Ford Motor Company March 2015 sales down 3%

[PREMiERdrum]

 

Was the "new" Silverado enough of a departure in terms of styling from the previous ones? I wasn't sure that it was.

 

Nope. It was designed to appeal to GM guys to keep buying their trucks. It brought nothing to the table that would entice somebody who already defected to Ford or Ram, let alone crack into those trucks' base.

[jpd80]

Not so much the truck's fault, just the screwed up way that GM used to market the new truck.

A much improved product was badly undersold because GM did not raise that perception.

[bdegrand]

I just noticed Fusion outsold the Accord in March.

[ironhorse]

We are basicly out of Escape,Explorer,and Fseries. Inventory is the culprit for March not being record breaking.

[banker55]

 

Just an observation... and some deductive reasoning.

 

Escape sales is off by 2,398 units from March 2014.

 

MKC sales is 2,070 units this month (vs. 0 last year).

 

Since Ford is basically production constrained at Louisville, this means Ford is happily trading some Escape sales for presumably higher margin MKC sales. Now I suppose this could open the door for another C-car assembly plant in North America... Ford is on track to sell more than 50,000 Transit Connect this year and it clearly could use 10~15% more volume on Escape/MKC so another 30~40,000 units. That's almost 100,000 unit right there and starting to approach a breakeven point for adding a new assembly line.

Running two 10 hour shifts at 71.1 units an hour with tag relief gets you more than 350000 units per year. Work Saturdays and you can get to 400000.

This is a fast plant for Ford, but it is only the second fastest Ford plant in Kentucky. The above figures include two 30 minute lunches. The beauty of two

tens is it give you 3 hours maintenance and shipping time at the end of each day. The majority of my Ford career was two tens.

[bzcat]

Running two 10 hour shifts at 71.1 units an hour with tag relief gets you more than 350000 units per year. Work Saturdays and you can get to 400000.

This is a fast plant for Ford, but it is only the second fastest Ford plant in Kentucky. The above figures include two 30 minute lunches. The beauty of two

tens is it give you 3 hours maintenance and shipping time at the end of each day. The majority of my Ford career was two tens.

 

Are you saying Ford can pump out 400,000 Escape/MKC in Louisville? There is usually a natural ceiling on production rates due to physical constrains so production rate is usually not linear with labor input. There must be some bottleneck somewhere (paint shop? final QC?) that will be overwhelmed if you add more labor.

[jpd80]

On the up side, F Series Average Transation Prices have increased $2,100 year on year

so over 67,000 sales, that's a ton more ($134M) without ever building all those extra units.

 

Similarly, I wonder if transaction prices on Escape are up year on year too thanks to tight supplies.

While it's never good to have insufficient stock, it far , far better than fields full of unsold cars.

 

And then there's Explorer, going like a train with over 23,000 including PI Ute, who care if

Taurus sales are down to a piddle when it's joined at the hip to such a successful product.

 

Something is definitely up with Fiesta, well over 22,000 in inventory and Ford struggling to

shift more than 4,500 a month. Is Fiesta missing its marks because it's not sporty enough?

Edited April 2, 2015 by jpd80

[hbalek]

On the up side, F Series Average Transation Prices have increased $2,100 year on year

so over 67,000 sales, that's a ton more ($134M) without ever building all those extra units.

 

Similarly, I wonder if transaction prices on Escape are up year on year too thanks to tight supplies.

While it's never good to have insufficient stock, it far , far better than fields full of unsold cars.

 

And then there's Explorer, going like a train with over 23,000 including PI Ute, who care if

Taurus sales are down to a piddle when it's joined at the hip to such a successful product.

 

Something is definitely up with Fiesta, well over 22,000 in inventory and Ford struggling to

shift more than 4,500 a month. Is Fiesta missing its marks because it's not sporty enough?

Fiesta may as well be considered a new model for Ford. It has been in U.S. market for only like 4 years or so? Also, Yaris, Fit and Versa are the more established players in this segment. Not to mention, how gas prices are still very low here in the U.S.

Edited April 2, 2015 by hbalek

[banker55]

 

Are you saying Ford can pump out 400,000 Escape/MKC in Louisville? There is usually a natural ceiling on production rates due to physical constrains so production rate is usually not linear with labor input. There must be some bottleneck somewhere (paint shop? final QC?) that will be overwhelmed if you add more labor.

The plant runs at over seventy an hour and that is off Final. Body probably can run 75 units per hour. Most plants run faster in body than paint and faster in paint than final assembly. With the two back to back ten hour shifts you create three hours repair/qc time between shifts for the pre-delivery area. Under the same conditions you can repair as required in body and paint for those same three hours as required. During the same 3 hours you tip dress

in body, chip excess welding material from robots and presses, clean and lubricate for early morning startup....also repair any equipment and conveyors

for starup. The paint shop has to clean grates and sludge under the grates, check sealer robots and power wash prime , main and clear coat booths. You have to continually burn chains, hooks and skids for excess paint buildup before they can be returned to body to repeat the cycle.You must change filters in the air system. At the end of the two back to back shifts, most zones in final( chassis and trim)will keep a repair person to certify their zone or a few repairmen will work back the system to ensure a good start-up. The 100 plus people that work in pre-delivery(high seniority) work the hours between

the shifts and are supplemented from the the system. Most of these people work every weekend fixing and shipping cars. Yes there are bottlenecks, like

certain vendors can't supply enough parts or a run of bad parts.You still must run the plant and fix later if you are in a sold out scenario. My last plant had a giant bottleneck which was the long wheelbase robot(the size of a small house). We ran it around the clock seven days a week at 2.5 per hour.

