June 2014: Ford Motor Company

[William Maley]

FORD FUSION POSTS BEST JUNE EVER; FORD TRANSIT CONNECT ACHIEVES BEST MONTH EVER, AS NEW TRANSIT VAN SALES BEGIN

• Fusion has best June sales results since its launch in 2005
• Transit Connect posts its best-ever monthly sales results
• Ford initiates sale of its all-new Transit van
• Ford Motor Company U.S. sales of 222,064 vehicles for June decline 6 percent compared with last year

DEARBORN, Mich., July 1, 2014 – Ford Motor Company June 2014 U.S. sales of 222,064 vehicles declined 6 percent from a year ago. Retail sales of 145,989 vehicles declined 5 percent, while fleet sales of 76,075 vehicles declined 7 percent.

 

“Both the Fusion and Transit Connect set records in June, continuing their sales momentum,” said John Felice, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “F-Series again topped 60,000 sales and is tracking to our inventory plan with the lowest incentives among the major players in the segment.”

 

Fusion sales totaled 27,064 vehicles last month – a best-ever June performance. Fusion retail sales are up 22 percent and 14 percent overall. Fusion continues to outperform in the West, with retail sales up 24 percent in that region.

 

Transit Connect posted a best-ever sales month, following record sales in May. Transit Connect sales totaled 4,573 vehicles – a 29 percent gain over 2013. Retail sales increased 55 percent, with strong sales coming from Transit Connect Wagon.

 

Deliveries of Ford’s all-new Transit van began at the end of June, with total sales of 490 vehicles.

 

Lincoln sales were down 3 percent, with 7,271 vehicles sold in June, as the new MKC begins to arrive in showrooms. Lincoln sales are up 16 percent year-to-date through June, a trend that is expected to accelerate as the MKC launch ramps up during the next few months.

 

[A Horse With No Name]

I wonder why they are loosing momentum....not good...

[Z-06]

Looking at Ford over the last year or eighteen months, I see the trend that Ford is actually below the average at which the industry is growing and even staying flatter than the competitors. How come the company with most goodwill is showing those signs?

 

For starters:

 

1. Mustang and Ford F150 replacements in sight, there is a sign of hold-off on buying those vehicles.

2. Aging Taurus, Edge that are volume cars are down.

3. But strategically, I think Mullaly's two-brand model is starting to show its kinks. While there isn't enough analysis as to how much killing Mercury helped/hurt Ford, the numbers, if any do suggest that Ford is losing some sales in Mercury. If Focus, Fusion and Edge would have had Mercury twins the company would fare better and even surpass GM.

[smk4565]

Mullaly wanted to kill Lincoln too, but now that he is gone Mark Fields wants to keep Lincoln.  Lincoln sales are awful, I don't know why they are still bothering.

[A Horse With No Name]

Ford also needs to realize that basic issues like My Ford Touch went wayyyy to long without being resolved.

[David]

Design Style - They need to get some unique style into the auto's and move beyond the retro mustang. The concept was great, but the watered down version is just Ehnnn.

 

Plastic basic consistent interior. I know some here say ford has upped their interior yet I sit in the car and the vents in the top of the line Platinum Lincoln is the same as the one in the Fiesta or mustang. Manual Flip airvents, radios, aged My Sync, etc. The list is long.

 

Final piece is I walked in 2 weeks ago to the ford dealership sales floor to just look around.

 

From a people stand point, they need to really update their sales approach. The old Used car pushy sales person is just terrible. Hounding you and trying to force you to buy is just terrible. Not a fan of coming into a dealership and having 12 guys stand around as you want to go in and look at the auto's and they just stalk you.

 

Auto's, Fit and Finish is still not up to par on what I see at GM, Chrysler,  Asian or European cars. I understand you will have some rust on wearable parts, but when you see rust, poor stiching, Finish and the attention to detailing a car it just yells cheap and cutting corners.

 

Auto's are not cheap anymore, we all know that and it is really hard for college students to buy a car now. So I demand that the cars come up on a higher quality level.

[A Horse With No Name]

Actually I think GM is really getting the fit and finish thing right, not sure I would say Chrysler or the Asians are. Subaru has notoriously lousy paint, Toyota feels cheap even on the Avalon, umm...I could go on and on.

[2QuickZ's]

Final piece is I walked in 2 weeks ago to the ford dealership sales floor to just look around.

 

From a people stand point, they need to really update their sales approach. The old Used car pushy sales person is just terrible. Hounding you and trying to force you to buy is just terrible. Not a fan of coming into a dealership and having 12 guys stand around as you want to go in and look at the auto's and they just stalk you.

 

Eh, crappy, poorly styled interiors doesn't seem to stop Toyota from selling cars.  Maybe theirs are coming along though.  I haven't checked one out in a couple of years.  The last time I sat in a new CRV a couple years ago I honestly thought they were at the low end of the material quality and fit and finish scale and that the vehicle on the whole felt cheaper than pretty much all the competition.

 

As for the dealership comment, maybe that is a regional thing or even something with your local dealership.  I have been in several Ford dealerships around here and none of them were as you described.  In fact, the hardest sell I ever got was at a Honda dealer.  This would have been back around '04 - 05.  They had at least three different people come and talk to me to give me the high pressure sales pitch.  At one point I was beginning to think "Terry Tate - Office Linebacker" would come flying at me if I even so much as attempted to leave without driving off the lot in the new Accord coupe I made the unfortunate mistake of stopping in to ask them about.  Easily the most off putting car sales experience I have ever had.

 

I don't think Ford could kill Lincoln.  What would they replace them with?  They need a luxury brand.  What other major auto manufacturer is only one brand?  I'm betting even Kia and Hyundai will add a luxury brand once they grow their volume a little more.  I wouldn't be surprised if Genesis became a brand instead of a model.  At any rate, I think Ford had to decide between turning Lincoln around and killing it and launching something new and they just decided dumping tons of money into it to hopefully fix it would be better than dumping two or three tons of money into killing it and launching something new.

Edited July 6, 2014 by 2QuickZ's