Ford Motor Company March 2015 sales down 3%

[aneekr]

Is Fiesta missing its marks because it's not sporty enough?

 

That's not the reason. The regular Fiesta has been praised for its agility, and Fiesta ST is the sportiest car in its class. Where the North American Fiesta really misses the mark is reliability: it's been much worse than average every year since introduction in MY 2011 according to Consumer Reports' latest survey, making it the least reliable model in its segment by far. Fiesta owners reported twice as many problems as the second least reliable vehicle in this class, Fiat 500.

 

Add that to that poor interior packaging, and it comes as no surprise that Fiesta owners are among the least satisfied with their vehicles of any car or light truck model, with only Kia Rio, Nissan Sentra, Nissan Versa Sedan, and Jeep Compass ranking lower.

Edited April 3, 2015 by aneekr

[jpd80]

And we've just established that two supposed competitors are actually compacts being sold as subcompacts,...

 

I think the dry clutch transmission and My Ford touch issues played a big role in those lower ratings.

 

Spark and Sonic have fallen off a giant cliff too.

Edited April 3, 2015 by jpd80

[banker55]

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

I get your point and yes that would be a problem. We used some trucks but mostly rail.I came back off of retirement and ran pre-delivery in 2006-2007

and we never had a rail problem. Before the recession, 17 million units was not a problem in the industry and its taken a long time to get back close to those figures. The railroads sure had plenty of time to adjust to the gradual increase in demand. The logistics have changed as production has drifted

south with the foreign makers. Maybe they took a lot of cars out of service during the recession. They used to use some of the smaller carriers along with the extra large ones.Maybe the retired all the small ones.

[Anthony]

Honda Fit starts a grand over the Fiesta. The Fit has a 1 inch longer wheelbase, but it's overall length sits in the same footprint as the Fiesta Hatch (the sedan Fiesta is about a foot longer). The Fiesta is actually wider too. It is not anywhere bigger then the Fiesta other then height (a little over an inch), where it gains some of it's interior volume.

 

http://www.ford.com/cars/fiesta/specifications/exterior/

http://automobiles.honda.com/fit/specifications.aspx

[jpd80]

Honda Fit starts a grand over the Fiesta. The Fit has a 1 inch longer wheelbase, but it's overall length sits in the same footprint as the Fiesta Hatch (the sedan Fiesta is about a foot longer). The Fiesta is actually wider too. It is not anywhere bigger then the Fiesta other then height (a little over an inch), where it gains some of it's interior volume.

 

http://www.ford.com/cars/fiesta/specifications/exterior/

http://automobiles.honda.com/fit/specifications.aspx

The interior passenger volume of Fit and versa is around 94 cu ft plus luggage space make them both compacts

almost to the point of being classed small mid sized cars. Fiesta has much less internal volume.85 cu ft plus the

luggage volume and is thus a true but large subcompact.

Edited April 3, 2015 by jpd80

[fuzzymoomoo]

I get your point and yes that would be a problem. We used some trucks but mostly rail.I came back off of retirement and ran pre-delivery in 2006-2007

and we never had a rail problem. Before the recession, 17 million units was not a problem in the industry and its taken a long time to get back close to those figures. The railroads sure had plenty of time to adjust to the gradual increase in demand. The logistics have changed as production has drifted

south with the foreign makers. Maybe they took a lot of cars out of service during the recession. They used to use some of the smaller carriers along with the extra large ones.Maybe the retired all the small ones.

It's a combination of ageing cars that need service or are retired, combined with several hundred that were modified for and being used only for the medium/tall roof Transits. On top of it, there's a nationwide shortage of locomotives as well, which is why down south along the border, a few of the railroads are using power leased from Mexican railroads (NAFTA at its finest). Railroads are having to prioritize even more now, especially with the boom of oil trains coming out of the plains states and central Canada. It's a perfect storm, and it's actually hurting the growth of the economy as a whole.

[tzach]

I think the new focus looks more upscale with the new grill. Don't mind the Fiesta either.

[630land]

Versa sedan is hideous, looks like a kid's drawing. And ever sit in a new one? Smells like airplane glue, gross.

 

Fiesta is getting 'old', since spring 2010 intro [2011 MY] was 5 years ago. Sonic is a compact with B level price, too, and Spark gets the 'cheap rental' fleet buys.

Best to bring new version sooner than later, and add room to match competition. But no need to go after Spark's cheap-o, fleet dumping, low credit score sales.

 

With Honda pulling forward the Gen 10 Civic this fall, Ford should also bring the Mk 4 Focus sooner, but not with quality bugs.

Edited April 3, 2015 by 630land

[630land]

If Escape, Explorer and F series in short supply, then Ford should phase out the Edge and Flexx [why bother with these?] for the more popular Utilites. Toyota is dropping the Venza, and Honda's Crosstour is 'dead man walking'. Cut the excess fat and sell more winners.

 

And I agree that the C-Max is a flop and should get cut, what a waste. Bring back Escape hybrid.

Edited April 3, 2015 by 630land

[akirby]

If Escape, Explorer and F series in short supply, then Ford should phase out the Edge and Flexx [why bother with these?] for the more popular Utilites. Toyota is dropping the Venza, and Honda's Crosstour is 'dead man walking'. Cut the excess fat and sell more winners.

