: at one point my wife and I were paying a combined $450 a month for our two cars. "Unfortunately", once they were paid off, we had a baby, so it's not like we pocketed or saved that payment money... :rolleyes:

 

But one thing for sure is we keep our cars till they die or explode. I drove my old car for 5 years and still have it. She's had her car since '98 and I've had my new one for 5+, again. So 6 years of payments is completely reasonable to us, if it fits our budget and meets our needs. And we actually paid our old loans early by a few months and were never once upside down, so we manage where we can. But, as you suggested, those were only 5 and 4 year loans.

 

You are still right in that a Focus might make better financial sense in a lot of ways. But my wife won't have a 4-banger (and I hate the '05 refresh), and if we get something else we really would like more space. We certainly aren't foolish enough to go for the full SUV's in this day and age. A Freestyle or Edge is a good compromise, maybe... but while we're as blue-dyed as any Ford loyalists worth their salt, it's getting hard to stay patient... my car won't last forever (not that I don't blame it sometimes, heh heh)

[Ralph Greene]

Well....What I see as the main problem....is so many folks won't drive what they can afford.

 

Which is one way we differ. I will drive anything. And I'm not budget contrained.

 

Before I retired as a VP of Merrill Lynch, I noticed my very wealthy clints (folks with over 10 million) didn't place much emphasis on spending a lot on cars. And my more ordinary clints (folks with a million or so) also tended to be conservative in what they drove. But my poor clints, those with small accounts usually under $50,000 or so, tended to require expensive cars for their life style. Maybe there is a lesson here.

[96 Pony]

Just called my dealer. Going over this evening to test drive an Explorer Sport Trak. B) If I go for it will knock $200.00 per month off my car payments.

[RichardJensen]

Well....What I see as the main problem....is so many folks won't drive what they can afford.

 

Which is one way we differ. I will drive anything. And I'm not budget contrained.

 

Before I retired as a VP of Merrill Lynch, I noticed my very wealthy clints (folks with over 10 million) didn't place much emphasis on spending a lot on cars. And my more ordinary clints (folks with a million or so) also tended to be conservative in what they drove. But my poor clints, those with small accounts usually under $50,000 or so, tended to require expensive cars for their life style. Maybe there is a lesson here.

To be fair, though, percentage of income spent on cars tends to start trending downward once you reach a certain income level. If you make $800k a year, a Mercedes S-Class represents like 10% of your annual income. If you make $80k a year, 10% isn't even an Aveo. I'm sure this plays a factor in choice of car, as buying a car becomes--unless you're a collector--a rather small decision, since it requires a relatively small percentage of your gross income. Cars also are not as much status symbols the greater your net worth and/or annual income. If you're a collector, yeah, otherwise, well, geez, everybody already knows you're loaded.

[MGallun]

Just called my dealer. Going over this evening to test drive an Explorer Sport Trak. B) If I go for it will knock $200.00 per month off my car payments.

 

i love the new sport tracs.. but the new ones are 07s?, this 0per is for 06's

[Ralph Greene]

My wealthiest clients tended to buy somewhat luxury cars like Lincolns and Cadillacs and drive them until they died. They would never consider trading in a car that was 3-5 years old. They were well aware of the effect of depreciation on their net worth from constantly buying new cars, so once a car had depreciated down a bunch they just figured it didn't cost them much any more to drive. So as long as it was reliable, looked nice, and could be fixed, they tended to just drive them a long time. They understod the real cost of auto ownership is depreciation.

 

Unless you are a movie star, a sports celebraty, or a very wealthy head of company, for most people you can look like you have money with nice things and payments, or have money and possess more ordinary looking things with no payments. For most it's one or the other. Fancy cars and fancy houses are more a sign of debt than wealth. That's what I leanned in my work and patterned my spending accordingly.

 

If I were a US worker with house hold income less than $50,000-75,000, I would drive a Focus type vehicle....and if I needed something bigger or more rugged from time to time...I would just rent it for a few days. No way would I (with that income level) wish to own a big expensive to fuel, insure, repair, and pay for fancy car. Just doing that would probably give me an extra million or so over a life time...even if I were a career auto worker.

Edited August 25, 2006 by Ralph Greene

[goingincirclez]

...They would never consider trading in a car that was 3-5 years old. They were well aware of the effect of depreciation on their net worth from constantly buying new cars... ....So as long as it was reliable, looked nice, and could be fixed, they tended to just drive them a long time. They understod the real cost of auto ownership is depreciation.

 

That's pretty much what we've done. It's been real tempting, us being car enthusisats and all, but I will keep a vehicle until it dies. I've always had cars that were up to and past 10 years old or so, it's no biggie to me. I figure that if you can manage the payments and keep the car that long, it doesn't matter what it cost.

 

Key words being MANAGE THE PAYMENTS. Yes a Focus is cheap. So is a base Fusion, which isn't much bigger. My wife just doesn't feel safe in a small, 4-banger car. Myself, I don't care, I would love to zip around in one. But as a family unit, we need to compromise. And there aren't many options from Ford...

 

If Ford had a Fusion Wagon, we'd probably have one right now. The T-Bird was a nice, "big" car with good comfort and performance and a big trunk; where is that Ford today? So as it is, we either wait for a used Freestyle or see what our situation is when the Edge comes out. Hell, I'd buy another '97 T-Bird if one turned up.

 

But I would never get in the pattern of trading payments every few years. I know people who do and it's just stupid, and they are always having one issue or another. Hmm, think they'd learn...

 

(and BTW you want to see people living the Fancy Debt Lifestyle, spend some time in Lexington, KY ).

Edited August 25, 2006 by goingincirclez