Ford March 2017 Sales Down 7 Percent

[630land]

The two I found were examples of "unicorns".

 

1 was a loaded SE, sunroof, leather, Sony, Auto climate, etc, in candy red; was virtually a Titanium. I can see why they dropped this combination for '17, may as well get a Ti. Same price range.

2nd one was an Ecoboost 3 cylinder, but fairly loaded too.

[RichardJensen]

But it was home of the Lightning.

 

Yeah. I was wondering if they did that to squeeze a bit more revenue from that plant. Or, as it was an odd-enough item, if they put it there because it was a lower volume plant that could more easily accommodate it.

[J-150]

 

Yeah. I was wondering if they did that to squeeze a bit more revenue from that plant. Or, as it was an odd-enough item, if they put it there because it was a lower volume plant that could more easily accommodate it.

Probably the latter. As other plants were churning out supercabs in great numbers, OTP was focussed on regular cabs. Made some sense to make it there.

[jpd80]

cars.com shows 918 new 2016 Ford Focuses for sale as of right now nationwide.

 

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action/?mdId=21138&mkId=20015&page=1&perPage=50&rd=99999&searchSource=GN_REFINEMENT&sf1Dir=DESC&sf1Nm=price&stkTypId=28880&yrId=58487&zc=06611

It's now down to 877

S....................22

SE................682

Titanium ......157

Unknown.......16

 

I get the feeling that reporters who should know better, underscore discounts on superseeded vehicles

without the necessary qualification of just how many are left. Unlike what GM is doing by offering up to

16% off MSRP on selected current year model stock....

[rperez817]

It's now down to 877

S....................22

SE................682

Titanium ......157

Unknown.......16

 

I get the feeling that reporters who should know better, underscore discounts on superseeded vehicles

without the necessary qualification of just how many are left. Unlike what GM is doing by offering up to

16% off MSRP on selected current year model stock....

 

Ford dealers in the DFW Metroplex are offering much deeper discounts than 16% off MSRP on 2017 Focus.

 

Example- 2017 Focus SE sedan at Autonation Ford South Fort Worth advertised for about 24% off MSRP. https://www.autonation.com/cars/1FADP3F25HL204560

[jasonj80]

So when will GM start to feel the pull of those lower residual values on its new vehicle business?

 

Surely, having to throw even more incentives on sales (latest is 16% off MSRP on selected models) should be ringing alarm bells...

They are cutting production finally.

[jpd80]

 

Ford dealers in the DFW Metroplex are offering much deeper discounts than 16% off MSRP on 2017 Focus.

 

Example- 2017 Focus SE sedan at Autonation Ford South Fort Worth advertised for about 24% off MSRP. https://www.autonation.com/cars/1FADP3F25HL204560

OK I checked their website and most of the 2017 Cars appear to be $20K with around $3k factory discount but

there are a few (less than 6) with up to $5K discount where the dealer is throwing in an extra $1K to $2K incentive.

The $5K incentive was applied to a $25K Focus ST.....as in one car....

 

The difference with your example is that it's a local dealership or group applying discounts to move existing floor stock

What GM is doing is advertising the 16% discount on selective GM models nationwide, not just on $20K sticker vehicles..

Edited April 17, 2017 by jpd80

[jpd80]

They are cutting production finally.

An GM did whjat it had to last month, dealers had a very successful sales month where they managed to move a lot of stock,

a few more months like that and GM's car inventory will be back under control. The Utilities are still selling well regardless

of when new models are showing up.

[RichardJensen]

 

Ford dealers in the DFW Metroplex are offering much deeper discounts than 16% off MSRP on 2017 Focus.

 

Example- 2017 Focus SE sedan at Autonation Ford South Fort Worth advertised for about 24% off MSRP. https://www.autonation.com/cars/1FADP3F25HL204560

 

There are many factors at play with regional discounts. If you see big discounts on a very specific trim package, odds are you're looking at excess allocation of that model in that area, not necessarily an indication that the company has nation-wide issues with production or pricing.

 

Predicting sales is a very inexact science, and if you think you're going to sell a mix of 25% SEs, and you only sell 20%, well, if you assume DFW has a proportionate percentage of the nation's Focuses (they probably have more), then you've got, say 17 SEs that aren't moving with every inventory turn, and by now, you might be looking at 50+ that the Ford regional dealer group wants to clear out.

[jpd80]

Often hear accounts of Ford building a slightly different product mix to what buyers may be looking for in certain regions.

So dealers are obliged to take what Ford gives them and whatever discounts are needed to move slow stock

 

One thing for sure, they'll all get sold.

[bzcat]

Article that may be of interest: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-auto-sales-20170411-story.html

 

Talks about the subprime auto loan bubble and unsustainable incentives propping up sales.

 

Toyota was the main focus at the beginning of the article:

 

 

Carlos Badosa has sold cars at Toyota dealerships for almost 40 years, through boom times and lean years, but he’s never quite seen deals like he has lately.

Over the last few months, the Japanese carmaker has begun offering rebates of at least $2,000 on every model — and twice that amount for some slower selling sedans.

“That’s unheard of,” said Badosa, 62, finance director at Toyota of Downtown L.A., who expects the deals might get even sweeter.

“I think inventories are very, very high. They have a whole lot of cars,” he said. “They need to get somebody to buy them. ”

 

~~

 

At his downtown Toyota dealership, Badosa has noticed not only sweeter incentives, but also plenty of easy credit offered by lenders, including Toyota’s in-house financing arm, as well as credit unions and specialty finance companies.

 

 

Ford was not mentioned until the last sentence:

 

 

 

“They don’t have these massive, unfunded liabilities that they just have to fund,” Stover said. “In 2004, Ford didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t say ‘No mas.’ But they can in 2017.”

 

This pretty much sums up what you saw the last couple of months in the sales reports. Ford is cutting back on credit and incentives because they can.

[jpd80]

What seems to be happening is that used vehicle prices are softening while new vehicles are still selling reasonably well,

we probably haven't reached saturation point in a lot of segments yet, cars being the exception.

 

It will be interesting to see April vehicle sales figures next week to see if Ford's utes have increased sales,

I saw that Ford really hit the go button on Utility production in March, so maybe they know something.....

 

And yeah, plenty of manufacturers are selling into a bubble and will keep doing that until they sense danger

which is like six months after they should have stopped..

Edited April 29, 2017 by jpd80

[ehaase]

delete post

Edited April 29, 2017 by ehaase