No question that smaller vehicles are more price sensitive and under more pressure to achieve the desired profit margins. Ford's problem is that management makes short sighted decisions, abandons market segments to the competition, and then years later realizes that it needs to re-enter a market segment and then struggles to achieve positive results to any degree because customers have defected to the competition.
Part of the problem is that Ford prices the smaller entry level vehicles at prices that leave the Dealer margin at less than $200 per vehicle, leaving little profit incentives at the dealership level. Add in the floorplan costs and the inventory costs raise to a whole different level.
Regarding the large SUV's, I'm not sure that "Dealer profit taking" is the issue. There are a lot of Dealers in smaller markets or in markets where the GM competition dominates sales, and the Expedition and Navigator vehicles get lost. A lot of those Ford Dealers order Expeditions to have one in stock, in markets where they only sell 1 or 2 per year and end up trading them to other Ford Dealers in part because they ordered vehicles with the wrong specifications (Model Trim and specifications) for their market. In particular, they make the mistake of stocking high end Expeditions that are beyond what their local market actually sells. They then try to sell those Expeditions at prices that their local market won't accept, and those customers buy the industry leading GM competitors.
Yes, Lincoln posted some good gains. Heavy truck sales are up a bit, but still off for the year. I assume those figures include F53 chassis models as well. Chevy's Silverado medium duty is gaining, and that total does not include the International-branded versions of the same truck. Also, the Chevy totals to not include the Isuzu-supplied LCF's.
The Colorado/Canyon mid-size pickups are selling well here, particularly the sporty off-road versions. It's a very nice truck, the most competitive mid-size pickup GM has had in years. The Colorado/Canyon are built it the Wentzville MO. plant that also produces most of the GM full size vans (Navistar builds the cut-aways), so it may be that those Colorado/Canyon sales are at the cost of some van sales. Ford builds the Ranger where the Bronco is built, so you know what is going on there. The Ranger is in a tough place, it looks like GM can out-produce it, the Maverick is stealing some sales, and you have a new Frontier that beats it on price.
Small car sales aren’t a problem if they’re priced low enough. The problem is making any decent profit margin. They should take C2 and downsize it with 1.0 and 1.5 ecoboosts and maybe a small diesel if that’s required.
Correct. The new Trax seems to be doing very well, so at least for the US market, whatever size it its seems to have hit a sweet spot in size, price, and style.
In the US, many find B-segment subcompacts as too small despite the fact that they've grown larger over the decades.
It's funny that the current subcompact Nissan Versa is about the size of a Ford Tempo or late 80s Toyota Camry.
...and a subcompact Kia Seltos is nearly as big as the original 2000s Ford Escape.
Of course, during their time, a Ford Tempo, late 80s Camry, or 2000s Escape weren't considered "too small".
Developing small cars (both ICE or EV) won't be an issue as long they are global. Small vehicles are important in majority of the markets outside the USA & Canada.