akirby Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 But how you gonna haul all that without a truck? 4x8 Utility trailer which is taking up space in the rental house garage now, so getting rid of it would be a bonus. I can easily justify it especially if the 2018s end up with the same incentives as the 17s have now. OTOH Ranger is also a possibility. #decisionsdecisions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 For sure but I also need a new green lawn tractor, a golf cart, shop stuff, an outdoor kitchen and home theater recliners. #toypriorities Make it a green zero turn in your mow twice as fast and have more time for the other toys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Make it a green zero turn in your mow twice as fast and have more time for the other toys. Considering it but I also want to be able to tow a small trailer for landscaping. I even used my old John Deere lawn tractor to move my utility trailer in and out of the backyard - sometimes loaded. Worked great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 I don't know how big a lawn you will have but my family has a Deere 4100 that we have had for a long time and it still runs great. The closest model to that now is probably the 2025R. You really can't go wrong with a Deere, but you do have to pay for the green paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 My Brother-in-law has a Deere Z925 zero turn that is fantastic. We have also had Exmark LaserZs that are excellent as well, although they are not green. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordmantpw Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Considering it but I also want to be able to tow a small trailer for landscaping. I even used my old John Deere lawn tractor to move my utility trailer in and out of the backyard - sometimes loaded. Worked great. I don't know how big a lawn you will have but my family has a Deere 4100 that we have had for a long time and it still runs great. The closest model to that now is probably the 2025R. You really can't go wrong with a Deere, but you do have to pay for the green paint. ^^^^ This If you have a large enough yard to justify a 2-Series Deere, do it! I've got a 2027 and that little machine is awesome! Goes from mowing to deck off using the loader in < 5 minutes. I use it all the time on our 48 acres and it's quite the work horse. True, it doesn't cut as fast a a z-turn, but it will do everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 I don't know how big a lawn you will have but my family has a Deere 4100 that we have had for a long time and it still runs great. The closest model to that now is probably the 2025R. You really can't go wrong with a Deere, but you do have to pay for the green paint. Nothing that big - 2/3 acre at most. Would probably be a D155 or Z355. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CKNSLS Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 The "ovoid" Taurus and more rounded F-150 debuted for 1996. What I remember reading was that Ford was confident that the Taurus would be a hit, while it was nervous that the new F-150 would be too radical for the intended audience. The exact opposite is what really happened. Is that when the Taurus lost it's number one sedan selling slot (to the Camry) never to be achieved again? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Is that when the Taurus lost it's number one sedan selling slot (to the Camry) never to be achieved again? Yes, and it was because Ford made an intentional decision to stop the fleet dumping that was keeping its sales crown. Everything old is new again... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvrsvt Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Yes, and it was because Ford made an intentional decision to stop the fleet dumping that was keeping its sales crown. Everything old is new again... Well to be fair to the Taurus, it was still getting dumped into fleets...its retail sales nosed dived after the '96 launch and the price increases didn't help it either. Not to mention IMO Ford lost focus since the Explorer was exploding into the market...they sold 400K of them in 1998 IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Not to mention IMO Ford lost focus since the Explorer was exploding into the market...they sold 400K of them in 1998 IIRC. Lost focus - or put their focus where it needed to go? I'm sure Explorer was far more profitable than Taurus at the time. But of course they should have been able to keep Taurus competitive at the same time, but this was a time when profits weren't as important as sales volume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANTAUS Posted August 18, 2017 Author Share Posted August 18, 2017 I remember as a kid reading an article on the ovoid Taurus in '96...specifically said they were having issues selling it because customers saw it as being smaller but it was actually bigger than the previous generation. Ironically today's Taurus has the opposite with a tight interior that doesnt make good use of it's size and not much bigger than a Fusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grbeck Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 The Honda Accord claimed the number-one spot for 1990, if I recall correctly. The Taurus won it back by 1992, but that was with heavy discounts and a large percentage being sold to fleet customers. Not only was the styling of the 1996 model polarizing, but Ford also tried to cut back on incentives. Customers who were used to getting good deals balked at the higher prices. By then, the Explorer had blossomed into a huge hit, so Ford focused its resources there. The Expedition - which would prove to be another profit machine - was also under development, and would soon debut. