Ford offers new sales incentives (thousands off most new cars, trucks)

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN/Reuters: Ford offers new sales incentives
The automaker says it will cut thousands of dollars off most new cars and trucks to boost sales.
November 16, 2005

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will offer a new incentive program that cuts thousands of dollars off most of its new cars and trucks.

The new incentives follow crosstown rival General Motors Corp.'s "Red Tag" sale, which allows anyone in the United States to buy vehicles at the same price employees of GM's auto parts suppliers pay. GM, which announced the deal on Monday, has led Detroit's profit-draining price war for four years.

Ford's program, called the "Keep It Simple" plan, will be available through January 3. It comes after Ford and GM suffered a 23-percent decline in U.S. October sales and lost market share to Japanese rivals....


http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/11/16/ford_incentives.reut/index.html

[NanceGreggs]

1. Attention Ford!

Here's a sure-fire incentive plan I came up with -- feel free to use it:

Put your vehicles in gas stations across the country, with the sign "Free car with every fill-up."

That'll keep 'em moving!

[cornermouse]

2. No jobs = No money = No new car buyer.

See how simple that was?

[olddad56]

3. Ford will make it's money back in repairs.

[DELUSIONAL]

4. Fix - Or - Repair - Daily = FORD

[yorgatron]

9. hahaha

Found
On
Road
Dead

[mitchum]

5. They need to drop their "singing" shill Toby Keith

[jmowreader]

6. Talk about a no-balls sale, man!

According to CNN, the sale does not include the Ford Fusion, Lincoln Zephyr, Mercury Milan, Ford Mustang or the Ford GT.

The Milan, Zephyr and Fusion are basically the same car--and it's a nice car. I would buy this car, and I'm not exactly a Ford fan.

So let me see...you can get either the minuscule Focus, the moribund Taurus (yes, they still sell it--it's still the most popular fleet car in America) or one of the monsters Ford specializes in at the Special Keep It Simple Discount. But the efficient cars people might actually buy? Sorry.

[IDemo]

7. This story about our local Ford dealer makes me want to puke->

Truthfully, I purchased what will very likely be my last new vehicle over ten years ago, so new models/advertising/auto-finance deals don't get my attention these days. If they ever do again, don't look for the land sharks responsible for this outrage to get my business:

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A155271

[bmbmd]

13. I read the "Comments" section

and I can't believe people actually defended the dealership. These guys are predators of the worst kind.

[Porcupine]

8. Does that incentive include a Toyota? If not then give it up....

anybody in my town who can't afford a Prius seems to driving a Scion-B. Ford doesn't have anything that can get close to either car in terms of value.

Bet the bank on SUV's. Too bad.

[spinbaby]

12. I'm driving a rented Ford now

The rental place we use always seems to give us a Ford and, frankly, I'm always surprised at what a nice car it is. Still wouldn't buy one, though.

[jmowreader]

15. I bet it doesn't include the LCF...

or anything bigger than an F-350, either.

Ford needs to do what Isuzu did a few years back. At one time, Isuzu made cars and trucks. Nobody liked Isuzu's cars, but they sold a LOT of trucks--so many that they couldn't make them fast enough. By dropping their car line, they were able to both get rid of the albatross that was their car business and to free up enough factory space to make more trucks.

Oh, and check this shit out: One day I needed to kill an hour at lunch, so I walked over to the local Isuzu dealership to do a little window-shopping. They had the complete Isuzu light truck line there (Isuzu also makes medium trucks), and all of them had the same thing on the Statement of Origin: final assembly in the US, 90 percent US parts content, engine made in the US, transmission made in the US. As opposed to what for an "American" brand?

Anyway, back to Ford. If I was running Ford I'd come to the conclusion that there are three cars that actually matter to Ford: the Mustang, the Taurus and the Crown Vic. And those last two are only important to large-volume buyers. (Until the new Chrysler police car comes out, the Crown Vic is the only car on the market that offers the three features most requested by cops: an American nameplate, rear-wheel drive and enough room to put three handcuffed suspects in the back seat.) Therefore, I would figure out some way to put quick-change tooling in one factory so it could flip back and forth between Taurus and Crown Vic production, dedicate one factory to Mustang production, drop the whole rest of the Ford car line, then move all the other factories to truck production. And if I was feeling REALLY saucy, I'd start making heavy trucks again. A heavy truck is the easiest thing in the world to make because, except for the cab, ALL of it is purchased from third parties. So! Minimize my car production, introduce hybrid in all my light trucks first as an option, and go after Freightliner in the medium/heavy market.

[Brundle_Fly]

10. If you want to sell cars...

start making good ones.

ford dodge and chrysler have the most reports of things breaking or being screwed up than any other car makers....

by contrast germans have 50% less, and japanese are 90%.

[Hekate]

11. GM & Ford dug this hole all by their greedy selves...

After decades of letting Japan build a better car, instead of getting a grip and reforming their practices they jumped on the Bush/Oil/Corp. bandwagon and started pushing Hummers and other "urban assault vehicles" as hard as they could -- and Bush helped them do it by giving buyers tax write-offs up to $100,000 if you claimed you needed the thing for your business. The advertising was phenomenal -- and sickening. And a lot of Americans went for it.

I really am flat out of sympathy for GM and Ford. I'm sorry for the workers, truly, but not for the bosses. We've had the technology for a long time to build safer, more fuel efficient, and more ecologically sound cars, but American auto companies have fought change every step of the way.

Consumer Reports has always been my research guide for buying cars, which is how I've ended up with Toyotas time after time. Since US car makers have been having this price war for a couple of years I periodically check to see if they are offering anything at all that would make me want to walk into a show room, and so far it's nada.

Sad indeed.

Hekate

[hatrack]

14. Hey guys! Here's an idea - why not try this approach?

Toyota Motor Corp. in 2008 plans to commercialize a next-generation gas-electric hybrid system that will be cheaper and even more fuel-efficient, sources said. The smaller, lower-cost system will be an option for most of the company's midsize and large models, the sources said.

Toyota produces more than 300,000 hybrid systems a year. It plans to double that output for the new system. The automaker plans to halve the difference in manufacturing costs for the next-generation hybrid system and the gasoline engine. Currently, the difference is several hundred thousand yen.

EDIT

The company put its first-generation hybrid system into practical use in 1997 with the Prius passenger car. The second-generation system was introduced in 2003. It generated 1.5 times more electric power than its predecessor and achieved a mileage of 35.5 kilometers per liter of gasoline, the world record.

The third-generation system will be even more powerful. The batteries will be lighter than those in the current generation, but have higher performance.

EDIT

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200511170150.html

Ah, but that would be not only difficult, but too obvious, right? :eyes:

[pitohui]

16. oh my gawd

they are losing money on ea. vehicle but they plan to make it up in volume

we saw how well that worked for delta

for the love of pete, mr. ford, don't get in a race w. g/m to see who gets to the bottom first


:cry:

[maximovich]

17. Who Runs These Companies

Are they that greedy and foolish? And how much do their CEO's make? Damn...

[hogwyld]

18. Good Riddance

All 3 domestic auto cos. have made inefficient, unreliable, crap for so long, I don't think they are capable of change. They brought this death opon themselves by pushing their Hummers, monster 4x4's, etc, and I will enjoy the day when everyone is driving hybrids. I hope the CEO's choke on their friggin' pile of money.