You need time , people and money and you don't run out in Kentucky until well past 400000 units. Either Kentucky plant could build all Focus and Fiesta

combined.......with room and manpower to spare. Thats how you set up and run an assembly plant.

[fuzzymoomoo]

Too bad neither plant in Kentucky is set up to build the Focus of Fiesta.

 

 

 

 

Part of the reason for the shortage on inventory too isn't just at the assembly plants, but with shipping. Most of the cars are shipped via rail and there is a nationwide shortage of auto haulers and motive power to pull said cars. The problem is exacerbated by Ford having to modify a bunch of railcars to fit the tall bodied Transit vans. Until either more autoracks are put into service or Locomotive orders begin to be filled for the major class I railroads in North America, the problem is going to continue.

[banker55]

Too bad neither plant in Kentucky is set up to build the Focus of Fiesta.

 

 

 

 

Part of the reason for the shortage on inventory too isn't just at the assembly plants, but with shipping. Most of the cars are shipped via rail and there is a nationwide shortage of auto haulers and motive power to pull said cars. The problem is exacerbated by Ford having to modify a bunch of railcars to fit the tall bodied Transit vans. Until either more autoracks are put into service or Locomotive orders begin to be filled for the major class I railroads in North America, the problem is going to continue.

The trains leave on schedule whether you can ship or not. It is not their problem. The rail cars are due somewhere else and they will be there.

Both Kentucky Plants are busy. Set Wayne up like the Kentucky plants and you can shut the Mexican plant.

[fuzzymoomoo]

You missed the point. There's not enough rail cars to handle the demand. It's also effecting GM and Chrysler too.

[rmc523]

You missed the point. There's not enough rail cars to handle the demand. It's also effecting GM and Chrysler too.

Demand of Focus and Fiesta??

[jpd80]

Simple, change Michigan C-Max production to Escape overflow and also build a few hybrids under Escape too.

[fuzzymoomoo]

Demand of Focus and Fiesta??

There isn't enough rail cars to handle the shipping demand of the auto industry as a whole.

[fuzzymoomoo]

Simple, change Michigan C-Max production to Escape overflow and also build a few hybrids under Escape too.

Hah, I wish. C-max is a sinking ship if I've ever seen one.

[jpd80]

Hah, I wish. C-max is a sinking ship if I've ever seen one.

the damage rally set in after Ford was forced to reduce it fuel economy figures, lower gas prices today don't help either.

I think Ford should have hung in one more time with Escape hybrid and cashed in on the high sales generated,

kind oif like what happened with Fusion and its hybrids..

 

Transit Connect is another one that could use Hybrid tech, the wagon could effectively replace C-Max.

Edited April 3, 2015 by jpd80

[OHV 16V]

...Something is definitely up with Fiesta, well over 22,000 in inventory and Ford struggling to

shift more than 4,500 a month. Is Fiesta missing its marks because it's not sporty enough?

Fiesta is a bit worrying. The perennial heavyweight in this class has always been the Nissan Versa, selling in absolute ridiculous numbers compared to anything else. The Fiesta, since its introduction, has always been solidly in second place. Since Honda revised the Fit though, it appears that customers seem to be picking the Fit, as its numbers have climbed while Fiesta's have fallen. This stinks because the Fiesta just received a makeover for last year.

 

Make no mistake, gas prices are playing a huge part as well.

[fuzzymoomoo]

because the IMO, the Fiesta makeover looks like ass. The Aston Grille looks awful on it

[OHV 16V]

because the IMO, the Fiesta makeover looks like ass. The Aston Grille looks awful on it

I'm actually that way with both it and the new Focus, preferring each of their previous versions. The grille is an absolute knockout on the Fusion, but I just don't care for how it translates onto the smaller cars.

[jpd80]

Fiesta is a bit worrying. The perennial heavyweight in this class has always been the Nissan Versa, selling in absolute ridiculous numbers compared to anything else. The Fiesta, since its introduction, has always been solidly in second place. Since Honda revised the Fit though, it appears that customers seem to be picking the Fit, as its numbers have climbed while Fiesta's have fallen. This stinks because the Fiesta just received a makeover for last year.

 

Make no mistake, gas prices are playing a huge part as well.

The Versa sedan has 6" more rear leg room than the Fiesta it's almost like a narrow gutted Focus

, about 2" less shoulder room than C170 and on top of that, the Versa starts about $2,000 less than Fiesta.

 

I'd call that the makings of a winning combination

 

Maybe next time around, Ford needs to look at wide and narrow versions of single basic design to cover two segments..

Edited April 3, 2015 by jpd80

[OHV 16V]

Worth mentioning too is how far forward Ford pushed the envelope with this entire class of vehicle when the Fiesta was introduced. These things used to be looked at as penalty boxes, but all of a sudden here was a Fiesta that could be had with Nav, leather, and other items normally reserved for bigger cars. I too hope they raise the bar yet again.

[fuzzymoomoo]

I'm actually that way with both it and the new Focus, preferring each of their previous versions. The grille is an absolute knockout on the Fusion, but I just don't care for how it translates onto the smaller cars.

I disagree with you on the Focus. They made the opening more porportionate to the size of the car. The Fiesta looks like a chick doing a duck lipped selfie.

[silvrsvt]

The Versa is a C class car being sold at a B class price point and is being dumped into fleets also.

[jpd80]

The Versa is a C class car being sold at a B class price point and is being dumped into fleets also.

Correct, even the sedan's combined volume is right on the upper limit of a Compact.

Versa is nowhere near a compact.... Nissan Micra did that job.

 

What is amazing is the prices being charged are way below Fiesta and Focus...

 

Ditto Honda Fit....

 

Both of those cars should be against Focus.

Edited April 3, 2015 by jpd80