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 (edited) Well to be fair to the Taurus, it was still getting dumped into fleets...its retail sales nosed dived after the '96 launch and the price increases didn't help it either. I just said that their intent was to stop the fleet dumping, not that they succeeded at it. Somewhere I have a copy of the BusinessWeek with the Taurus Ovalus as the cover story. It's a shame that they bungled the styling on it, as it was a significantly nicer car than the Taurus it replaced in every respect except styling. I tried to buy a '96 SHO in '96, but the dealer was nuts on his price--he wanted more for a used SHO than the advertised price on brand new SHOs. I even had a copy of the ad with me, and he was telling me that they were selling like hotcakes. Well, he was selling something, but I wasn't interested in buying it--I was on the SHOTimes list, and was hearing about how poorly they were selling. IIRC, more than half of all the '96 SHOs were sitting on lots, unsold (and this was at the end of the model year). Edited August 18, 2017 by SoonerLS 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rperez817 Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 I just said that their intent was to stop the fleet dumping, not that they succeeded at it. Ford executives have tried to get off the fleet dumping kick many times, but fleet dumping remains very tempting for meeting sales goals. As of July 2017 Ford had the highest fleet sales percentage among full line automakers at 20.3%. Ford is heading in the right direction though. They reduced fleet sales a lot recently. Earlier this year they were more than 30% fleet some months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Ford executives have tried to get off the fleet dumping kick many times, but fleet dumping remains very tempting for meeting sales goals. As of July 2017 Ford had the highest fleet sales percentage among full line automakers at 20.3%. Ford is heading in the right direction though. They reduced fleet sales a lot recently. Earlier this year they were more than 30% fleet some months. Now matter how many times we explain this, you don't seem to understand that trucks and vans are a fleet-heavy business. Ford sells by far the most trucks and vans of any brand, therefore their fleet percentage will be higher than other brands before you even think about rental sales. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordmantpw Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Ford executives have tried to get off the fleet dumping kick many times, but fleet dumping remains very tempting for meeting sales goals. As of July 2017 Ford had the highest fleet sales percentage among full line automakers at 20.3%. Ford is heading in the right direction though. They reduced fleet sales a lot recently. Earlier this year they were more than 30% fleet some months. Fleet sales != fleet dumping. Holy $hit, what don't you get about that! Think of how many F-Series trucks Ford sells to fleets at a profit. Not to mention the less profitable PIU and PI units. Not to mention, none of the others make a class 6 or class 7 truck. There's a reason Ford leads in fleet sales, and it isn't because they are fleet dumping. Look up Freightliner's fleet numbers. Betcha they are higher than Fords on fleet sales, probably right near 100%. Sheesh dude! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grbeck Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 At least 70 percent of the vans used for businesses and shuttle services around here are Ford Transits. I guess Ford had better dump those fleet customers as fast as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Any further posts by rperez referencing fleet dumping by Ford without hard data to back it up will be deleted. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Well by his definition Paccar, Freightliner, et al, are fleet dumping because they are selling two carriers and not individual OTR drivers etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Perhaps the worst offenders in the lineup are those PI and PIU models. Those are 100% fleet. How pathetic!! Ford should drop them yesterday!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 Selling into fleets today is not the same thing as the fleet dumping they were doing. Back then they were dumping low-end, low-content, stripper models into fleets just to keep the sales volume up, which absolutely killed the resale value of the Taurus. This kind of irritated me as an SHO owner; the SHO was the top end of the Taurus line, so it was expensive to buy, but its resale value was in the crapper along with the rent-a-car stripper models. Right now, they're selling higher-end models into fleets, which is apparent in the resale values of their vehicles. FWIW, my '13 F-150 STX with 70K miles on the clock, per KBB, is still worth north of $15K private-party (I got curious and looked it up yesterday); I paid right at $22K for it brand new. Looking on Craigslist last night, you can't touch a 2011 or newer F-150 around here for less than $10K, and the cheap ones are high-mileage (150K+ miles). Aside from the PI and PIU, I doubt you can find another Ford product that sold into more fleets than the F-Series, but those are some expensive damn trucks on the used market. Conversely, when I bought my '95 SHO in '95, its sticker was ~$25K, and with 5K miles on the clock, my dealer had it listed at $16K--in the current model year, a low-miles SHO had lost more than a third of its value (which we in the SHO community called "suffering from its outer Taurus"). That is what real fleet dumping gets you. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 (edited) Uber and other ride sharing companies are putting the sword to daily rental sales, look no further than the collapse of Ford and Chevrolet's car sales.. There is absolutely nothing wrong with commercial and government sales..they are good business, especially when they are mostly high value Super Duty, Transit and E-Series sales. Ford's rental fleet sales last month were barely 4%, pulling back those high sales in Q1 and Q2. Edited August 19, 2017 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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