 

Edge? Edge is among the market leaders and it's made in a dedicated factory with MKX. And it's being exported from there around the world.

 

Did you mean MKT?

[rmc523]

If Escape, Explorer and F series in short supply, then Ford should phase out the Edge and Flexx [why bother with these?] for the more popular Utilites. Toyota is dropping the Venza, and Honda's Crosstour is 'dead man walking'. Cut the excess fat and sell more winners.

What does cutting those do? Edge is the most successful product in the segment, and is currently in changeover mode to the new model - that's why its sales have been lower recently.

 

Flex will be around until D3 is phased out.

 

Your proposition doesn't make any sense. Unless you're proposing converting Oakville to Escape/Explorer production. Which again would IMO not make much sense....certainly for the former, given the plant isn't set up to produce Escapes.

 

Toyota is dropping the Venza because nobody wants it....it was their attempt at an Edge competitor, and it didn't work.

 

C-Max sales cut in half when the last mileage adjustment happened. That killed it's popularity. It was up around the 3,300/month level until then. Now it's about 1,500 or whatever it is now.

Edited April 3, 2015 by rmc523

[630land]

Edge market leader? Of what segment? CR-V is outselling Accord, for one thing and Edge is eating its dust. Overlapping with Escape, why bother? Why have such a big SUV with only two rows of seats? If not selling, say bye.

[fuzzymoomoo]

2015 edge has barely been in production for a month, relax

[RichardJensen]

Edge market leader? Of what segment?

 

Midsize 2-rows.

 

And this remark: "Why have such a big SUV with only two rows of seats?"

 

Puts you in lockstep with the people you routinely denigrate on this site.

 

The reason why you have such a big SUV with only two rows of seats is because people are willing to buy it at a profitable price.

[papilgee4evaeva]

Edge market leader? Of what segment? CR-V is outselling Accord, for one thing and Edge is eating its dust. Overlapping with Escape, why bother? Why have such a big SUV with only two rows of seats? If not selling, say bye.

 

Segments and competitors between Ford, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan:

 

Compact CUV - Escape, CR-V, RAV4, Rogue

Midsize CUV - Edge, (Honda has nothing), Highlander, Murano

Fullsize CUV/historically midsize SUV - Explorer, Pilot, 4Runner, Pathfinder

 

Three observations of your statement:

1) Honda has no Edge competitor.

2) Escape tops out where Edge bases, more or less. That's common within marques.

3) As already stated, the new Edge is coming and sales of the outgoing model have stalled either because of the turnover (and limited availabilty) or because customers have seen the new one and they like it. Also common.

 

TL;DR methinks thou dost protest too much.

[Anthony]

I don't see anyone complaining about the Grand Cherokee only having two rows.

[papilgee4evaeva]

The reason why you have such a big SUV with only two rows of seats is because people are willing to buy it at a profitable price.

 

The other reason is that if the larger Explorer is any indication, forget finding meaningful space in the theoretical 3rd row of an Edge.

[fuzzymoomoo]

I don't see anyone complaining about the Grand Cherokee only having two rows.

Name recognition

[akirby]

 

The other reason is that if the larger Explorer is any indication, forget finding meaningful space in the theoretical 3rd row of an Edge.

 

3 row Edge is being sold in China. They lengthened the D pillar to add a bit more room.

[Deanh]

news flash...C-Max as such is NOT exactly a flop...its just consumers can lease the Plug in version cheaper than the regular version....and guess which version has a limited supply?.....

[jpd80]

March was a great month for F150, 29% of sales were '15 models while the rest (~30k0 were '14s.

So while inventory is tight, Ford is getting a great 2014 model run out response without excessive incentives.

 

Now that MKC inventory is built out, I'd expect that Escape inventory will return to normal over the summer.

And Explorer inventory is only tight because Ford wants it that way, again good for ATPs.

[fuzzymoomoo]

news flash...C-Max as such is NOT exactly a flop...its just consumers can lease the Plug in version cheaper than the regular version....and guess which version has a limited supply?.....

I can tell you that most of the PHEVs we have been building lately have been for Europe. Though usually he build mix is usually 3:1 FHEV:PHEV

[papilgee4evaeva]

3 row Edge is being sold in China. They lengthened the D pillar to add a bit more room.

 

That's apples to pears, considering the China 3-row Edge is longer than our Explorer by 7 inches (source: Autoblog). 630land said our Edge was useless because it was "huge" with no 3rd row.

[jpd80]

 

That's apples to pears, considering the China 3-row Edge is longer than our Explorer by 7 inches (source: Autoblog). 630land said our Edge was useless because it was "huge" with no 3rd row.

Auto news says its 16 inches longer,

 

LINK

The vehicle will arrive next year and will be assembled in China.

"We're going to build a very specific three-row Edge for China," Farley said. "It's a really bright spot for our company."

A Ford spokesman said the China-built Edge will be about 16 inches longer than the current Edge, which is built in Oakville, Ontario.

The new model will be built by Ford's Changan Ford joint venture and sold through Changan Ford dealerships, Ford said in a statement. For the rest of the world, the Edge is offered with two rows of seats.

 

[papilgee4evaeva]

That's 16 inches longer than our Edge, which is correct. But that also means it's about 5-7 inches longer than our Explorer, which is what I had said.